ToeJam & Earl is an early 1990s dungeon crawler. The game features two alien rappers, who have crash-landed on Earth and parodies 1980s urban culture. The game's design was heavily influenced by the role-playing video game Rogue, and took from it such features as the random generation of levels and items. Played from a 2D-top-down perspective 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.

Two funk-loving aliens named ToeJam and Earl crash-land on a weird planet called Earth after colliding with a meteorite. Soon they realise that they’re dealing with a hostile planet, whose crazy inhabitants will do everything possible to put the harmless aliens six feets under. Aided by a few friendly Earthlings and random item-boxes spread around the planet, ToeJam and Earl start their adventure through 25 levels in order to find 10 pieces of their spaceship so they can get back to their home-planet Funkotron.