Earthworm Jim (1994)

Preliminary: Interesting. I always thought of this as an especially SNES game, but turns out it was developed simultaneously for Genesis and SNES. To top it off, most the levels were developed first for the Genesis, so looks like Imma have to do the Genesis version. I hope that doesn't deter my enjoyment of it.

Dang instant flashbacks with the music and vibe and title screen rigth off the bat. This is one worh having on the TV. This was one of those games I rented often.

The slight delay in controls and the level design so far are bringing down the great Look and Sound.

Ehhh, sadly, this is a game best left in memory. The Feel and Look are still great, and lots of neat ideas like the helicoptering head etc., but in reality, the Play just drags it down too much.

Look: 8/10

Sound: 7.5/10 Good tunes but some annoying overly repeated sound effects.

Play: 6.5/10

Feel: 7/10

Attachment: 7/10 Wont forget the game due to nostalgia but

Overall: 7.2/10

I've known about this for a while and decided to finally check it out. The main menu/intro looks promising and the art style and aesthetic is super cool and unique. Each different place in the game looks really different and weird. Earthworm Jim is a delightful animated actor. Also the music is really cool and I recognize at least a handful of digitalized renderings of Petshop Boys - Lets Make of Money and the like.

Unfortunately the good bits end there and what we have next is a real tedious game that makes you 'do it over' each time you fail. There are checkpoints within levels, which DOES help but it's really hard from the get-go due to slippy controls, unclear hitboxes due to exaggerated drawing on everything from Jim's head (in certain animated sequences) to bits of enemies, to spikey traps in the world itself. There are a lot of sequences in which you'll have to dodge shots in proper SHMUP contra-style and omg the nature of these drawn sprites with pointy asymmetric angles do not work well for that sort of thing!

Also your attacks themselves feel stunted or borked. I could never get the angle or the timing of the whip down. It's hard for me for some reason to actually get an angled shot in and not a vertical or sideways shot. The gun is super hard to control and it chugs through ammo at a Cookie Clicker rate of fire. You kind of have to spray in the general direction of the enemy and pray it works. Sounds cool but I strongly dislike it.

Jumping and landing on platforms isnt bad actually in EJ... what is bad is actually making sense of what's in the level (what can hurt, what can be jumped on etc) because the whole art style is mostly seamless and its going for a pure aesthetic over that of a functional design. (Which is totally the theme and idea of this game.) I guess what i'm saying is things don't stand out enough that should.

In the second area there are small hooks and things you can swing from if you whip them, and very small stone platforms you can jump on to get to higher areas.

So, I dont really like platform action games as a genre, i'm somewhat lukewarm on it. This game reminds me a lot of Aladdin, another much-loved classic with fantastic animation and all other good design bits, but aside from those design aspects didnt really have anything to offer me.

I think Earthworm Jim would be a game I'd like a lot more if I was a lot younger, and I might be persuaded to spend more time with it and practice, but I disliked the game enough (like Aladdin) to abandon it after 45 minutes or so in an emulator.

If you like platformers, you would maybe want to check this out, but to me it feels like the kind of platforming game that just isn't much fun to play by modern standards.

Stil looks really great though.

I'm trying again to play Earthworm Jim. I rented it as a kid and got pretty far on the SNES version. This time I'm playing the Sega CD version. Boy, this game is obtuse, even as a kid I wanted to love it, but the level design makes it frustrating until you get the knack for it. With the crazy art style I have a hard time determining foreground/background, picking out hazards, or finding stuff that can be interacted with or lead to secrets. Coupled with aggressive and challenging enemies and some tough platforming, I'm not surprised why I don't have many fond memories of this game. It reminds me of Rayman if Rayman had poor level design.

The main reason I want to play it is because I love Shiny Entertainment's crazy style. And I really enjoyed Wild 9 (except for the flying levels) and MDK.

As someone who has been keeping up with (what in my opinion is) the trainwreck that is the Intellivision Amico, I was curious when I saw one of the "exclusives" being peddled to this console the Earthworm Jim 4. When I think of games that are flagpole games for consoles, I think of Mario, Zelda, Spiderman, Halo. I don't think of Earthworm Jim. So I decided to give it another go. I pulled out my Genesis mini and played through this game that screams 90s all throughout, from the Nicktoons animation style, to the emphasis on gross-out humor.

The thing that strikes me most about this game is style over substance. It wants you to be awed by the animation and the "edgy" content. What you basically get is an above-average platformer/Contra-like shooter with better animation. However, it takes the difficulty up to the level of Battletoads. Unfair doesn't even begin to describe it. Maybe as a kid I had the patience for this crap, but now as a middle aged adult, if the challenge is so unfair as to make the game broken, I have little tolerance for it, especially when there are so many other games that are worth playing.

I know Doug TenNapel is a controversial figure, but if he wanted to make more money off of this extremely overrated series, he should skip the Amico and put out an Earthworm Jim collection for Switch, PS4 and Xbox. He'd make a lot more money off of it.

My opinion? Leave it in the 90s.

Many 90s games tried capitalizing on that decade's fascination with gross-out humor, but Earthworm Jim's one of the few that doesn't feel contrived when it does so. Its characters and settings are creative, bizarre and hilarious, with eye-popping colors and jaw-dropping animations for the time. Alongside its sequel and inevitable Saturday morning cartoon, this game was a part of my childhood and I'll always have a soft spot for it.

