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Earthworm Jim Review

Howdy Star struck Gaming followers and welcome to another vintage game review, lets jump into our SSG’s time Machine and head back to August 5th 1994.

A worm from space!?

So your name is Doug TenNapels and you have an idea for a video game character which you present to a company called Shiny Entertainment the idea is a worm, I would imagine as that was announced the board members probably started to close their folders and put away their cheque books until the words ‘in a space suit with a machine pistol’ were added to the sentence. The board members sit back down and say carry on and voila Earthworm Jim is born.

Earthworm Jim was released to critical acclaim with some of the best graphics to grace the Megadrive at the time a combination of action, puzzle solving and humour was delivered in such a way it was almost impossible not to enjoy. The plot was simple make your way through various levels taking out any bad guy that was in your way. Then to save Princess whats her name and before you ask it’s not that I have forgotten her name but this was deliberately done by the developers as homage to all the throw away princess characters that have appeared in years of gaming.

Since when do earthworms use guns?

Taking out bad guys was an action packed affair with amazing sound effects I still to this day remember firing Jim’s little red machine pistol and being blown away by how it sounded, the music was brilliant and the comic style colourful graphics pulled you in to the world as did the bizarre occurrences that happened in the game one that sticks out was launching a cow off a see saw at the beginning of the game , not only could you blast bad guys you could pull yourself out of your suit and use Jim’s own body as a whip. Jim could also use his head to hook on zip lines and still blast away at all angles while in motion.

The levels in Earthworm Jim were in my opinion absolutely brilliant from Junk yards to underwater mazes to volcanic lands and a level called For Petes Sake to help a cute looking puppy (called Pete funny enough) across jumps etc and keep him from harm by whipping him to jump and dispatching bad guys before they hurt him fail to do this would cause Pete to turn in to a ferocious dog and bite Jim, there was also a level between levels as I can only put it involved being placed behind Jim on a rocket and avoiding asteroids on the way to the next level and there was a great Bungee rope section as well as you fell down a chasm tackling Major Mucus . End of level bosses were also a varied affair from Psy Crow a galactic bounty hunter to Professor Monkey for a head that created the suit, Evil the cat that collected various evil things from around the galaxy like Lawyers and elevator music!!!

Worm Vs. Slug

The last boss was Queen Slug for a butt the sister of Princess whats her name, the ending of the game also broke the mould * SPOILER ALERT* after defeating the Queen it seems that the Princess has little interest in Jim but this does not matter as the cow you launched in the very beginning of the game lands on her!!

Again as with console games the name of the games were points to accumulate continues and extra lives and with Earthworm Jim you really wanted to see what was next it was all so new and fresh you found yourself exploring everywhere for potential points to give you a better chance to see what was next. I remember being up to 3am on the day I purchased it and straight back on to it the next day.

The Earthworm Jim Franchise was also released on SNES in January 1995 shortly followed by a sequel which was also received very well, it was eventually ported to Gameboy and Game Gear but did not get positive reviews due to poor graphics and lack of buttons causing issues to the gameplay HD remake was made for the Mega CD with extra levels and animations this was probably the ultimate version of the game. In 1999 Earthworm Jim 3D was released for the N64 and unfortunately was a poor affair and was not rated well, it seemed the worm had finally turned. Jim was last seen on the PlayStation network on July 28 2010.

Star struck Gaming Rating

This is one of a my all time favourite games and I highly recommend it to this day, it takes a lot for a game to still be playable 21 years later but this is, search EBay rummage bargain bins to get your hands on this ground breaking game I assure you the few pounds/dollars you pay for this will be will be worth it.

4
Recommended

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