ToeJam & Earl III: Mission to Earth

From Sega Retro

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Tj&e3xbx title.png

ToeJam & Earl III: Mission to Earth
System(s): Xbox
Publisher: Sega
Developer:
Distributor: Microsoft (Europe)
Genre: Action

















Number of players: 1-2
Official in-game languages:
  • English
  • Français
  • Deutsch
  • Italiano
  • Español
  • Release Date RRP Code
    Xbox
    US
    $49.9549.95[2][3] 64020
    ESRB: Teen
    Xbox
    DE
    R13-00005
    USK: 0
    Xbox
    ES
    R13-00003
    aDeSe: 13+
    Xbox
    FR
    SELL: 12+
    Xbox
    UK
    R13-00001
    ELSPA: 11+ OK
    Xbox
    IT
    ELSPA: 11+ OK
    Xbox
    AU
    OFLC: G8

    ToeJam & Earl III: Mission to Earth is the sequel to ToeJam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron. It was originally released for the Xbox in 2002, and is currently the first and only entry in the series to be presented in 3D. The duo are also joined by a new female friend, Latisha.

    During development the game was known as ToeJam & Earl III: All Funked Up[6].

    Gameplay

    ToeJam & Earl III plays as a cross between the original ToeJam & Earl and ToeJam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron, with an emphasis on the former's roguelike elements, being built around the concept of exploration. Up to two players can traverse a world uncovering new environments with the aid of specified or random items in the form of "presents", which in turn can either help or hinder your experience. Collecting money also helps in making progress, special ordering presents, making deals with Earthlings and more. Keys also serve as a way to unlock new levels and environments.

    The main objective is to spread the word of funk to the people of Earth, as decreed by the Funkopotimus himself, Lamont. To do this, all characters have the ability to perform Funk-Fu, which also acts as a means of self defense. Funk-Fu serves as basic attacks that look like physical attacks, but instead will funkify earthlings causing them to become friendly with you. Funkified earthlings can also give helpful items or aid in level quests.

    Each action in the game rewards points, which then gives the ability to level up your character which also increases your belt-color ranking. Attempting to funkify an earthling with a rank higher than yours causes them to be invulnerable until your belt level matches theirs.

    After the game has been completed, the "Random Mode" will be unlocked. Environments will be randomly generated as opposed to fixed that re-arranges the location of presents, keys, earthlings and more.

    Playable Characters

    Just like previous entries, up to two players are able to play simultaneously. However with the addition of Latisha as well as three secret characters, both players have the option to hotswap between the characters at the beginning or by finding a location in the overworld(s) that allow you to change characters. Each character also has specific abilities or perks that give them an upper hand over the other characters in certain situations.

    The additional three characters must be downloaded to the Xbox hard drive.

    Notavailable.svg ToeJam

    • Extra shot power
    • Speed & jump powe
    • Mailbox rebate
    • Good Money Luck
    Notavailable.svg Big Earl

    • Stronger Funk-Fu
    • Can eat bad food
    • Two-for-one Sushi
    • Increased Life
    Notavailable.svg Latisha

    • Double Rhythm Power
    • Double treats
    • Risky present luck
    • Can ride tornadoes
    Geekjam portrait.png GeekJam
    (downloadable character)
    • Super jump power
    • Super money luck
    • Super Rhythm Power
    • Can ride tornadoes
    Earlbot portrait.png Earl Bot
    (downloadable character)
    • Speed power
    • Super Funk-Fu
    • Super shot power
    • Three-for-one Sushi
    Suteki portrait.png Suteki
    (downloadable character)
    • Speed & jump power
    • Can eat bad food
    • Increased life
    • Triple treats

    History

    Development

    ToeJam & Earl III was once set to be a Sega Dreamcast game, and was even pencilled in for release in November 2001[7], but the demise of the console led to development being moved to the Xbox.

