ToeJam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron

ToeJam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron
System(s)	Sega Genesis, Virtual Console, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Steam, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch
Publisher	Sega
Developer	Johnson Voorsanger Productions
Genre	Action, Platformer
Number of players	1-2
Release Date	December 1993

ToeJam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron is a platform video game developed by Johnson Voorsanger Productions and published by Sega in 1993 for the Sega Genesis. The game is the second game in the ToeJam & Earl series. In this installment, ToeJam and Earl discover after returning to their home planet of Funkotron that a number of antagonistic Earthlings have stowed away on their spacecraft and are wreaking havoc across the planet. The player(s) must hunt down these Earthlings and trap them in jars before sending them back to Earth.

Plot

The game follows on the events of the first game, in which funky aliens ToeJam and Earl crash land on Earth. After rebuilding the Rapmaster Rocketship and returning safely to their home planet of Funkotron, the duo soon learn that Earthlings had stowed away on their craft and are now causing mayhem among the planet's citizens. With the source of all funk, Lamont the Funkapotomus, frightened away to another dimension, it is up to ToeJam and Earl to clean up the mess they've made and send all the Earthlings they brought with them back to where they came from.

Development

After the success of the original game, Johnson and Voorsanger began work on a sequel, spending three to four months building on the original mechanics. The plot of this prototype, initially titled ToeJam & Earl 2, would see ToeJam and Earl return to Earth to give a rap concert, but the theft of their CDs would form the basis of the game's treasure hunt. The game would feature more world environments and more default items for the characters to use all the time, but would only have fixed levels in order to provide more detail and secret areas.

In this original version of the sequel, which would have been a "roguelike" much more similiar to the first game than a platformer, it was concieved that the game would have a wide variety of terrain for the levels, be able to enter houses, players would even be able to build their own levels. However, this was scrapped.

Sega however conferred that they did not "understand" the game and though the "decision was still ultimately with Johnson and Voorsanger", the developer started work on a more generic side-scrolling platform game, a concept to which Sega had been more receptive. The increased size of the game's cartridge over the original allowed for greater graphical detail. The soundtrack, including the original theme, was remixed and given a more layered quality.

Gameplay

Unlike its predecessor, Panic on Funkotron is a side-scrolling platform game in which up to two players play as ToeJam and Earl as they travel across Funkotron to capture antagonistic Earthlings that had stowed away. Players accomplish this by using a radar to locate an Earthling's proximity (some Earthlings may be hidden in the environment) and attack them with jars in order to trap and collect them. Once all Earthlings have been found, the player can move on to the next level. Players can collect presents containing various bonuses, such as super jars, radar scans, and teleporting moves. Coins can be used with parking meters to trigger events in the environment or participate in minigames such as Jam Outs and Fungus Olympics. Players can also enter gateways leading to the Hyper Funk Zone, where the player must avoid obstacles in order to earn more presents. Hidden throughout the game are ten objects belonging to Lamont the Funkapotamus; collecting all of which will earn the player the best ending upon completion.

See also

• ToeJam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron/Achievements & Trophies

Links

• ToeJam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron at Wikipedia
• ToeJam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron at Sega Retro
• ToeJam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron at speedrun.com