Growing up as a genesis kid, ToeJam and Earl was one of my favorite games. While other kids were spinning tales about Mario and Zelda, I was inking crude cartoons of some odd hip-hop loving aliens from space. I remained unimpressed with their boasts of discovering ‘secret’ levels or flying across an entire level without touching the ground. They were woefully unaware of the panicle of 90s game design: finding pizza scattered across foreign landscapes and breakdancing for a psychedelic space lady.
As the years went on, I’d found every human there was to make contact with, every part of my spaceship, and helped ToeJam and Earl make their way back home. I’ve watched for years as other franchises tails continue to grow and other more obscure ones are revived. I never thought that one of my most beloved series would be rebooted, but here we are. The year is 2019 and the coolest MCs on the other side of the Andromeda galaxy have left their home planet once again. It’s up to me to get them back home.
Returning Tj and Earl to their rightful place among the stars sounds pretty simple at first. You run around a randomly generated map collecting money, interacting with characters, and finding parts to their spaceship. Each time you complete some objective or find an elevator you can proceed to the next level. In a lot of ways, it’s basically just an adventure game where you run around collecting items in a roguelike format. You’re not given many hints and the ones that you are given are typically obfuscated in some way. It can be a frustrating experience if you get tired of running into the same enemy that you can’t deal with, or if there’s one pesky item that you need but can’t find. However, for the most part, it’s true to the roots of what this series has always been: a chill game with some funny writing and zany situations.
If this sounds a lot like more of the same experience you remember from the 90s you’re right. Back in the Groove is exactly that: literally treading the same ground that its predecessor did decades ago. Sure it’s got new levels, Toejam and Earl have a new ‘washed up’ look and the jokes haven’t been told in exactly the same way before, but at its core, 
if you liked those titles in the past there’s fun to be had here. For those of you hoping that it would bring the game into the new millennium, you might be disappointed that there’s not more gameplay innovation here. Though, I have to say putting this title on the Switch helps it a great deal. The pick-up-and-play factor makes it easy to clear a few levels while riding the train or watching Netflix. Just don’t expect ToeJam and Earl’s groove to follow the beat of a different drum.