ToeJam & Earl Review

So much fun was had by me and a my friends with this game, i'll be getting it definatly!

I remebered this game from my sweet chilhood, with all its funkyness and extra groovage this is a well worth game to own or reown!

this game is a right laugh when playing wit a mate, when ur going up the levels and ur mate falls off the edge back loads of levels all u can do is crack is laughing!!!!

Tom Jam?
Anyway great game, especially two player, although the sequel has much different gameplay, and its a lot faster paced, and it also features excellent co-op play.

Im the only one that think this game its pure and real sh*t???

I donwloaded it yesterday, and i only played for 5 minutes because i cant stand more! I give it 1 star (because i think i cant give 0...)

No, you're not the only one. But really, the only reason to hate this game is because you haven't figured it out yet. I never played it as a kid and had a lot of trouble getting started, but once I learned the tricks, it's fun. You have to enjoy just relaxing and exploring though.

How to enjoy it: Don't open the presents until you identify them. The first four presents you get will never kill you (though they can harm you), so open them right away. But after that, save your presents until you find the guy in the carrot suit, who will identify them for you. This way you avoid the Total Bummer (which kills you).

You naysayers are crazy. This is one of the coolest, creative, most fun games ever created for the Mega Drive. Random level generation. Two-player co-op play. Great musical beats. It's a genre-bender, too, mixing platform and adventure and even run and gun together in a fascinating recipe. There's also the excitement from the randomness: open up a present and you never know what it will be. Total Bummer (death)? Rocket Shoes? Or maybe a decoy to distract your enemies. Gamers who demond non-stop action may be disappointed, but gamers who admire the craft of making an entertaining and original title have to be impressed. I consider this a must-download for the VC. Not to mention the fact that it's a cult classic and will cost you around $30 on eBay. $8 is a steal!

This game was a classic. Toejam and Earl were going to be Sega's mascots until sonic showed up.

Well worth the 800 points to download it!

Any ame with a Planet Funkotron deserves to be a classic for that reason alone. The totally random enemies just confused me, come on if anyone can explain to me why the insane dentist man screeches out "la la la" in that thorughly creey way can have some bucks.
The carrot man's the greatest, I never needed him, but rly.

4 out of 5 for this game, it would have got a 5 if they put more frames in the sprites!

Oh and by the way BBQ Iggy the dentist doesn't say "LA LA LA" thats what cupid says (well i think he's cupid) but the dentist does shout "HaHaHaHa!" when he attacks you.

amazing game! one of the sega's best... the sequel was really disappointing, though.

grestest line: the "booga booga booga" by that somewhat invisible monster from the desert. creeped me out every time!

I must have totally missed something because I find it hard to give this game a good rating. It was slow, random, and very much lacking in fun. I don't get it.

This was so my favorite game when I was younger =D
I remember shouting with joy when I beat it the first time when I was like 8-9 years old after playing it for many, many hours. =)
The randomness is so damn awesome!
The elevator chats between levels in 2-player mode was usually really randomly fun too =)
This is an easy 5/5 for me.

I still play this game even though I've beaten it numerous times. 'ToeJam & Earl' features wonderful two player action. (Dare I say 'unmatched' two player support?) VERY slow gameplay, but relaxing and entertaining.

Wii messed this wonderful game up. I downloaded this game because i love it. However, Wii does not allow for two players like the old sega game. They don't realize that you can play one player but its alot of fun to play together. Anyone else that has the same problem? I really want to play this game with others in my home.

2 players works fine in this game Ellie. Just make sure you have activated a second controller in the main Wii menu before booting the game. Or use a gamecube controller!

Ellie: If you use a Gamecube controller for Player 2 make sure it's plugged in socket number two as well... I was annoyed that it didn't work for me at first but then I realized that I had plugged the controller into the Player 1 port... though perhaps I'm just somewhat more stupid than the average guy xD

I've gotten this myself now and it's just as fun as it was back in the day =P I still love sneaking up on santa and I'm still terrified of the darn Ice Cream truck xD Also, though it says that it isn't "specced" (or something) for the GC controller the button layout is simple (A=B, B=A, C=X), the only thing that might be annoying is that you have to use the (imo) poorly placed directional cross.

Okay, for the record: This game has one very serious requirement for enjoying it to the fullest;
A Second Player.
The original creators of the game already described this game as a "Two-player game with a single-player option", rather then the other way around. That said, this game is an absolute blast when you're playing it with a buddy. Alone, it just gets boring.
The fun lies in both characters splitting up, exploring the large floating islands, helping eachother out of a mess, sharing items, health (High-five!) and powerups, and basically just trying to get through the game together.
I remember basically racing around the stages trying to find the Rocket Boots powerup as quick as possible so one of us could skate across the ocean in level 1, and end up on the island that brought you to level 0 (which had powerups, life refills, extra lives and a jacuzzi with hulagirls in it).

