It’s a funky blast from the past with a wave of that sweet 90’s nostalgia as we once again take control of that groovy duo, Toejam and Earl. The story starts with these out-of-towners spawning a black hole, ripping the earth to shreds, as well as their spaceship. Now they, along with a host of their alien friends, are tasked with traveling across the earth searching for pieces to their rocket ship, The Rapmaster Rocket. Along the way they will be shaking trees, popping earthlings, collecting coins, and opening presents to aid them in their journey.
The gameplay follows the gameplay of the original Sega Genesis/ Mega Drive title from the 90’s. Fans of the cult classic will feel right at home with the systems and controls. The game can be played in solo mode, local coop mode, and online coop mode. The game is played by searching each level for the piece of the rocket, if there is no piece on your floor, then you will be on the search for the elevator to take you to the next floor. Sounds easy enough, right? Well it is at first, but quickly you will be dodging humans who are more than happy to take your presents, your cash, and give you some bruises and scrapes for your trouble.
Four game modes are offered: Tutorial, Fixed, Random, and Random Hardmode
Tutorial mode is a shortened, easier experience. It has less levels, less enemies (who also do less damage), and more presents.
Fixed mode is the same every time you play through it, with the ship pieces and elevators in the same place. The world will always have the same layout but presents and enemy placements will vary.
Random mode will be procedurally generated, so everything will be different each time you play it. The only exception is level 1 which will always be the same.
Random Hardmode is the same as the Random mode but the enemies do more damage, are faster and you luck just seems to be in shorter supply in this mode.
Alongside these modes are difficulty settings, Normal, Easy Farty, and Toddler. Achievements only unlock on Normal. This option is also disabled in Random Hardmode.
A digital copy of game manual is available in the Main Menu. It catalogues all the available presents, as well as enemies, unlockables, and even some tips for getting started.
Presents offer a bit of randomness and a whole lot of fun to the experience. It can be something as simple as food for health, sneakers for running, to outlandish things like rocket boots, spiked innertubes, and doorways to different parts of the level.
Most of earths inhabitants are bad and should be avoided, with the exception of a few that are helpful (easily distinguishable by their sparkle). Some are minor annoyances while others are rage inducing. Some are just downright clever, like the Internet Troll who generates insult speech bubbles and hurls them at you from a distance causing slight damage and disorienting you; and if you try to run at them, they run away in terror.
The music is a nice blend of funky grooves, 90’s hip-hop/rap and a bit of silliness. Most of the tracks borrow (if not completely replicate) the songs from the first two titles in the series.
As much as I adore the series and would love to give this game a perfect score, I can’t. The game is, at this point,
riddled with bugs and glitches, some of which are rage-inducing. Let’s start with the biggest elephant in the room:
Losing your game progress. Now this is fixable and your progress isn’t really lost, but it becomes a chore and should not have made it into the complete game. (To fix the bug, start a new game on a fixed world and kill yourself by drowning in the water. After being returned to the main menu, your game will load properly with all your unlocks and game saves.)
Audio issues – sometimes, the audio will cut in bits, and the music will cut out entirely. This seems to be exacerbated by using the Swap Bodies present. I do not have a fix for this one, but sometimes it will fix itself during gameplay. If you exit and reload the save it will resolve itself.
Freezing/”Getting stuck” – while this has only happened to me twice, once during hyper-funk zone and once when doing the dancing minigame, I was forced to dashboard and load my save (but first I had to go through the process of killing myself on the first level to properly load my save) I’ve only encounter this during online coop play.
Other than those known glitches and bugs, my only real gripe was lagging when characters are on different floors and moving between different floors in an online coop game.
ProsThat sweet, sweet 90’s nostalgia
Great tunes
Fun gameplay that still holds up almost 30 years later
ConsAll the damn bugs and glitches.
Overall, I think this game is great despite its bugs but I know that I am also seeing it through rose-colored nostalgia shades. Most people will be put off by these bugs and may want to hold out for an update or at the very least, a sale.
3.0