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Earth. What a bummer. When ToeJam and his obese pal Earl crashed there back in 1991, it was all they could do to escape. Their spaceship had been totalled after an argument with an asteroid, and the opera singers, mad doctors, bogeymen and ice cream vans of Earth generally made life quite difficult. But they got away.

Little did they know that they'd picked up some groupies, who clung to the outside of the spaceship as they blasted off. They only realised what had happened after they arrived back on Funkotron, and found middle-aged women with poodles terrorising the three-natives of the funkiest planet in the galaxy. The tourist influx threatens to create a massive credibility gap, which every funk scientist knows is a most dangerous phenomenon. So get these people on the first flight home!

You're my best mate, right? ToeJam & Earl 2 is a bit of a social experience to play, since it's much better with two at once. The action is maintained on a single screen, which means one of the characters occasionally goes out of view. Both have separate scores, but teamwork is definitely the order of the day.

1. Funk Move The funk move allows either character to become a mere squidge of himself and move through solid objects, allowing him to escape tricky situations and reach remote bonuses.

2. Funk Scan The funk scan allows the pair to view the strange alter-reality of Funkotron. Use at any point to see what hidden bonuses are sitting in the scenery, or even secret pathways.

Occasionally the fabric of Funk rips a little, and a gateway to the Hyperfunk zone emerges. Jumping into this gives the character the chance to amass loads of bonuses, but it's against the clock, and the funk move must be used to avoid the pathways back to reality.

There are two other abilities open to ToeJam and Earl. The first of these is the panic button. Each one of these grants a short period of total madness, with the characters running around, throwing jars in all directions.

In Panic Mode they cannot be harmed - useful if you're surrounded. The Funk Vacuum is a way of drawing any extra funk that may be in out-of-the-way places.

The earthlings are running amok across Funkotron, and are too dangerous to travel freely. They must be contained in preserving jars. Striking earthlings with a few jars is enough to contain them. However, trapped 'lings should be collected before they escape the pickle they're in.

Both characters are jam jar sharpshooters. The D-Pad offers some fine-tuned throwing. Jars may be tossed vertically, thrown low, hurled down from mid-air, or even laid as traps. Special mega-jars are available, that can ensnare a foe in one impact.

Funkotron is a dense place, for dense people. Look in the undergrowth and you'll find all sorts of goodies. Trees and bushes may contain bonus gifts (funk, points or money) and rocks may hide bushes. There are also some other recurrent landscape features:

1. Buttons
   It's hard to be precise here, as pressing a button can do one of many things, usually nice. Sometimes all that happens is another button appears!
2. Parking Meters
   Much litle buttons, but these cost money. (See Fungus for an extra meter function.)
3. Houses
   The inhabitants of Funkotron are a bit miffed that you brought the earthlings, but call them in and they may give you some help.
4. Fungus
   Fungus is bouncy, allowing the heroes to reach high places if you keep tapping the fire button. If there is a meter beside the fungus, you may pay to enter a trampolining contest. Such contests are adjudicated by a panel of judges!
5. The Big Blue
   Undersea waterways are an important part of the game. Both characters have limited airtime, which may be extended by giving a fish a good suck!
6. Water Fountains
   Truly, founts of wisdom. By approaching these you get a mouthful of advice.

ToeJam and Earl featured some outrageous inhabitants of the home planet, but the visitors to Funkotron are even fruiter. Read in disbelief a selection of their case-notes.

1. My Little Ponytail
   This minx likes nothing better than to taunt you, then stamp on your foot and kick your shins. She also loves to play hide and seek.
2. Bad Fairy
   She's the granny of one of the Red Arrows. While not performing death-defying loops, she's dropping laughter bombs, leaving the pair in stitches.
3. Bogeyman
   The bogeyman featured in the original, and he's a scary nuisance. His party trick is to sneak up, leap out and scare the All-Bran out of you.
4. Cow Ghost
   The vengeful spirit of a dead freisian is a chilling sight. From beyond the Outer Limits of dairy farming, she swoops down to possess your soul in a whole manner of unpleasant and often cheesy fashions!

The jam sessions are a cool part of the game. Find one of your pals with a deck and they'll beat out a rhythm for you. Hit it out with the joypad's beatbox sounds and you get rated from 'lame' to 'awesome'.

The arrow at the bottom of the screen acts like an Earthling radar. A pink arrow leads you to the nearest renegade, and a flashing button means that they are very near. Once the green arrow appears, head for the launch pad, that sends the jars homeward, and catapults you to another part of Funkotron.

ToeJam and Earl previously starred in a zany Megadrive game of 1991. ToeJam & Earl 2 takes a new approach to gameplay.

Search each level for hidden earthlings. Jar these and send them back in the rocket. Keep eyes peeled for secrets.

Video games are rarely funny, and that's what made the original ToeJam & Earl stand out. Thankfully, this sequel is even funnier, with cleverer jokes, some really bizarre concepts and great effects.

Even better, it's a much superior game. Okay, it looks like "just another platform game", but I've lost track of the amount of original gameplay features. Catching the earthlings in jars is tricky because it's so unpredictable, so you won't suss out the game quickly. There are even special techniques that work on certain earthlings, like the photographers.

It's also loaded with secrets - passages, gifts, characters and the hyperfunk zone. The standard of presentation is exceptional, with fabulous backgrounds and animation, and stunning sound. The music is seriously stereophonic and the samples are brilliant - just hear the ghost cow!

This is without doubt a completely classy megagame, and not just for platform fans.

Well, here's a surprise - a platform game that oozes originality! As Gus says, there are loads of decent original features packed into the game that make it an instant classic. I particularly like the jam sessions with ToeJam and Earl's funky pals.

Everything about this game is slick and classy. The graphics are absolutely superb. They're all brilliantly defined, there are huge sprites and everything is decked out with vibrant colour schemes. The sound is similarly brilliant with astounding samples and amazing music.

Brilliant to play with either one or two characters, ToeJam and Earl is an excellent title and one well worth picking up upon its New Year release.

Presentation 93%
P. A password system, a great two-player mode, a kiddies' mode and the option of hints on or off. Superb in-game presentation.

Graphics 94%
P. Funkotron looks like a wild place, and the earthling mickey-takes are fab. Amazing psychedelic patterns.
N. All that colours brings on eyestrain!

Sound 95%
P. Brilliant. God knows how many megs of memory used for hilarious samples and a stream of laid back tracks.

Playability 92%
P. The game gets stuck in from the first moment of scene one. There's something new at every turn. There's a great balance between satisfaction and frustration.

Lastability 89%
P. The game area is massive and the game gets really demanding.
N. With a password and continues, committed players soon crack it.

Overall 91%
A sequel that completely outshines the original. The wittiest game on the Megadrive and breathes fresh life into the platform game genre...