Funkotron

In the midst of another relentless Middle West heat wave, I bring you more of Video Game Week! 


Some estimates have put the heat index well above 110 (Fahrenheit, you metric-loving world, you!) and that is just too darn hot to function. Consequently my better half and I have spent the day reassembling our humble abode in the wake of our wedding and honeymoon. We hit a Farmer's Market before 9 in the morning and it was still so hot we decided that cleaning in the AC with the blinds down was the best way to be productive today. Any further venturing would have risked certain death. Since subsequent adventuring would have required the use of video games, so when she wasn't watching me clean in our office I fired up my copy of my favorite old Sega game, ToeJam & Earl!

My love of the world of hip hop clearly started at a young age.


Released in 1991 for the Sega Genesis (Mega Drive to you Japanese readers), the game was a favorite of mine for a variety of reasons. My friend Matt owned a copy and we spent our share of winter afternoons playing the game, whose titular aliens ToeJam (the skinny one) and Earl (the fat one) seemed not-at-all a desperate grab at relevancy and hip vernacular from marketing teams. Basic plot was as follows: Aliens crash on a bizarre version of Earth, fight off stereotypes of humans to find pieces of wrecked craft to get home. A rap-themed take on ET, basically. 

A fairly simple game, you pretty much just walk your character of choice around in search of ship parts, picking up wrapped presents (which contained a variety of goods like rocket skates, Icarus wings, slingshots and food) while dodging crazy doctors and angry moms pushing their kids in shopping carts. Not a lot to it, just wander around and search for stuff. While this was still the early 90s, a period in which video games were simpler both in concept and execution, it was even at the time a pretty minimal game. That essence of simplicity was endearing, though, as it got the game's concept out of the way and just let you and a partner explore the weird, hyper-real world the designers created. It was an adventure in the most basic sense - you and a friend try to help the hip, stranded aliens. For a couple of white kids from the sticks we thought we were down with the lingo. Bad ass dudes, were we. 

There's all sorts of idiosyncratic touches in ToeJam & Earl that made it stand out at the time. Enemies weren't simply trying to kill you but were more of a conceptual impediment. Example: Hula Girls were scattered around, and when in their vicinity your character is compelled to Hula dance, which did you no damage but opened you up to, say, a swarm of bees coming out of left field. Santa Claus made appearances, because why not? I guess to follow the logic of the game offering presents as a source of items and goods. Anyway, you could sneak up on Santa to startle him, causing a bevy of gifts to fall out. Levels were literally levels - giant, randomly formed platforms of land suspended in open space, complete with quicksand and lakes. Falling off the level would cause you to drop back down, only impeding progress rather than out-and-out penalization. In the first level of the game you could fall down a hole to Level Zero, which was nothing but a hot tub and lemonade stand. If your character sat idle too long they would fall asleep. Pressing buttons wouldn't immediately wake them up, but start a cascade of whispers and eventual yelling that would eventually get them going again. This is all sounding absolutely absurd, but these weird things are why I love the game to this day.

I mentioned in yesterday's post how I rarely play any games with other people, but this is the exception to the rule. I loved playing it as a kid. In college it served as a great goofing off/time waster with friends who grew up on the Sega side of the tracks. Fire up the emulator, grab a beer and an ashtray (I've since quit) and casually wander around a fun, if oddly twisted world. ToeJam & Earl is a surreal, satirizing of America, but that take on life makes the game fascinating to play when coupled with it's simple yet free-roaming style of play. If you've never had a chance to play it you can download it for Virtual Console and possibly Xbox Live Arcade, or find it...other...places. I highly recommend it, just for the sense of whimsy.