Earthworm Jim

"Groovy!"

Back in either 1995 or 1994 (I think 95) Shiny released Earth Worm Jim. A fun, imaginative, and funny game. The game was released across multiple systems and the SNES version happens to be my favorite out of the versions I've played.

-Story- Jim's story begins as Psy Crow chases down a rebel who has stolen the queens super suit. After killing the rebel the suit falls to earth and lands on a worm turning him into a super worm. When Psy Crow lands on earth and begins to shearch for the suit he contacts queen festering bloated slug for a butt and tells her of his progress and lets it slip the the queen is holding princess Whats Her Name hostage. Feeling like he wants to meet the princess Jim sets out to save her. But all the scum in the universe is now after Jim and the Super Suit.

-Gameplay- Some basic side scrolling stuff can be found in Jim but its done nicely. Jim has two attacks shooting his gun and using his head as a whip. To get through the stages you have to shoot and whip your way through encountering a boss occasionaly. But to make things inresting Jim has a race after each level, a level where you control a sub, a bungie jumping level a level in which you must protect Peter puppy from enemies and a level where you ride a hamster among other things. Its all very fun.

-Sound- EWJ also comes with some nice sound. It features some minimal vioce acting. Things like Jim screams things ''OW!'' ''WOAH!'' and ''Groovy!'' Some of the enimies also feature this vioce acting. A wide range of fitting Sound effects also graces Earth Worm Jim. The music is also quite good. Hecks music has got me a night on bald mountain interupted by elevator music all the time. Jim's sound is great.

-Graphics- The graphics are cartoony and feature a ton of animation an alot of things goin on. Everything animates very well with alot of personality. THe games look is varied some things are highly detailed with almost a three dimesional look to them and other things look flat and like cartoons its all done to great effect. Theres alot of hilarious idol animations for Jim that are one of the things that make the game so fun.

EWJ is a must play for anyone who enjoys action games. Its clever and provides hours of fun.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 10/29/01, Updated 10/29/01