ToeJam & Earl

ToeJam & Earl takes place from a 3/4 perspective in a 2D game world. Its gameplay mechanics were inspired by Rogue, which has led it to be compared to genres like Roguelikes or dungeon-crawlers. The game contains both single-player and two-player cooperative modes. The latter displays a single screen when both characters are near each other, but splits it apart when they are not. Playing the game with two players reveals dialogue and jokes between the characters not heard in the single player game.

The game is set on Earth, which is represented by randomly generated islands that float in space, each one a layer above the last. They are connected by elevators. Some islands contain pieces of spacecraft wreckage, of which the player must collect 10 to win the game. The player character drops to the island below if he falls from an island's edge, which necessitates that the player again locate an elevator.

ToeJam & Earl has been called a surreal, comic satire and a "daringly misanthropic commentary on Earthly life". ToeJam is red and has three legs. Earl possesses a stout build, with a solid and fat physique, and is orange. ToeJam wears a large gold medallion and a backwards baseball cap, while Earl is marked by high-tops and oversized sunglasses; both outfits are "over-the-top appropriations" of 1990s urban culture.

Their speech features California slang. The game is set to a soundtrack which has been described both as jazz-funk, and as hip-hop. For the game's unique sound, composer John Baker was inspired by Herbie Hancock and The Headhunters.

ToeJam & Earl creator Greg Johnson became a fan of Rogue as a university student. After he left university, he worked on games for Electronic Arts, including Starflight (1986). After the completion of Starflight 2, Johnson conceived ToeJam & Earl—first the characters, then the plot—while on a beach in Hawaii. The idea was a combination of Rogue's gameplay concepts and a lighter version of Starflight's science-fiction themes.

Johnson met programmer Mark Voorsanger through a mutual friend, while walking on Mount Tam in 1989. He related the concept of ToeJam & Earl to Voorsanger, and the two resolved to make the game together. They formed Johnson Voorsanger Productions, and serious work on the game began soon after. Their status as commercial game designers allowed them to meet with Sega of America, and they used cards covered in landscape drawings to demonstrate their idea of randomly generated levels.

ToeJam & Earl received positive reviews, which Bill Paris of UGO described as "almost unanimous critical acclaim". However, Sega deemed it a commercial failure due to low initial sales. The game built a cult following through word of mouth, and it was further aided by the Sega Genesis's Christmas 1991 sales spike, caused by the release of Sonic the Hedgehog. ToeJam & Earl was later considered a "cult" success.

In the words of historian Ken Horowitz "In all, the game sold 350,000 copies for Sega, a remarkable feat for such an unconventional title on a fledgling console." Entertainment Weekly picked the game as the ninth-greatest game available in 1991, saying: "Simply hilarious, from the Warner Bros. cartoon-inspired sound effects to the rap songs players can improvise while using the control pad".

ToeJam and Earl became one of Sega's second-tier mascots, alongside Sonic, and one of the Sega Genesis's key exclusive franchises. The characters appeared in a spin-off light gun game, Ready, Aim, Tomatoes, developed by Johnson Voorsanger Productions as one of six mini-games for the Menacer 6-Game Cartridge. In early 1992, the developers began work on a sequel to ToeJam & Earl and spent three months expanding on the original game's concept by adding indoor areas and more terrain types. Sega was not impressed by the sequel and believed it to be unmarketable.

The team redesigned it as a platform game, as Sega were inclined to publish games in this genre. The game, titled ToeJam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron, was highly anticipated, and it was a commercial and critical success when it released in 1993. However, fans of the original game were disappointed by the change in design to a perceived generic style. Due to poor relations between Johnson Voorsanger Productions and Sega, which held the ToeJam & Earl rights until 1995, the ToeJam & Earl franchise was neglected.