Funky retro 90’s co-op action adventure

ToeJam & Earl is an action adventure game from the MegaDrive era. One of the more funky and bizarre titles of the 16-bit generation, the game features a pair of aliens searching across levels for parts of their destroyed spaceship.

Forgotten times

Back when everyone seemed to own a Nintendo in the early 1990s, Sega aimed to take a piece of the home console market by aiming at a more hip audience. ToeJam & Earl is one of the stranger examples of this marketing tactic. Two aliens kitted out in parachute pants and backwards caps crash their funky spaceship in some far out worlds and have to dance their way through hordes of enemies to collect the pieces and get home. The achingly 90’s duo pick up pizza slices and hi-tops as power-ups, call each other weiners and bounce around the map. Beneath the wacky setting, however, is a fun and light-hearted split-screen co-op adventure. While this PC re-release has a disappointing lack of online play, local split-screen is still a blast. This version has very little in the way of updates and is more of a trip-down memory lane than an update.

Blast from the past

ToeJam & Earl is something of a forgotten cult classic from a time when video games got weird. Gamers from the time will have a suitably 90’s blast while others may be simply confused.