ToeJam and Earl is a bizarre series of games on a number of levels. It’s about two aliens who think they’re rappers, stranded on a parody of Earth that features roving gangs of nerds and heavily-armed chickens. Yes, it was quite ’90s. And now that the early ’90s are hip again, ToeJam and Earl will be coming back to consoles.
There’s reason to be excited. ToeJam and Earl was the first roguelike many gamers played; largely themed around exploration and avoiding combat, the levels were randomly generated and a lot depended on figuring out the identity of various “presents” the game left lying around. It helped that it was meant to be played cooperatively with a friend, and if one player wandered away, the game would simply split the screen instead of forcing you to argue about where to go.
According to the game’s developers, we’ll know more in the next month or so, although one assumes the word “Kickstarter” will appear somewhere in that announcement. Either way, it’s nice to see such a quirky series make a return, and we’ll be curious to see what will change now that roguelikes are everywhere and games are finding more and more spacious niches to occupy.
Also, as long as they’re meeting strange Earthlings, we’d like to see what they think of Kanye. Hell, ask Kanye if he’ll be in the game; he’ll probably do it.