A Remixed Remaster

One of my earliest childhood memories is of a game featuring two hip-hop aliens cruising The Milky Way Galaxy. Earl got bored and asked Toejam if he could drive. Toejam tentatively agreed. While zipping through hazards like he's navigating The Astroid Belt, yes, THAT one, Earl ends up hitting a Space Rock, and the two crash on Earth. Our funky heroes are then tasked with collecting the broken ship parts and escaping this strange Earth of devils, tourists, and screaming children. This is the premise for the original Sega exclusive title Toejam and Earl, leading to its sequel Panic on Funkatron. Afterward, it would be nine years before arguably the least popular of the franchise ToeJam and Earl 3 for the Xbox. That would be the last we hear from the residents of Funkatron until 2019 when Human Nature announced ToeJam and Earl: Back in The Groove.

This review was done slightly differently than my other ones. I had a friend playing with me this time. C.J. had never even heard of this game, so it was the perfect opportunity to see the experience ToeJam and Earl through a noob's eyes. While waiting for her to sign in online, I explored the menus and watched the intro. The lead designer, Greg Johnson, took the gameplay style from the original title and reintroduced it to the current generation of gamers. Human Nature didn't stop there, however, adding the lore, cast, and mini-games from the other titles to this remixed remaster. There was also a weird choice to switch the personalities of our heroes. In the original Sega Genesis release, it was Earl being reckless with his driving. However, T.J. is the irresponsible one stealing another person's ride to impress a girl he likes, causing Earl to press the wrong button. In addition, new features were added, such as unlockables, player stats, special abilities, and several different game modes to play with online and offline options. Another part I feel is worth mentioning is that the game manual is in the main menu. Not all games have this, nor do they go into as much detail as Back in the Groove. You can review everything from button input to more information about game modes and even mini-game rules.

The look and design of the gameplay were sharp and clear—A significant improvement from its predecessor. But to be fair, it was a different game back in the 90s, no pun intended. They took music from across the franchise and remade it for Back in The Groove. Some classic enemies return, such as the devils and annoying moms with shopping carts. What I didn't expect was The Spanish Inquisition. That's not a joke. They are in this game! And true to the original title, you don't have a permanent way to attack, so you are stuck running away most of the time. Both players pick up presents and can use them for better or worse. It can range from giving you tomatoes to attack enemies, and sneakers to run, to eating bad food. Not all humans are antagonists, though. Some of them help you by identifying presents to replenish your health.

There are some downsides to this game C.J. encountered that could be commonplace for novices at titles like this. For example, the fact that you can easily fall off the stage combined with somewhat rigid directional controls made the tightrope portions of the map very crooked, causing the task to be more taxing than needed. I felt the same way and had experience with this. I usually don't play hardcore platformers like the older Mario titles. And while I did explore the game instructions at the title, C.J. did not. As a result, she had no idea how to play the mini-games and was stumbling early on in the tutorial. Combining these facts with the hit-or-miss randomizer of the gifts could irritate newer players. And the dynamic split screen feature does not help the situation. Still, we powered through and got all the ship parts. Of course, since this was the tutorial world, we didn't see the ending. All and all, Greg Johnson, along with the team at Human Nature, should be applauded for the effort they put into this project. They called back to the past materials to bring back a classic for our current generation of consoles.