ToeJam & Earl

From Sega Retro

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ToeJam & Earl Title.png

ToeJam & Earl
System(s): Sega Mega Drive, Virtual Console, PlayStation Network, Steam
Publisher: Sega
Developer:
Genre: Action

















Number of players: 1-2
Release Date RRP Code
Sega Mega Drive
JP 		¥6,8006,800 G-4066
Sega Mega Drive
US 		$59.9559.95[5] 1020
Sega Mega Drive
EU 		1020
Sega Mega Drive
AU
Sega Mega Drive
CA 		1020
Sega Mega Drive
BR
Sega Mega Drive
KR 		GM8027JG
Wii Virtual Console
JP ▼ 		600pts600[7]
Wii Virtual Console
US ▼ 		800pts800[8]
Wii Virtual Console
EU ▼ 		800pts800[9]
CERO
Missing Parameter!

ToeJam & Earl (トージャム＆アール) is an action game developed by Johnson Voorsanger Productions, and published by Sega for the Sega Mega Drive. It stars two extraterrestrial rappers who, by way of pilot error, end up crash-landing on Earth. While there, they must search for the missing pieces of their spacecraft in hopes of reassembling it. The game frequently parodies and satirizes 1990s urban culture, and includes common 90s slang and a funk soundtrack. Much of this charm is what drew people toward the game. The game was followed by ToeJam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron.

Gameplay

The game takes place in a surreal isometric world representing Earth, where land is in the form of a stack of randomly-generated floating islands. In each of the game's 25 island, the player must find the elevator that will bring them to the next level. Occasionally, a rocketship piece will be hidden somewhere on an island, although the player is not required to collect it right away before moving onto the next island. Every island besides the first is surrounded by a void, falling in at any time will cause the player to fall to the previous level.

Presents are scattered around the island that can be collected and used at any time. The effects of each present box are randomized each time the game is played. Some presents have helpful effects, such as restoring health, temporarily bestowing special abilities, or revealing hidden sections of the map. Others, however, can do more harm, and can do things such as summon enemies, cause the character to fall asleep and leave them open to attack, or randomize the effects of all the presents.

While most inhabitants of Earth will attack or otherwise hinder Toejam & Earl when they spot them, some will help them in exchange for money. The man in the carrot suit will identify presents, and the wizard will fully restore a character's health. On occasion, Santa Claus can be found, if the player is successful in sneaking up to him without alerting him, he will drop a few random presents.

The player has a rank shown on the bottom of the screen with their health and number of extra lives, and begins the game at the rank of 'Weiner'. As the player scores points by uncovering squares of the map and opening presents, their rank will increase at certain point values. When the player increases in rank, their maximum health increases, and for every second increase in rank, the player receives an extra life. The player is able to increase in rank eight times.

The game can either be played with one or two players. In two-player mode, if Toejam & Earl wander too far apart, the game will go into a horizontal split-screen so both players can keep track of their characters, with the screen returning to normal once the characters reunite. If Toejam & Earl walk into each other, they will high-five, causing the player with the most health to give a little to the player with less health. If one player loses all of their lives, they can also take a life from the other player to come back into the game.

The game ends when the player finds all 10 pieces of the spacecraft.

A sneaks and causes a character to use a present's special ability, when applicable. B pulls up an item screen. C switches to a map of the current island.

Achievements

Main article: ToeJam & Earl/Achievements.

Trivia

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 Trivia sections are bad
Try and incorporate this information into the main article. See the manual of style to find out why.

One of Greg Johnson's main influences for the design of ToeJam & Earl, was the video game Rogue[16], a dungeon crawling video game, developed around 1980 for Unix-based mainframe systems and released as public domain software, a game that Greg Johnson first played while studiyng bio-linguistics at the University of California in San Diego, staying up to early hours of the morning playing it.

Production credits

  • Game Design: Greg Johnson
  • Game Program: Mark Voorsanger
  • Additional Programming: Robert Leyland
  • Music Direction: Mark Miller
  • Music Composition: John Baker
  • Artwork: Greg Johnson, Avril Harrison
  • Sound Fx: Robert Leyland, Mark Miller
  • Invaluable Aid: Paul Reiche, Fred Ford
  • Producer: Scott Berfield
  • Awesome Support: Hugh Bowen

Digital manuals

  • Steam manual

Magazine articles

Main article: ToeJam & Earl/Magazine articles.

