Links: Official site | Xbox One | PS4 | Switch | SteamĪs shown above, Back in the Groove looks remarkably like the original game, at least in terms of basic framing. Platform: Windows PC (reviewed), Mac, Linux, Switch, Xbox One, PS4 Game details Developer: HumaNature Studios Two major aspects of every playthrough were always randomized: the level designs and the kinds of items that your heroes could pick up and use to survive their slow, funky walks past Earth's harmful denizens. Instead, the series rounded out Genesis's early library by combining the PC-gaming concept of rogue-like adventuring into a kid-friendly quest. In spite of its hip-hop styling and cartoony characters, TJ&E was never going to blow the gaming world up as effectively as Sonic's massive sprites, diverse worlds, and high-speed scrolling. Of course, someone else at Sega famously took that job and, er, ran with it. ToeJam & Earl is a funny footnote in Sega Genesis history, precisely because the original 1991 game-with its rap-loving, smack-talking aliens-very well could have been the attitude-filled mascot game to directly face off against Nintendo. Sound familiar?įor reasons that will become clear in a second, any conversation about the new entry in the ToeJam & Earl franchise is incomplete without a history primer. It’s not old-it’s funkyĪfter being sucked into a black hole, ToeJam, Earl, and their friends must scour their new reality to find their ship's parts and get back to Planet Funkotron. So, please humor this Sega fanboy with a twin-review trip down Genesis lane. Both feel a whole lot like 1992: hardly revolutionary in modern terms, yet somehow packed with that singular, early-'90s feeling of new, refreshing ideas around every corner. The less said about the AtGames Genesis Flashback-an atrocious cash-in that followed the NES Classic-the better.īut this week's one-two punch of releases was just what I needed to wash a foul taste of wasted nostalgia out of my mouth: the 8Bitdo M30 gamepad and the new game Toejam & Earl: Back in the Groove. (If you're wondering: this '80s-kid author absolutely had a lengthy "Genesis does what Nintendon't" phase.) My recent feeling may have emerged, in part, because Sega's current handlers left Genesis fans out to dry during the tiny-console fad.
The result has been a solid few days back in my early-'90s childhood, as if I were firmly planted in front of a massive CRT TV with some of my favorite games of the era.
But their coincidental, nearly simultaneous appearance triggered a wave of '90s nostalgia that made me bite. I nearly shrugged them off, since neither actually came from Sega. Roughly a week ago, two bulletins landed in my inbox from companies eager to capitalize on Sega Genesis nostalgia.
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