Out on Friday!

This seems to have been on its way forever, finally out everywhere on everything this week.

As I have lots of nostalgia for the original, which this is essentially a new version of, I'm hoping it's good fun.

I was just talking about this game with some co-workers today.

I’m prepared for it to suck.

Just the graphics and audio work...I kinda wish they mimicked the 16-bit style and dirty-ass Genesis audio. What they’ve been showing seems...bad. I don’t think that game can look or sound modern and still be cool.

I still love the first ToeJam & Earl, even if every sequel and spin-off was grabage...

Not available digitally for a bunch of European countries, including mine, which is pretty odd. Well, the PS4-version, that is. Could just buy it on PC or Switch, doesn't probably have crazy tech requirements. But I think I'll wait for the Quick Look.

@nutter, I hear you, it's a hard aesthetic to translate to modern games. Maybe like the Monkey Island remasters they could have had a button to switch to Mega Drive/Genesis style on the fly. But I'm setting the bar as a bit of co-op fun, and if it's anything better than that, then great. Co-op is where the original came into it's own, maybe this will too.

Plus the soundtrack, which is already on Spotify/Youtube, has all the classic tracks played with a real band, and it slaps. (Edit: Well there's synthesised instruments in there, but Iiiiiiii like it)

@simpo: Hmm...I’ll check out that soundtrack...I’m not giving into hope, yet, though.

Alright, side A works fine. Side B was alright, for the bit I had time to listen too...some of the trailers have been obnoxious as hell, so I’m curious.

So Macaulay Culkin is an executive producer on this game.

@flashflood_29: Can't escape Macaulay Culkin these days.

Alright, I got home late Friday night and managed to play the game for a bit.

I’m doing the tutorial world on the hardest difficulty (normal), and it’s Toejam & Earl.

It’s a little on the easy/boring side, and the stages are small, but I’m chalking that up to it being a tutorial. In any event, the music is great, the game is very much Toejam & Earl, and the art works better than even looking at a video prepared me for.

I still dislike the art, but in the moment it works. It seems to be a good call for the project. I think I’d still prefer something more lo-fi, but what they have all plays together nicely.

Looking forward to playing some co-op and playing the proper game with harder difficulty levels (and hopefully much larger maps).

I miss roads being a game changer while traversing a level...I hope I get that in the main game.

Just played a few levels (just enough to get a feel for it) and I'm really liking it so far. I wish the procedural mode was available from the start, as that's the real meat of the game, but that's a small complaint. This is a perfect podcast game (once I've had my fill of the excellent soundtrack) and that's all I wanted. A weird-ass roguelite that fell out of the early 90s and smacked a few modern game design branches on its way down.

@shagge: I played up to level 11 or 12 with my daughter. Once we made it to level 10, we unlocked unlock random (the real game).

Oh, good! That won't take long. I thought I'd have to finish the run first.

I'm glad this exists for fans of the original. I wanted to like it back in the day but could never really get into it. In retrospect, the concepts could be viewed as ahead of their time.