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rawhide

Member
Oct 28, 2017
3,003
Very positive word of mouth and reviews so far. I wonder why Adult Swim dropped out as the publisher. Or did I imagine that?

Can't wait to pick it up

That really happened. The rationale given for them going indie again was that Adult Swim said they couldn't handle the release right now and wanted to delay the game again for marketing purposes but the devs had already delayed the game so many times that they couldn't and didn't want to wait any longer to put it out.
 

Polioliolio

Member
Nov 6, 2017
5,396
I played a wee bit earlier today. I'm having trouble getting past the paper doll animation. It's not even the art style.. The illustrations are fine, but the animation is the pits. I wish they just hired the same artist to draw more key frames...
 

Ginger Hail

One Winged Slayer
Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
3,126
Managed to clear the Fixed World on my first try by the skin of my teeth. Really loving the game already. Really feels like first game on a whole new level.
 

Arkeband

Banned
Nov 8, 2017
7,663
The only thing that kind of bothered me was some of the iffy animation, which in some cases the old pixel art did way more with, and some really jarring sound effects that sound like placeholders, like the tornado picking you up and it just plays stock woosh sounds that are like one second long with pauses between them.

It's moments like that where it starts to feel like a Flash game rather than the experience it aims to be.
 

Deleted member 9100

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 26, 2017
3,076
Loving the game so far. Reminds me of my youth renting the first and second games from blockbuster and playing a ton with my brother.

And I was able to get it for free thanks to the trivia giveaway in this thread. Thanks OP!
 

Opa-Pa

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,810
Just finished a random world on Switch first try after kinda rushing to level 10 of fixed world to unlock it. Man, this game is awesome; such a joy to play! I had so much fun by myself, I can't wait to play with other people.

The music is fantastic and the graphics more expressive than I expected. Coupled with its more streamlined gameplay it really helps give the game a chill flow that I love.

I adored how wholesome and positive it is too, that ending was so nice and endearing. Definitely my zone out and chill game from now on.
The only thing that kind of bothered me was some of the iffy animation, which in some cases the old pixel art did way more with, and some really jarring sound effects that sound like placeholders, like the tornado picking you up and it just plays stock woosh sounds that are like one second long with pauses between them.

It's moments like that where it starts to feel like a Flash game rather than the experience it aims to be.
Yeah one thing that felt consistently low quality was the sound effects. The big majority sound like they were picked from the cheapest library out there and were meant as placeholders... A shame because the game is so great.
 

BizzyBum

Member
Oct 26, 2017
9,132
New York
Yeah, this brings me right back to 1991. 28 fucking years ago.

I mean, look how dope the original boxart was:

220px-ToeJam_%26_Earl.png


I was thrilled when we could choose classic ToeJam and Earl avatars.

Anyone who even remotely enjoyed the Genesis game needs to give this a download. (and it has a kick ass Switch icon)

Y6RSuizYabtbvNViUdkNlBd5pQrHreIs.png
 

Deleted member 12790

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
24,537
Yeah, this brings me right back to 1991. 28 fucking years ago.

I mean, look how dope the original boxart was:

220px-ToeJam_%26_Earl.png


I was thrilled when we could choose classic ToeJam and Earl avatars.

Anyone who even remotely enjoyed the Genesis game needs to give this a download.

This box art is why I bought Toejam & Earl. It was the first game I bought for my genesis (after getting one on christmas with Sonic, Columns, and Thunder Force III). I had absolutely no idea what kind of game it was, just that the box art was cool as shit.

Worth it.
 

Unicorn

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 29, 2017
9,505
For all the times I played the first game I never understood wtf the game was. Watching the GB quick look and they say it's a roguelike lite and I was just like, oh fuck.

25 years later and I think I finally get it lol
 

Deleted member 9100

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 26, 2017
3,076
I am a phillistine. I haven't played these games since the genesis days but after playing this one, I remember enjoying 2 more than 1. I do like this one though.
 

