Epic Games Store is bringing two of the freshest space aliens from the 16-bit era back from the funkified grave, announcing ToeJam & Earl: Back In The Groove as its next free game hosted on the platform. As reported by Eurogamer, the duo's 2018 roguelike adventure will be available for free play starting October 13 and ending October 19.
Published by Sega, the ToeJam & Earl series kicked off back in 1991, during the days of the Sega Mega Drive. Sega clearly placed a lot of faith in the game, as the two alien protagonists were once considered secondary Sega mascots behind Sonic the Hedgehog. In a very '90s fashion, its stars were a pair of rapping space aliens who crash-landed on Earth and were tasked with retrieving the pieces of their broken spaceship. The original game in the series, and those which followed, were filled with humorous pop-cultural references, and while players were able to tackle the adventure alone, additional text-based dialogue would be viewable only in two-player co-op mode.
Back in the Groove marked the fourth entry in the space-faring rappers' portfolio, succeeding the original ToeJam & Earl as well as ToeJam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron, which also released for the Sega Mega Drive, and ToeJam & Earl III: Mission to Earth, which was playable on the original Xbox. Unlike its progenitor, Back in the Groove supports up to four-player cooperative play, although its gameplay elements an sense of humor were still made to reflect the original game in the series. Per the official game description on Epic Games Store, "ToeJam & Earl: Back in the Groove! is a mash-up of the very best features of the classic console games with a ton of fresh improvements."
Back in the Groove includes 49 separate achievements on Epic Games Store, including 15 hidden achievements, and players will be able to accumulate up to 1,000 XP for their profiles by completing all the challenges.
ToeJam & Earl's most recent adventure will replace Slain: Back From Hell and Rising Hell as Epic Game Store's free game, offering a more lighthearted free-to-play experience in the week ahead.