045PREVIEW
“GREG JOHNSON
RETURNS TO CRAFT
THE WORLDS OF BACK
IN THE GROOVE!,
WHICH MEANS THIS
IS A PROPER SEQUEL.”
Above Two-player split-screen is the best way to play ToeJam & Earl. Above The side-scrolling HyperFunk Zone from Panic On Funkotron returns.
Baseball cap turned backwards. Check.
White vest? Check. Oversized gold
chain? Absolutely. You, lovely reader,
are ready to travel back to the ’90s and
embrace the funky vibes of this classic Sega Mega
Drive hit reborn on PS4.So what’s the dillio? The big news is that the original
game’s co-creator, Greg Johnson, returns to craft the
worlds of Back In The Groove!, which means this is
a proper sequel. The aim, says Greg Johnson, “was to
capture the spirit of game one, and everything that
was best about game two, and then add a whole new
set of features”.
This means the same roguelike map-crawling
anchors the game, but it’s now compounded by
new ideas we’ve come to expect on PlayStation 4,
including dialogue choices. Explaining how Earthlings
you meet will treat you differently depending on
what you say to them, Johnson says: “They might
say “hey can I have a buck” and if you give them one,
they might do something nice for you, or, if you say
“no”, you might find yourself suddenly on rocket
skates shooting across the level and over the side.”
With new and classic characters to unlock, a new
Hard Mode – “very intense,” says Johnson – and
31 classic music remixes and new tunes to discover- “I’m never getting off the funk train,” quips the
dev – plus returning and original minigames to play
(which reward you with new gear and abilities), Back
In The Groove! should be ‘all that with cheese’.
The underground ‘comix’
style design by Nathan
Shorts is pure 90s gold.Each of the nine old and
new characters has a
unique set of skills to
Above Enemy types have been updated, and now include the Internet Troll, the combine in co-op play.
Selfie-woman, and the Clipboard Volunteer. It’s a satire, you have been warned.
TOEJAM & EARL:
BACK IN THE GROOVE!
Whassup? The ‘90s, that’s whatFORMAT PS4 / ETA 1 MAR
PUB HUMANATURE STUDIOS / DEV HUMANATURE STUDIOS