Mesoian

▲ Legend ▲
Member
Oct 28, 2017
26,369
Just did a random seed with a friend online. It was going fine until level 24 or so when he game overed and became a ghost. I did the next 3 levels alone, won, and our games desynced so hard, his client didn't see him going past he 24th floor and my client was asking for him to choose a character to unlock.

Game is super dope, but there's some bugs that need to be ironed out.
 

Opa-Pa

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,810
By the way, huge props for the nice in-game manual. I've never been a fan of online, linked ones (or complete lack of them lol), but the one in this game is super convenient, informative and looks awesome at that.
 

Deleted member 10428

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
1,083
Wait what, is this 30fps on Xbox One X???

Edit: ok totally not buying this. Was really hyped up until now too:(
How in the world is this 30fps on anything?
 
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Lucifonz

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,131
United Kingdom
Just finished the fixed world. Yep, this is pretty much what any TJ&E fan could want. My only complaint is how the Switch version tends to pause and jerk at times, though it's not often.

I feel like this gets worse the longer you play. My first playthrough didn't have it at all. Second though got worse and worse in the end causing me to die during a period where the game paused then returned to find I'd been hit and killed on my final life. Hope they fix it swiftly, it's pretty game breaking.
 

Hero-of-Time

Member
Oct 27, 2017
440
Sad to hear about the Switch version... Does the PS4 version have any issues?

Not sure about performance issues but there does seem to be issues with trophies not unlocking. A few people across a couple of trophy sites are having this problem.

I bought the Switch version and I'm a little disappointed with how rough my experience with the game has been. When playing online the loading times between areas are pretty rough and a few times I've had an issue where i've dropped to the level below only to find all the characters stuck in the floor not being able to move.

When playing in single player the load times are much better but the game does stutter from time to time. This has caused deaths on a couple of occasions and it's pretty frustrating to get punished for something that's out of your control.

I'm hoping a patch is being prepped for the game pretty soon. The original game on the Mega Drive is one of my favourite titles on the system and it saddens me to see this sequel run the way it does.
 

lazygecko

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,628
The only thing that kind of bothered me was some of the iffy animation, which in some cases the old pixel art did way more with, and some really jarring sound effects that sound like placeholders, like the tornado picking you up and it just plays stock woosh sounds that are like one second long with pauses between them.

It's moments like that where it starts to feel like a Flash game rather than the experience it aims to be.

I went back and re-examined Toejam & Earl 2 yesterday and gained a newfound appreciation for the visuals. Excellent spritework and animation wrapped up in a distinct style. Probably the best the series ever looked and I feel a bit bummed now that it probably won't look as good ever again.

Alvsyns.gif
 

Deleted member 15447

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
1,728
Just grabbed it on Xbox.

Have great memories of the original, including my eldest brother playing 'a buck, I wonder what that is. I'll buy it for two bucks' lol
 

shaneo632

Weekend Planner
Member
Oct 29, 2017
28,963
Wrexham, Wales
It's alright. Getting chased is more annoying than fun and falling off the level is irritating. But it's a decent blast of nostalgia. Not that fussed about the Flash game-esque visuals though. It looks too "clean".
 

Hulohot

Banned
Jan 1, 2019
104
Is the sidescrolling out in this? I remember sidescrolling platforming and top down present hunting in the original.
 

Deleted member 12790

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
24,537
Is the sidescrolling out in this? I remember sidescrolling platforming and top down present hunting in the original.

There was no side scrolling in the original at all, it was all top-down rogue like. The sequel was a side scrolling platformer.

This one is a top down rogue-like, like the original, but includes the side scrolling "hyper funk zone" bonus stages from the sequel.
 

GoutPatrol

Member
Oct 30, 2017
1,690
Finally played it on PS4 in fixed world. I mean...it isn't the original. Controls are much better from the beta that I remember. But after 4 years...I'm happy. Just need to get my brother to buy his copy and play with him like when we were 4.
 
