ToeJam & Earl: Back in the Groove! Review for Nintendo Switch

ToeJam & Earl are back in the groove with their latest installment on the switch. Originally a classic Genesis game, ToeJam & Earl: Back in the Groove! by HumaNature Studios has been revamped with better gameplay, graphics, soundtrack, and a diverse cast of characters. The game’s theme is one of old skool hip-hop and has references to pop culture media that anyone can get behind.

You join the main characters; ToeJam & Earl, rumbustious aliens who are traveling throughout space with their friends. All goes well until they crash land on an alternate version of Earth all because your best buddy accidentally opened a black hole instead of turning up the volume.

So your pretty average Tuesday…

The goal of the game is to find missing pieces of your ship and put them back together so you can go home. You have to go through 25 levels of evading lawnmowers, the Spanish Inquisition, hula dancers, and more! This may seem wild but fear not because it gets even wilder for we have the power of Gandhi and Santa Clause to even the odds!

Gameplay: You have the option of choosing 6 starter characters and can unlock an additional 3 later in the game. Each character has different stats and abilities that you can use from the getgo instead of waiting to unlock them later in the game. The game also offers to play as the Old Skool versions of ToeJam & Earl which is pretty neat.

In order to beat the game you have a broad range of different abilities you can use ranging from speed, health, invisibility, and stealth; these abilities take the form of presents that you have to collect. You never know what presents you are going to get because they’re marked with a ‘???’ icon and that’s where it gets tough. The presents either give you good abilities like Hi Tops that make you run fast or presents that literally throw you under the bus and cause you to die; i.e like a bomb. There is no in between.

As you go through each level, the difficulty and number of enemies increase so be sure to keep presents on hand and use NPC’s like Gandhi to help you as they can cast a variety of protection abilities on you. The game is all about tactics so you have to plan your moves ahead instead of using all your resources so hastily.  Playing on Co-op mode would definitely make it more fun and easier to complete the game because then you’d have each other’s backs and will make for a wholesome bonding moment among friends because the game will get frustrating and you will want to make it through the levels as fast as possible. As an added bonus the game does offer rewards whenever you find a spaceship piece so if you’re low on health it’s best to get to those pieces as fast as possible!

Cons:  ToeJam & Earl: Back in the Groove! takes quite a bit of time to complete and can get frustrating because of the speed that your character walks at but it’s not too big of an issue compared to its predecessor on the Genesis. The Hyper Funk zone bonus level could have been styled better because the theme is off compared to the rest of the game and looks a bit choppy going through the entire level.

Overall, I give ToeJam & Earl: Back in the Groove! a 7/10 and would recommend it to anyone who likes out-of-this-world adventures.

Check Out the ToeJam & Earl: Back in the Groove! Release Date Trailer:

ToeJam & Earl: Back in the Groove! releases on Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC on March 1, 2019.