New ToeJam & Earl game, 8Bitdo controller get Genesis nostalgia right [Updated]

Enlarge / The 8Bitdo M30, posed next to a pair of Toejam and Earl figurines that shipped to select Kickstarter backers. (credit: Sam Machkovech)
Roughly a week ago, two bulletins landed in my inbox from companies eager to capitalize on Sega Genesis nostalgia. I nearly shrugged them off, since neither actually came from Sega. But their coincidental, nearly simultaneous appearance triggered a wave of '90s nostalgia that made me bite.
The result has been a solid few days back in my early-'90s childhood, as if I were firmly planted in front of a massive CRT TV with some of my favorite games of the era. (If you're wondering: this '80s-kid author absolutely had a lengthy 'Genesis does what Nintendon't' phase.) My recent feeling may have emerged, in part, because Sega's current handlers left Genesis fans out to dry during the tiny-console fad. The less said about the AtGames Genesis Flashback—an atrocious cash-in that followed the NES Classic—the better.
But this week's one-two punch of releases was just what I needed to wash a foul taste of wasted nostalgia out of my mouth: the 8Bitdo M30 gamepad and the new game Toejam & Earl: Back in the Groove. Both feel a whole lot like 1992: hardly revolutionary in modern terms, yet somehow packed with that singular, early-'90s feeling of new, refreshing ideas around every corner.
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