    Once development moved onto the new platform, there was consideration in bringing the game to other platforms after the Xbox version was completed. Namely the PlayStation 2 and Nintendo GameCube. It was noted that the same experience could not be brought to other platforms in the same way as the Xbox version. As a result, only came out on one system.[8]

    Production credits

    Design & Management Team
    • Lead Designer & Creative Director: Greg Johnson
    • Project Manager: Mark Voorsanger
    • Lead Programmer: Steve Scholl
    • Production & Design Assistant: Suruchi Krieglstein
    • Executive Producer: Scott Patterson, Visual Concepts
    Programming Team
    • Camera, Graphics & Game Engine Enhancements: Steve Scholl
    • Artificial Intelligence, Mini-Games & Boss Battles: Matt Russell
    • User Interface & Sound: Randy Tudor
    • Character Controls, Software Tools & Utilities: Richard Fife
    • Graphic Special Effects & Performance Optimizations: Robert Leyland
    • Random Level Generation: Mark Voorsanger
    Art Team
    • Lead Environment Artist: Maida Kreis
    • Lead Animator & Concept Artist: I-Wei Huang
    • Animator: Rob Skiena
    • Environment Artist: Hal Smyer
    • Texture Artist: Maria Bowen
    • Additional Artwork: Lee Ballard, Robin Lujan
    Sound Music Team
    • Music Composition, Sound FX & Sound Engineering: Burke Trieschmann
    • Gospel Singing: Genevieve Goings
    • Gospel Composition: Greg Johnson, Genevieve Goings
    Character Voices
    • Player-Character Voices: Greg "Big Earl" Brown, Sherrie "Latisha" Jackson, Kirk "ToeJam" McHenry
    • Other Character Voices: Genevieve Goings, Greg Johnson, Rob Skiena, Suruchi Krieglstein, Burke Trieschmann
    • Executive Producer: Scott Patterson
    • Library and Tools Engineers: Ivar Olsen, Eivind Hagen, Boris Kazanskii, Chris Larson, Chuck Batson
    • QA Manager: Chien Yu
    • Lead Tester: Damon Perdue
    • Quality Assurance (In Alphabetical Order): Eric Andreassen, Brian Beavers, Stephen Benz, Benjamin Bracamonte, Chris Charles, John Crysdale, Andrew Davies, Christopher Gross, Jeremy Huddleston, Erik Lampi, Robert Nelson, Haven Rocha, Semmy Sebastian, Junior Sison, Derek Williams, Tim Walter
    Sega Europe Ltd
    Very Special Thanks To
    Source:
    ?? manual

    Downloadable content

    Additional characters and levels were available as additional downloadable content for the game. They could be obtained either through the Xbox Live service (which was decommissioned on May 11, 2010) or from the Xbox Exhibition Disk Volume 2.

    Title and description Links Releases
    GeekJam
    Xbox
    US
    2002-11-15[9]
    FREEfree
    Earl Bot
    Xbox
    US
    2002-11-15[9]
    FREEfree
    Suteki
    Xbox
    US
    2002-11-15[9]
    FREEfree
    Hades Maze
    Xbox
    US
    2002-11-15[9]
    FREEfree
    Funkadelic
    Xbox
    US
    2002-11-15[9]
    FREEfree

    Magazine articles

    Main article: ToeJam & Earl III: Mission to Earth/Magazine articles.

    Artwork

    Physical scans

    Sega Retro Average 
    Publication Score Source
    {{{{{icon}}}|L}} Division by zero.
    Based on
    0 review
    Sega Retro Average 
    Publication Version Score
    Consoles + (FR) PAL
    85
    [10]
    Electronic Gaming Monthly (US) NTSC-U
    72
    [11]
    GameNOW (US) NTSC-U
    83
    [12]
    GamePro (US) NTSC-U
    88
    [13]
    GMR (US) NTSC-U
    70
    [14]
    Hyper (AU) PAL
    69
    [15]
    Le Magazine Officiel Xbox (FR)
    55
    [16]
    Official Xbox Magazine (UK) PAL
    79
    [17]
    Play (US) NTSC-U
    90
    [18]
    Xbox Zone (DE) PAL
    74
    [19]
    Xbox
    76
    Based on
    10 reviews

    ToeJam & Earl III: Mission to Earth

    Xbox, US
    TJaEIII Xbox US Box.jpg
    Cover
    TJaEIII Xbox US Disc.jpg
    Disc
    Xbox, US (Hollywood Video)

    Xbox, UK
    TJaEIII Xbox EU Box.jpg
    Cover
    TJaEIII Xbox EU Disc.jpg
    Disc
    Xbox, FR
    TJaEIII Xbox FR Box.jpg
    Cover
    Xbox, DE
    TJaEIII Xbox DE Box.jpg
    Cover
    Xbox, ES
    TJaEIII Xbox ES Box.jpg
    Cover
    Xbox, IT
    TJaEIII Xbox IT cover.jpg
    Cover
    Xbox, AU
    TJaEIII Xbox AU Box.jpg
    Cover