All in all... If you got a friend, roommate or sibling who likes gaming as much as you do, give it a try!

I Like The 2nd Better

This game is a classic. Maybe it has aged, I really can't tell. It's certainly better than it's sequels anyway, especially in terms of staying true to it's source. Greg Johnson was greatly inspired by Rogue when designing this game, and it shows. Without things like bad presents and foes that you could approach, ToeJam & Earl would be too easy.

Rogue was a game fraught with danger. Random items required identifying, and without caution or luck, you'll often find yourself dead real quick. Cursed items and monsters that did all manner of hindering things to you, and hidden pathways abound in the many randomly generated levels.

Random items, deadly foes, a great variety of items, many randomly generated levels, and hidden pathways are greatly apparent in ToeJam & Earl, and that alone shows the obvious link between the two games. The sequel was originally intended to take the Rogue elements of the first to a new level, but because of the popularity of platformers, the game wound up being pressured to take a different path. Not to say Panic on Funkotron is a bad game, per se (Hell, I played Panic as a kid before I got to play the first. I should be biased towards the sequel, but I just loved the first game.), but it's simply not ToeJam & Earl, and it killed all the depth of the original to become what it is. ToeJam & Earl 3 was also pressured by the higher-ups of Sega, who don't really seem to understand the gameplay that attracted the first games fans.

The game has a slow pace, not in contrast to the theme of the game. It's very relaxed, and you can just kick back with a friend and see how far you get, and if you have good team work and exercise just enough caution, you may win.

I can imagine people disliking this game. For what it is, however, Greg and co. did a great job, and the underlying rogue elements shine through and make for a fun, strange, and unique two-player adventure.

This was the first game I downloaded on the Virtual Console, the second being Bomberman '93. Unlike many in the industry, Greg Johnson has been known to speak with his fans, and I wouldn't be surprised if he reads all this. I implore everybody to give this classic game a chance, and here I end this post with regards to the man himself, hoping he gets a chance to make ToeJam & Earl 4 the definitive volume in the series.

great game. great game. i love that the wii lets you download it as it was darn near impossible to find here in the states over the last ten years. i love this game for nostalgia's sake, but never beat it as it kind of drags on and on and on without changing all that much as you progress in gameplay.

I gave this game some time (see comment above), but still couldn't get into it. It's just not interesting to me. I don't like that it's so slow and prizes are seemingly random. I gave it a chance, but in the end it simply wasn't for me. I still don't see why so many people see it so favorably.

3/5 is about right. Could be worth a download only if you have someone to play with.
I never liked it when I had a Genesis but my wife convinced me to download it.

We played it once. Yay.

Being able to suspend your progress at any time thanks to the Wii does make this much more playable than it was back in the day, though. Jammin'!

Loved this game when I was a kid and still love it today. I don't get to play it as much as I'd like too (Friends don't get to come over often) so it's more of a time killer for me.

I remember this game being a lot funkier as a child. I played it for a short while until I found something better to do with my time. I wouldn't buy this game unless you have a lot of down time or are recovering from (massive) surgery or something. Hey, at least I have Toe Jam & Earl on my Wii, who would have thought?

-WALDO

I always liked this game, I played it with my cousin on Sega Channel. I bought Panic On Funkotron for my Sega Genesis a few years ago (I still play my old school systems) but it wasn't this game. I thought it was, but I was happy to see it on VC. I'll probably buy Panic since my Genesis died.

Pure classic. My cousin convinced me to download it with the 800 points I was saving on the off-chance SM:RPG is released, but I would've downloaded this game anyway once I got more points. Yet another trip back to my youth where me and my older cousin would just sit in front of the TV with our many game systems around us and just spend the whole day playing co-op or vs. games. This was one of my favorites.

Some of the best multiplayer action offered on Genesis, an absolute classic. Hip hop aliens = Five Stars

Good, but not as good as Panic on Funkotron. 4/5

This game would be fun in Co-op, but in Single-player it blows. The game is way too slow-paced, as I can hardly get away from most enemies w/o taking several hits, and the Hi-tops that you can use to speed up are in a fairly limited amount. The game is funny though, and the somewhat dated '90s hip-hop theme with aliens is pretty charming. I, for one, like how some presents have negative effects and others don't, as it adds some spontaneity to an otherwise dull game. If the pacing was faster, it would've helped a lot. If you ask me, if you want a truly awesome co-op experience from the Genesis, get Gunstar Heroes. You'll be glad you did! 3/5

BTW according to this game, Earth is a series of floating islands in space connected by elevators. Who knew?