Collection essentials #591: ToeJam & Earl III: Mission to Earth (Xbox)

Here’s another one that’s on the list largely for nostalgia reasons. 

As I previously discussed, the second ToeJam & Earl game, Panic on Funkotron, was a childhood Sega Genesis favorite of mine. It took me a long time to discover that there were MORE of them! I can’t remember specifically if I found out about the original game or this one first, but I do remember seeing screen shots of this game in a magazine probably around the time it came out, probably a Game Informer. 

The series went on a long hiatus for a long time following the first two games. After skipping a console generation, work on a third game began on the Sega Dreamcast. But when that console died after a rather short time and Sega exited the console business, development shifted to Microsoft’s Xbox instead. It would hit store shelves in 2002, nearly a decade after the previous game. 

The original ToeJam & Earl had basically been a well-disguised dungeon-crawling “roguelike” game. The second game was a complete departure in terms of gameplay, instead taking the form of a 2D platformer. Since the first game was more well-received and remembered, that’s the one III decided to model itself after, and you can definitely tell at a glance. However, III does not simply clone the gameplay of the original with new 3D graphics, and it’s definitely its own thing. The “roguelike” aspect of the first game is pretty much gone, and now the structure of the game is like a more typical level-based, story-driven action game. Although they did keep the ability to play on randomized levels. 

The story centers around the eponymous aliens, ToeJam and Earl, as well as a new third cast member, a woman named Latisha. They come from a planet where “funk” is of the highest importance, and carries special powers beyond simply something stylistic. The head of planet Funkotron, the “Funkapotamous”, informs our heroes at the beginning of the game that his special set of 12 vinyl albums have been stolen and taken to the planet Earth, resulting in a crisis of funk. The trio must make an interstellar journey to get them back, and potentially “funkify” some earthlings along the way. As you might imagine, the story is not meant to be taken very seriously!

This game can be played by up to two players, who can choose any of the three protagonists, each of which has their own particular strengths. In addition, three bonus characters could be downloaded from the internet if players had an Xbox Live subscription back in the day. Gameplay involves roaming around the 3D levels, completing objectives and collecting things. The enemies in this game are various obnoxious earthlings who will try to harass the funky visitors from outer space. If they have the means, players can “funkify” them with various moves, after which they will no longer be hostile. Sometimes “funkifying” all earthlings in a level is an objective, but not always. Occasional minigames are also a part of the package, though I have to admit, before looking up the game online in preparation to start writing this post, I completely forgot that they existed.

The “presents” from the original game make their return, even though Mission to Earth is not a roguelike. Opening a present causes certain things to happen. These things are usually good, giving the player some kind of power-up such as flight, but they can cause bad things to happen too. If a present has been identified, the player will know what’ll happen, but unidentified presents are very common, so it’s up to players to choose taking a gamble on them.

A big part of the game is the humor, and whether or not you vibe with it will probably make or break the experience. The main three aliens are portrayed as rappers, what you might imagine a humorous caricature of African-American rappers might be like. Earl is a bit of a big oaf who doesn’t say a whole lot. ToeJam, on the other hand, is highly talkative, and extremely self-absorbed to the point of silliness. He wants Latisha to be his girlfriend and talks as if she already is, but Latisha with her attitude refuses to put up with it, which often doesn’t end well for ToeJam. In addition to our heroes, the earthlings can be rather wacky and have a bunch of voiced dialogue too. They say different things to different player characters, perhaps incentivizing switching up who you’re playing as. 

When I got my Xbox in 2004, this game was on my list of things to buy since I loved the second game. I have to say, age 14 was pretty much the perfect time for me to play it. I probably wouldn’t have cared for the humor very much if I played something like this for the first time as an adult, but back then I was receptive to it. I haven’t replayed the game in the more-than-20 years since!

ToeJam & Earl launched to mixed reception, and has a Metacritic score of an okay-but-unimpressive 71. When I looked at user reviews on Gamefaqs back in the day, I saw a lot of people giving it higher scores than that. And when I played it, I had fun and thought that critics had underrated the game. Nowadays, however, I think they probably had it about right. It is decent, and if the humor fits your vibe then it might be worth a look, especially if you have a friend to play with. It probably wouldn’t have made this list had I played it for the first time now as an adult, but given the nostalgia factor for me personally, it gets over the hump and earns its spot as an essential in my collection.