![]() ![]() Other than the slight change in controls, the game follows its 16-bit role model extremely closely, almost to a fault, in fact. Rapidly tapping the jump button makes Jim rotate his head wildly and thus float a bit, a skill highly necessary for survival during the last stage of the game. Button two is for the jumping and the “helicopter” maneuver. Also, the game can be a bit finicky in interpreting whether the player wanted to whip or shoot, which can be a problem in tight situations. ![]() This means, however, that shooting can only be done with a slight delay. Tapping button 1 now stands for a whipping attack, while holding down the button allows Jim to shoot. Since the Game Gear only has two of those however, the controls had to be laid out differently. Speaking of head- whipping, therein lies a problem of its own: On the Genesis, whipping, shooting and jumping were spread over the usual three controller buttons. Also, due to the different screen size and resolution, Jim fills a bigger portion of the screen, which may lead to certain issues. The overall visuals are a bit lacking though, since they are missing their backgrounds and some detail, which is most notable during the first and the last stages of the game. So, running, jumping and even head-whipping all work pretty well. But aside from that, out hero Jim moves and controls very fluidly, especially for a Game Gear game. Sure, mostly due to memory constraints, the idle animations as well as certain frames of enemy sprites had to be dropped. Would these elements make the transition to 8-bit intact? As the story goes, studio head David Perry himself promised to head the quality assurance efforts to make sure the port would be of the highest quality.Īnd to be fair, the game animates surprisingly well. Aside from the zany premise the key assets in Earthworm Jim’s success were tight and versatile gameplay, the amazingly fluid and colorful animations, and the great Tommy Tallarico soundtrack. Of course, this raises an important issue. So yeah, the game doesn’t take itself all that serious, but that’s part of its comic charm. Jim himself meanwhile sets out across the universe to meet the most beautiful creature of all, the lovely Princess What’s-Her-Name. Among his colorful foes are such characters as Evil the cat (ruler of heck, a place where people are tortured by demon specters, lawyers, fire-breathing snowmen and elevator music), The nefarious Space pirate and enemy to all earthworms Psy-Crow, Goldfish bob (who is literally just a goldfish) and Queen Pulsating, Bloated, Festering, Sweaty, Pus-filled, Malformed, Slug-For-A-Butt (or just Slug-For-A-Butt in shorthand), all of whom are after Jim’s power suit. In short, in Earthworm Jim you take on the role of the eponymous hero, an Earthworm clad in power armor, who rides through space on his trusted pocket rocket and uses a plasma gun as main weapon but can also utilize his wormy body as a whip. After making several game-of-the-year hit lists, it was pretty much a given that in order to capitalize on its success, developer Shiny Entertainment and Publisher Playmates would also port the game to the handhelds of the era.įor those who haven’t heard of Earthworm Jim, well, you obviously haven’t witnessed the nineties, so welcome to the site, kid. The action-platformer about an Earthworm-in-Power armor-superhero and his adventures in a zany universe turned out to be a hit across all the major platforms, be it the Genesis, the Super Nintendo or even on PCs running Windows 95. When Earthworm Jim hit the 16-bit machines in 1994, it was practically showered with critical acclaim. Publisher: Playmates Players: 1 Released: 1995 Genre: Platformer Developer: Eurocom Ent.
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