Promotional material

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Print advert in Electronic Gaming Monthly (US) #27: "October 1991" (1991-xx-xx)
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Print advert in Computer & Video Games (UK) #119: "October 1991" (1991-09-15)
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Print advert in Mean Machines Sega (UK) #11: "September 1993" (1993-07-30)
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Print advert in Supergame (BR) #9: "Abril 1992" (1992-04-xx)
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Television advertisements

  • US

  • AU

Artwork

  • TJaE Art ToeJam.jpg
  • TJaE Art Earl.jpg

Physical scans

Sega Retro Average 
Publication Score Source
20 №53, p98[2]
80 №3, p8
73 №28, p24
84 №27, p38-40[17]
70 №5
90 №28
89 №3, p24
87 №4, p34/35[18]
94 №1, p65-67[19]
88 №20, p164[20]
72 №5, p95
91 №9, p23
87 №1, p81[21]
87 №14, p106-108[22]
75 №14, p60/61[23]
91 №27, p34/35
93 №1, p62/63[24]
88 №18, p68
94 №1, p30/31[25]
62 №4/91, p32[26]
Sega Mega Drive
 81
Based on
20 reviews
Sega Retro Average 
Publication Version Score
1700 igr dlya Sega (RU)
70
[27]
ACE (UK)
0
[2]
Beep! MegaDrive (JP) NTSC-J
73
[28]
Computer Game Review (US) NTSC-U
79
[29]
Console XS (UK) PAL
93
[30]
Electronic Gaming Monthly (US) NTSC-U
70
[31]
Entsiklopediya luchshikh igr Sega. Vypusk 1 (RU)
70
[32]
Mean Machines: The Essential Sega Guide (UK)
80
[33]
Famitsu (JP) NTSC-J
68
[34]
Game Power (IT)
72
[35]
GamePro (US) NTSC-U
84
[17]
Gamers (DE)
73
[36]
GamesMaster (UK)
70
[37]
Games-X (UK)
90
[38]
Game Informer (US)
90
[39]
Game Zone (UK) PAL
89
[40]
Hippon Super (JP) NTSC-J
80
[41]
Hobby Consolas (ES)
87
[18]
Joypad (FR) PAL
94
[19]
Joystick (FR) PAL
88
[20]
Sega Mega Drive Advanced Gaming (UK) PAL
72
[42]
Mega Drive Fan (JP) NTSC-J
71
[43]
Mega (UK) PAL
91
[44]
Mega Force (FR) PAL
85
[45]
MegaTech (UK)
87
[21]
Mean Machines (UK) PAL
87
[22]
Mean Machines Sega (UK)
87
[46]
Player One (FR)
75
[23]
Play Time (DE)
95
[47]
Sega Power (UK) PAL
91
[48]
Sega Pro (UK) PAL
93
[24]
Sega Pro (UK) PAL
88
[49]
Sega Force (UK) PAL
94
[25]
Sega Saturn Magazine (JP) NTSC-J
73
[50]
Tricks 16 bit (RU)
77
[51]
Video Games (DE)
62
[26]
Sega Mega Drive
 79
Based on
36 reviews

ToeJam & Earl

Mega Drive, US
TJaE MD US Box.jpg
Cover
Tje md us cart.jpg
Cart
TJE md us manual.pdf
Manual
Mega Drive, EU
ToeJam MD EU Box.jpg
Cover
TJaE MD EU Cart.jpg
Cart
Mega Drive, JP
Tje md jp cover.jpg
Cover
ToeJamEarL MD JP CartTop.jpg
TJaE MD JP Cart.jpg
Cart
Toejam & Earl MD JP Manual.pdf
Manual
Mega Drive, AU

Mega Drive, BR
TJaE MD BR Box.jpg
Cover
TJaE MD BR Cart.jpg
Cart
Toejamearl md br manual.pdf
Manual
Mega Drive, KR
ToeJamandEarl MD KR cover.jpg
Cover
ToeJamandEarl MD KR carttop.jpg
ToeJamandEarl MD KR cartback.jpgToeJamandEarl MD KR cart.jpg
Cart
Mega Drive, CA
ToeJamEarl MD CA cover.jpg
Cover

