Toejam & Earl Game

[shivvy]

I'm still trying to suss this out, but this time with a deadline of next weekend to organise it as a birthday gift for my sister ...
https://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Gaming/Question1705809.html

The 2 useful links that I have are . . . .
https://store.steampowered.com/app/516110/ToeJam__Earl_Back_in_the_Groove/

and
https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.polygon.com/platform/amp/reviews/2019/2/28/18243019/toejam-earl-back-in-the-groove-review

So what I need to know is . . .
1) can my sister play this on her Wii and if so,how?
2) can we somehow play it together even if I dont have a Wii - I could only really play it on a laptop?
3) what controllers would be needed to play it?

I really know nothing about this kind of thing but I'd love to be able to get it sorted so I'd love a bit of help.
Thanks.

[Buenchico]

From looking at your links, together with the relevant Wikipedia page and the game developer's official website
https://www.tjebackinthegroove.com/
it seems that the only Nintendo device compatible with the game is the Nintendo Switch, not the Nintendo Wii.

A quick look at the specs for Windows, on your Steampowered link, shows that it can only be played on a Windows machine that's got a dedicated graphics card (up to the necessary standard). Most laptops use 'on board graphics', where graphics handling is dealt with by the main processor unit, rather than be incorporating a graphics card. Only (expensive) gaming laptops have graphics cards built into them.

So it looks like you're out of luck on both counts.

Sorry!

[shivvy]

Ah no!
That's so disappointing. It is such and old fashioned and presumably low tech game that it seems unfair that old fashioned people can't play it.

[shivvy]

I went ahead and purchased the game and it seems to play absolutely fine on my laptop. So my sister should probably be able to play it on hers too which is great.
And I think I can purchase it as a gift somehow - also great.
It also seems that it should be easy enough to play with her online - though I haven't been able to test that yet.
So everything is going great so far!
However . . . I plugged in an old controller into my laptop and it didn't seem to work. I asked a question in the help section of Steam (where I downloaded the game from) and they said that it might need configured. What does that mean? Or what do I need to do?
Thanks for any advice.

[Buenchico]

I as going to suggest that, despite the theoretical need to have a graphics card installed, you might be able to run the game without one but I didn't want to risk you losing your money!

I know nothing at all about configuring controllers but there's a possibility that this might be relevant:
https://www.howtogeek.com/241421/how-to-calibrate-your-gaming-controller-in-windows-10/