Oct 27, 2017
4,759
The original was my favorite game on the Genesis. The second was shit. The third has a rough start but eventually gets to be a pretty good version of the original and is a lot better than its reputation. This... was really fucking good. I still think I prefer the original, but this was really close if not at the same level.
 

mr teaspoon

Banned
Feb 22, 2018
178
The original was my favorite game on the Genesis. The second was shit. The third has a rough start but eventually gets to be a pretty good version of the original and is a lot better than its reputation. This... was really fucking good. I still think I prefer the original, but this was really close if not at the same level.

Yes! Always good to see love for Toejam & Earl III. That game has a really, really unearned bad reputation. The only thing that I actively didn't enjoy were the absolutely awful loading screens.
 

Arkeband

Banned
Nov 8, 2017
7,663
Beat Fixed last night with my brother who lives in China. The game is way better with at least two people.

One thing we discovered is that the game has great moment to moment netcode but starts to glitch out hard when one person's internet starts to crap out (in this case, his Chinese connection).

He started to lag badly during a Hyperfunk zone and fell off the map, and then when I emerged he was dead and was moving around the map as an Earl with a ghost Earl sprite in front of him, with no health but 1 life left. When we went up the elevator he disappeared completely so I saved the game and quit.

Reloaded the game and reinvited him and it didn't save his progress (this might be how the game normally works), so we had to keep repeating this as his connection got worse and it refused to load his character on new levels.

The funny thing is when it finally allowed him to appear in the epilogue and he chose his rewards, he got the pacifist and no damage achievements, lol. So if anyone's struggling with those just get invited to someone's game saved on Funkotron.
 
OP
OP
Camjo-Z

Camjo-Z

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,499
Yes! Always good to see love for Toejam & Earl III. That game has a really, really unearned bad reputation. The only thing that I actively didn't enjoy were the absolutely awful loading screens.

I like TJ&E III but I think even I have to admit that it ultimately was not very great. Just off the top of my head:

- Worst soundtrack in the series, not terrible but not at all up to the series' incredible standards
- Horribly mixed audio, genuinely the worst I've ever heard in a video game
- Forced adult humor that feels awkwardly out of place in a series with otherwise extremely wholesome dialogue
- Lame overarching plot with a toothless villain
- Misguided focus on bad funk-fu combat and funkify notes instead of avoiding combat through present usage
- Outright dumb publisher mandated shite like collecting keys
- PRAISE BE TO THE SOOOOUL SISTAAAS / WE'RE GONNA SING AFTER EVERYYYY LEVELLLL

It's still got a lot of charm but the development was rocky and boy does it show. It's telling that Greg actively avoids mentioning it unless asked when promoting BitG even though several elements come from Mission to Earth.
 

mr teaspoon

Banned
Feb 22, 2018
178
- Worst soundtrack in the series, not terrible but not at all up to the series' incredible standards
- Horribly mixed audio, genuinely the worst I've ever heard in a video game
- Forced adult humor that feels awkwardly out of place in a series with otherwise extremely wholesome dialogue
- Lame overarching plot with a toothless villain
- PRAISE BE TO THE SOOOOUL SISTAAAS / WE'RE GONNA SING AFTER EVERYYYY LEVELLLL

None of those matter to me except for the loading screens, which I completely agree are unbearable.

- Misguided focus on bad funk-fu combat and funkify notes instead of avoiding combat through present usage
- Outright dumb publisher mandated shite like collecting keys

The combat didn't bug me. It never felt like I had enough power that I had to stop using presents. And the keys just encouraged the exploration I already enjoyed. But I see why it isn't for everyone.
 
Oct 27, 2017
5,343
First the bad.
Wow the performance on later levels pf the switch version tanks super hard. The stutter is always there but in the later levels with many earthlings and big maps full of trees and stuff the fps go below 30 a lot of the time. Also for some reason some of the graphics were showing in low res for me (like the boombox). And can't get over those puppet animations, the original games' sprite work was better imo.

