Gamers who grew up familiar with the phrase “Genesis does what Nintendon’t” likely have fond memories of Toejam & Earl and slightly less fond memories of its sequel ToeJam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron. The games saw a third sequel on the original Xbox, but it failed to capture the magic of that first game. Thanks to a successful Kickstarter campaign, one of the game’s original creators has another chance to do right by the series’ fans.
The campaign for Toejam and Earl: Back in the Groove launched on February 25 of this year, and at first, it didn’t seem certain that the project would attain its goal. With just under two days the spare, the campaign finally hit its target of $400,000 on March 25. At the time of this writing, the campaign has earned just over $430,000.
Toejam and Earl: Back in the Groove is a return to the form of the original in both its looks and its gameplay. Writing on the game’s Kickstarter page, Greg Johnson, one of the franchise’s original creators, says that the goal is “to make that ultimate ToeJam & Earl sequel that the fans have been asking for all these years.”
No release date has been announced, but the game will be available on the PC, Mac, and Linux platforms. Stretch goals to port the game to the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Wii U are set at $600,000, $700,000, and $800,000 respectively. While it seems unlikely that these goals will be reached this late in the campaign, one stretch goal — old school skins for Toejam and Earl — has been reached at $425,000.
Other stretch goals include additional zones, more playable characters, and guest composers for the game’s music. The campaign will come to a close on March 27, so if you want to back the project or increase your pledge, now is the time to do so. For a look at what’s in store, check out this video of a rough prototype in action.
