DAY 58 / GAME 58
Toe Jam and Earl
While spending time at my cousin's house one day, my uncle brought over this game with his Genesis. There is virtually no other game like this. There is Certainly no other game where you crash your 'righteous rapmaster rocketship' into Earth and find yourself searching for the scattered parts while avoiding it's horrifying denizens.
Toe Jam and Earl is a ridiculous adventure that finds two hip-hop aliens from planet Funkotron rapping their way through a skewed version of planet Earth. One of the core mechanics in this game is the overall level design. You start on the 'ground floor'; which is more or less a series of randomly generated islands full of 'presents' and earthly dudes. The islands are connected by water you can swim in, just watch for sharks. Your goal is to find a ship piece and the level exit. (Though, not all levels contain a ship piece.) The level exit is an elevator that brings you up to another level full of floating islands. This time they have no water in between and if you fall over the edge, you fall straight into the level below. This can continue until you reach the bottom if you're not careful.
TJ&E was chock full of wackyness. Everything is just this bizarre caricature of humankind. You're chased by crazed dentists, women pushing their kids in a shopping cart, cupids, sharks and monster mailboxes. Santa has a rocketpack and leaves presents behind if you find him. Hula dancing girls entice you to dance along with them. Random presents contain both helpful and harmful contents; including rocketshoes, inflatable decoys, moldy cheese, extra lives and pogo sticks. You're 'level' goes up as you score more points which rewards you with a new and better title. You start as a Wiener and go up the chain as a Doofus, Pointdexter, Peanut, Dude, Bro, Homey, Rapmaster and eventually, Funklord.
There was even a sequence at the start where instead of playing the game, you could choose to just make a music video. You pick the song and then just play along with each button on the controller playing different audio samples as the background danced and so did Toe Jam and Earl. And of course, one of the best things about this game, was the multiplayer. Because of the level design, when playing two-player you didn't need to be nearby the other player. When close enough, you are both on one screen. When you go far enough apart, the screen splits into two. It also had no problem handling one player falling into another level. So sometimes you found yourself waiting for the other person to make their way back up to your level so you could progress.
This game was just great. And it's another timeless classic you can play at any moment because the game design fits well within the limits of the system. You can get a ported version of the Wii, or on Xbox Live Arcade as a combo of parts 1 and 2. Part two was actually quite a bit different as it ended up being a side-scroller. There was also a little known part 3 for the original xbox, which was actually quite Jammin'.
Toe Jam and Earl
While spending time at my cousin's house one day, my uncle brought over this game with his Genesis. There is virtually no other game like this. There is Certainly no other game where you crash your 'righteous rapmaster rocketship' into Earth and find yourself searching for the scattered parts while avoiding it's horrifying denizens.Toe Jam and Earl is a ridiculous adventure that finds two hip-hop aliens from planet Funkotron rapping their way through a skewed version of planet Earth. One of the core mechanics in this game is the overall level design. You start on the 'ground floor'; which is more or less a series of randomly generated islands full of 'presents' and earthly dudes. The islands are connected by water you can swim in, just watch for sharks. Your goal is to find a ship piece and the level exit. (Though, not all levels contain a ship piece.) The level exit is an elevator that brings you up to another level full of floating islands. This time they have no water in between and if you fall over the edge, you fall straight into the level below. This can continue until you reach the bottom if you're not careful.
TJ&E was chock full of wackyness. Everything is just this bizarre caricature of humankind. You're chased by crazed dentists, women pushing their kids in a shopping cart, cupids, sharks and monster mailboxes. Santa has a rocketpack and leaves presents behind if you find him. Hula dancing girls entice you to dance along with them. Random presents contain both helpful and harmful contents; including rocketshoes, inflatable decoys, moldy cheese, extra lives and pogo sticks. You're 'level' goes up as you score more points which rewards you with a new and better title. You start as a Wiener and go up the chain as a Doofus, Pointdexter, Peanut, Dude, Bro, Homey, Rapmaster and eventually, Funklord.
There was even a sequence at the start where instead of playing the game, you could choose to just make a music video. You pick the song and then just play along with each button on the controller playing different audio samples as the background danced and so did Toe Jam and Earl. And of course, one of the best things about this game, was the multiplayer. Because of the level design, when playing two-player you didn't need to be nearby the other player. When close enough, you are both on one screen. When you go far enough apart, the screen splits into two. It also had no problem handling one player falling into another level. So sometimes you found yourself waiting for the other person to make their way back up to your level so you could progress.
This game was just great. And it's another timeless classic you can play at any moment because the game design fits well within the limits of the system. You can get a ported version of the Wii, or on Xbox Live Arcade as a combo of parts 1 and 2. Part two was actually quite a bit different as it ended up being a side-scroller. There was also a little known part 3 for the original xbox, which was actually quite Jammin'.
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