And now the good.
I still enjoyed the game and I love having the chance to play a new TJ&E game. The music is incredible (although I miss those record scratching, percussion and clap sounds, it's a silly thing but hey).
Some of the new earthlings were cool, like the internet troll which is harmless once you step on him instead of running away. Also great to see how they implemented stuff from the two first games, including the cast from 2 like Otis, Chester and Lester, Sharla, Bloona, etc. They also gave a more active role to carrot man and the other good earthlings, which were barely used in the original game.

Overall great game, but could be better with , I guess, a bigger budget and bigger team. Hopefully this won't be the last time we see TJ&E and the next game will improve in these areas.
 
OP
OP
Camjo-Z

Camjo-Z

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,499
What things are people hoping to see if they get to do DLC? My personal wish is a challenge mode like Binding of Isaac where you have to beat runs under specific conditions. They could do one where every level is dark, one where presents are always broken, one where your stats get randomized on every level, etc.

None of those matter to me except for the loading screens, which I completely agree are unbearable.

The combat didn't bug me. It never felt like I had enough power that I had to stop using presents. And the keys just encouraged the exploration I already enjoyed. But I see why it isn't for everyone.

I guess it can be considered a Nuts & Bolts or Star Fox Adventures, or heck, a Panic on Funkotron. Enjoyable as its own thing, but a bit disappointing for anyone expecting a straight followup to something much different.
 
OP
OP
Camjo-Z

Camjo-Z

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,499
Are there any references to ToeJam & Earl III in Back to the Groove? Feels like that game is oft forgotten when this series is brought up.

Not as overt as the Panic on Funkotron references but they're in there. Broken presents are basically a reworked version of risky presents, some of the Earthlings like the Sushi Guy and Medusa Baby come from TJ&E III, the Funk-Fu Blast present is presumably a nod to that game's combat, and of course Latisha and Geekjam were originally playable in the third game.
 

Son of Liberty

Production
Verified
Nov 5, 2017
1,261
California
To be honest I don't have too many memories of TJ&E. I remember playing the first game on Genesis once or twice but I didn't understand how to play it (I was a kid at the time, forgive me). So because of that I never felt an attachment to it like I did for other games on the system like Sonic, Streets of Rage, Mortal Kombat, etc.

However, I bought this game on the Switch because of the rave reviews and I totally get it why people love this series so much. It has such a nice and laidback vibe to it. The visuals and audio give me a sweet nostalgia for the 90's and the gameplay is just fun. I played about two hours of it so far and I can't wait to play more, this feels like the perfect game to relax with on a lazy weekend afternoon.
 
OP
OP
Camjo-Z

Camjo-Z

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,499
Is there any way for me to play Toejam 3 without access to an original xbox? It looks absolutely incredible

It's stuck on Xbox, and Sega owns the rights to the original 3 games so unless they feel like randomly doing a remaster or making it backwards compatible on Xbone it will probably stay that way. There is a beta of the unfinished Dreamcast version floating around on the internet though.
 

Peanut

Member
Oct 27, 2017
187
Rhode Island
Don't know if anyone else has had this problem but I just finished the game with a buddy, loved it btw the dev team did an excellent job, we exited and ate dinner. When we jumped right back in for another run in random world mode.

We completed 7 levels and the game started acting strangely, laggy and whatnot. So we saved and exited like we had on the first run and when we booted the game back up all of our progress had be erased, no mention of us finishing up the game or the rewards we got from doing it. Pretty disappointing after what was an amazing playthrough.

Xbox btw.
 
OP
OP
Camjo-Z

Camjo-Z

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,499
Don't know if anyone else has had this problem but I just finished the game with a buddy, loved it btw the dev team did an excellent job, we exited and ate dinner. When we jumped right back in for another run in random world mode.

We completed 7 levels and the game started acting strangely, laggy and whatnot. So we saved and exited like we had on the first run and when we booted the game back up all of our progress had be erased, no mention of us finishing up the game or the rewards we got from doing it. Pretty disappointing after what was an amazing playthrough.

Xbox btw.

I saw someone mention this happening in the Discord, seems to be a known Xbox problem that they're going to patch. PS4 also has an issue with trophies not unlocking that they're working on. They're pretty on the ball when it comes to responding to feedback.