External links

References

  1. ↑ File:SegaPro UK 01.pdf, page 63
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 File:ACE UK 53.pdf, page 98 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name ":File:ACE UK 53.pdf_p98" defined multiple times with different content
  3. ↑ File:SegaPro UK 01.pdf, page 9
  4. ↑ File:GamePro US 026.pdf, page 64
  5. ↑ File:CGW US 089.pdf, page 83
  6. ↑ https://www.nintendo.co.jp/wii/vc/software/01.html (Wayback Machine: 2017-11-23 05:03)
  7. ↑ http://vc.sega.jp:80/vc_toejam/ (Wayback Machine: 2007-02-19 21:36)
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 http://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/7Zk0t7PUx42bzBtZGvHAv8XuFYK0yddT (Wayback Machine: 2010-11-22 23:51)
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 http://www.nintendolife.com/games/megadrive/toejam_and_earl (Wayback Machine: 2017-06-28 09:11)
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 https://steamdb.info/app/71166/ (Wayback Machine: 2017-05-25 03:24)
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 http://steamdb.info/app/71166/ (Wayback Machine: 2013-05-22 20:03)
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 12.4 12.5 http://blogs.sega.com/2012/11/06/funk-is-brought-toejam-earl-games-out-now-on-xbla-and-psn/
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 File:TJ E Release Announcement vFINAL.pdf
  14. ↑ https://archive.is/2Ki6d
  15. ↑ http://archive.is/DdmkY
  16. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogue_(video_game)
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 File:GamePro US 027.pdf, page 40 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name ":File:GamePro US 027.pdf_p40" defined multiple times with different content
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 File:HobbyConsolas ES 004.pdf, page 34 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name ":File:HobbyConsolas ES 004.pdf_p34" defined multiple times with different content
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 File:Joypad FR 001.pdf, page 65 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name ":File:Joypad FR 001.pdf_p65" defined multiple times with different content
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 File:Joystick FR 020.pdf, page 164 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name ":File:Joystick FR 020.pdf_p164" defined multiple times with different content
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 File:MegaTech UK 01.pdf, page 81 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name ":File:MegaTech UK 01.pdf_p81" defined multiple times with different content
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 File:MeanMachines UK 14.pdf, page 106 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name ":File:MeanMachines UK 14.pdf_p106" defined multiple times with different content
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 File:PlayerOne FR 014.pdf, page 60 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name ":File:PlayerOne FR 014.pdf_p60" defined multiple times with different content
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 File:SegaPro UK 01.pdf, page 62 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name ":File:SegaPro UK 01.pdf_p62" defined multiple times with different content
  25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 File:SegaForce UK 01.pdf, page 30 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name ":File:SegaForce UK 01.pdf_p30" defined multiple times with different content
  26. ↑ 26.0 26.1 File:VideoGames DE 1991-04.pdf, page 32 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name ":File:VideoGames DE 1991-04.pdf_p32" defined multiple times with different content
  27. ↑ 1700 igr dlya Sega, "" (RU; 2001-xx-xx), page 246
  28. ↑ Beep! MegaDrive, "April 1992" (JP; 1992-03-07), page 35
  29. ↑ Computer Game Review, "January, 1992" (US; 199x-xx-xx), page 32
  30. ↑ Console XS, "June/July 1992" (UK; 1992-04-23), page 135
  31. ↑ Electronic Gaming Monthly, "November 1991" (US; 1991-1x-xx), page 24
  32. ↑ Entsiklopediya luchshikh igr Sega. Vypusk 1, "" (RU; 1999-xx-xx), page 363
  33. ↑ Mean Machines: The Essential Sega Guide, "" (UK; 1993-11-18), page 109
  34. ↑ Famitsu, "1992-03-20" (JP; 1992-03-06), page 38
  35. ↑ Game Power, "Febbraio 1992" (IT; 1992-0-xx), page 54
  36. ↑ Gamers, "Februar/März 1992" (DE; 1992-xx-xx), page 60
  37. ↑ GamesMaster (UK) "Series 1, episode 5" (1992-02-04, 24:00) (+5:40)
  38. ↑ Games-X, "31st October-6th November 1991" (UK; 1991-10-31), page 36
  39. ↑ Game Informer, "November/December 1991" (US; 1991-xx-xx), page 33
  40. ↑ Game Zone, "January 1992" (UK; 1991-12-18), page 24
  41. ↑ Hippon Super, "April 1992" (JP; 1992-03-04), page 84
  42. ↑ Sega Mega Drive Advanced Gaming, "January 1993" (UK; 199x-xx-xx), page 95
  43. ↑ Mega Drive Fan, "June 1992" (JP; 1992-05-08), page 83
  44. ↑ Mega, "June 1993" (UK; 1993-05-20), page 21
  45. ↑ Mega Force, "Septembre/Octobre 1991" (FR; 1991-09-13), page 86
  46. ↑ Mean Machines Sega, "October 1992" (UK; 1992-09-xx), page 142
  47. ↑ Play Time, "3/92" (DE; 1992-02-05), page 86
  48. ↑ Sega Power, "February 1992" (UK; 1992-01-02), page 35
  49. ↑ Sega Pro, "April 1993" (UK; 1993-03-11), page 68
  50. ↑ Sega Saturn Magazine, "September 1995" (JP; 1995-08-08), page 86
  51. ↑ Tricks 16 bit, "Tricks Sega Gold 800 igr" (RU; 1998-03-20), page 203



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)
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