    Technical information

    ROM dump status

    System Hash Size Build Date Source Comments
    Xbox
     ?
    CRC32 29977bdc
    MD5 8ada516e6e0f38e2ac4fb3175f0357d5
    SHA-1 7ef5ac74eee1f3a69f51391a06fe899fd9f3ec2a
    7,825,162,240 DVD-ROM (US)
    Xbox
    CRC32 956bf1ca
    MD5 8b3556d626831eb32b423494ec5d5ece
    SHA-1 37ba259bacafc0bf9b3f45fabca33d35852d015a
    7,825,162,240 DVD-ROM (EU)
    Xbox
     ?
    CRC32
    MD5
    SHA-1
    2002-06-20 DVD-R Page
    Xbox
     ?
    CRC32
    MD5
    SHA-1
    2002-08-06 DVD-R Page
    Xbox
     ?
    CRC32
    MD5
    SHA-1
    2002-09-09 DVD-R Page
    Xbox
     ?
    CRC32
    MD5
    SHA-1
    2002-09-19 DVD-R Page
    Sega Dreamcast
     ?
    CRC32
    MD5
    SHA-1
    2001-07-02 Dev Kit HDD Page

    External links

    References

    1. http://www.sega.com/games/xbox/post_xboxgame.jhtml?PRODID=10089 (Wayback Machine: 2003-10-05 06:02)
    2. Press release: 2002-11-04: SEGA Delivers Great Games for All Ages and All Consoles This Holiday Season
    3. Xbox.com (en-US; default.htm/) (Wayback Machine: 2003-10-07 06:12)
    4. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Microsoft-Toe-Jam-Earl-III/dp/B000083XHO (Wayback Machine: 2006-12-11 08:27)
    5. https://www.amazon.de/ToeJam-Earl-III-Mission-Earth/dp/B00008IXOD/ (Wayback Machine: 2019-08-26 00:15)
    6. File:SegaE32002PressKit Documents.pdf, page 21
    7. Next Generation, "June 2001" (US; 2001-05-22), page 74
    8. http://segabits.com/blog/2015/03/06/swingin-report-show-77-interview-with-greg-johnson-co-creator-of-toejam-and-earl/
    9. 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 Press release: 2002-10-22: SEGA Brings the Funk With ToeJam & Earl III: Mission to Earth Exclusively for Xbox; Out-of-this-World Hip-Hop Adventure Features Exclusive Downloadable Content Via Xbox Live
    10. Consoles +, "Mars 2003" (FR; 2003-0x-xx), page 104
    11. Electronic Gaming Monthly, "December 2002" (US; 2002-11-05), page 281
    12. GameNOW, "December 2002" (US; 2002-11-12), page 62
    13. GamePro, "December 2002" (US; 2002-1x-xx), page 172
    14. GMR, "February 2003" (US; 2003-xx-xx), page 95
    15. Hyper, "April 2003" (AU; 2003-03-05), page 76
    16. Le Magazine Officiel Xbox, "Mars 2003" (FR; 2003-xx-xx), page 64
    17. Official Xbox Magazine, "February 2003" (UK; 2003-xx-xx), page 66
    18. Play, "November 2002" (US; 2002-xx-xx), page 84
    19. Xbox Zone, "02/2003" (DE; 2003-0x-xx), page 68


    ToeJam & Earl III: Mission to Earth

    Tj&e3xbx title.png

    Main page | Development | Magazine articles | Reception


    Sega Dreamcast
    Prototypes: 2001-07-02

    Xbox
    Prototypes: 2002-06-20 | 08-06 | 09-09 | 09-19



    Games in the ToeJam & Earl Series
    Sega Mega Drive
    ToeJam & Earl (1991) | ToeJam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron (1993)
    Xbox
    ToeJam & Earl III: Mission to Earth (2002)
    Xbox Live Arcade
    Sega Vintage Collection: ToeJam & Earl (2012)
    PlayStation 3 PlayStation Network
    Sega Vintage Collection: ToeJam & Earl (2013)
    ToeJam & Earl related media
    Music
    ToeJam and Earl Rap (1991) | Sega Tunes: ToeJam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron (1996)