But the actual game design isn't my favorite. It's challenging to tell which portions of the (beautiful) backgrounds are interactive, or which frame of (gorgeous) animation will actually connect. I'd find this easier to forgive if the difficulty level weren't so far beyond my skill level: I never made it past Heck as a kid, and even today I must resort to cheats to see more than a fraction of the game.

Comparisons that I've seen made between the SNES and Genesis versions seem to match them up more or less fairly evenly. SNES has better graphics in some levels (like the first level with the sun). Some levels just seem to look different rather than better like the Peter Puppy level which has different color schemes between versions, making comparisons of graphics or styles a bit more subjective. The Genesis has an extra level but I honestly find it to be the weakest level in the entire game so SNES people weren't missing anything in my opinion.

But as someone who played the Genesis version and enjoyed it immensely, when I eventually tried to play the SNES version it immediately felt off and more difficult. It didn't take me long to realize that the SNES has a smaller screen resolution than the Genesis. Thus the field of view is smaller on the SNES and you see less of the level when compared to the Genesis version. For example you have less time to react when trying to jump over the trash can subboss in the first level. I'm amazed that the comparisons I've read have never mentioned this difference because I can barely tolerate playing the SNES version after having played the Genesis version multiple times. I guess if you played the SNES version first then this isn't really an issue.

As for the game itself, I've seen some reviews harshly criticize its levels and controls. Indeed there are flaws but nothing that you can't get used to after a bit of playing. For me the most annoying thing was the A button being used for both the helicopter head and shooting so sometimes I would land while in helicopter head mode and then start wasting some precious ammo. This is something that was fixed in the sequel when they changed up the controls and added snot to levels. I think the challenge is mostly fair and not outrageous. I've read that some people find it hard to tell which ledge you can stand or grab onto but I don't remember ever having this problem. For the most part I never found that the background graphics really obscured any things that affected gameplay much. Earthworm Jim even today still has some of the most creative level designs and hilarious details. It's a funny parody but also has its own unique flair.

I will grant that those submarine navigation sequences are annoying but with a bit of practice they are actually not that hard to pass through. What I find more annoying is the one too many repetitions of Andy's Asteroids. The racing is fun the first few times but after that it gets totally repetitive and tedious. I also find the final boss fight to be too simple and reliant on you having enough ammo to just continuously shoot the queen, quite disappointing in comparison to the other creative boss encounters.

Earthworm Jim, the special edition Sega CD version and its sequel have always been some of my favorite 2D platformers and it saddens me that is has fallen into obscurity.

Gameplay, Story and Value:

For the record, I played the "Special Edition" version of this game on the Sega CD. While I do own the cartridge versions of both games, the Sega CD version only serves to improve some animations and add CD quality audio, and does not fundamentally change the game.

I remember absolutely loving this game as a kid. I played it regularly on both consoles, and even watched that short-lived cartoon series. It's unfortunate, then, that my memories of the game don't quite translate to the reality of actually playing it. The platforming in Earthworm Jim is so close to being great, but ultimately feels imprecise and inconsistent. The controls are fine: you have a button for your whip attack, a button for your gun and a button to jump. What's missing is a button to swap weapons, which means when you find that shotgun or rocket launcher, you may find yourself wasting it on common enemies.

What's less fine when it comes to controls is how the behave under certain circumstances. For example, you can jump up and off of some lines, but only fall off others. This is particularly frustrating when there are items above lines you can only fall from. Hit detection can also be a major issue. Not just with actually hitting enemies, but with the platforms themselves as well. There's little consistency regarding at what point you're actually considered to be on any given surface. This issue can be further amplified by the fact that the game does not give you an invincibility grace period after taking damage. This means you can find yourself wildly flailing your whip or shooting your gun while an enemy who managed to get on top of you rapidly depletes your heath.

It's not all bad. When the game does come together it does so nicely. Jumping and bouncing, whipping and shooting, all has a great, kinetic feel to it, and taking out bosses and enemies can feel incredibly satisfying. The bonuses levels between stages are also a lot of fun. It's just too bad the game isn't a bit more streamlined to allow more of those moments.

Presentation, Music and Sound:

So the game looks amazing. Between the fantastic art and settings and great animations and sound effects it feels like you're playing through a Saturday morning cartoon. Even now the crazy style and humor holds up and it really is a joy to look at. Unfortunately, this style of level design also attributes to the above issues when it comes to platforming. Because of how everything is laid out and drawn, it can be very hard to discern interactive elements from background objects, or which ledges are able to be grabbed, or which ledges are ledges. Technical issues aside, it can't be ignored how good this game looks. Evil the Cat in the background of stage 2 is the best.

The music in Earthworm Jim is, honestly, forgettable at its worst, but phenomenal at its best. Stage 2 is another prime example of where it excels. The sound effects range from endearing to annoying. Hearing Jim scream "Groovy!" is an aural staple of my childhood, but I can only listen to "I'm NEWD!" so many times before it stops being cute... Otherwise the sounds are perfectly fitting and only further enhance the game's aesthetic.

Afterthoughts:

I was really hoping that by taking a closer look at this game, it would me reaffirm it as one of the era's platforming greats. Unfortunately, that just wasn't the case. Earthworm Jim is a classic, surely, but it just doesn't hold up in the gameplay department. It's still a game I value owning, and I hope my kids play it while they're young enough not to judge it. For me, though, it''ll mostly just remain a fond memory.

Review:

Gameplay: