Earthworm Jim

"EAT DIRT!!!"

Who doesn't know Earthworm Jim? His sadly brief series marked one of the greatest achievements in the history of 16 bit consoles: a wonderfully entertaining game with a lot of crazy twists and unbelievble video/audio presentation. The first episode of the series was also translated to Nintendo's legendary portable system... was it a good idea? Hmm... well, yes but... well, read on!

STORY: 7
Yes, a worm ain't exactly the first being to come into your mind when you have to think about a hero, but wait, Jim isn't a normal worm... well, actually he is, but the nuclear powered suit he has found isn't. Now Jim can walk, jump, shoot with his lasma gun and use his head (well, actually his body) as a whip to dispose of baddies and swing on parts of the landscape. It's a very good plot, but unfortunately this game once again the damsel-in-distress thing so the rating goes down a bit (yeah, I'm mean).

GRAPHICS: 7
A mixed bag. It's apparent that the developers put a lot, really a lot of effort to make the original 16 bit graphics fit in this less powerful (and black and white) environment. The result is amazing technically, but flaws the game in other ways. For examples, sometimes sprites blend with the overdetailed background and the small size of the screen doesn't help you to find what you're looking for... on the other hand, the animations are great, and I haven't noticed any major slowdowns.

SOUND: 8
Most of the tunes come from the original game, which had a great sound! The music fits in very well with the backgrounds (don't miss the sample of Mussorgski's Night on the Bald Mountain in the What The Heck level), and is very catchy without being disturbing. The sound effects are alright and add to the atmosphere.

CONTROLS: 7
Very responsive. You won't have problems making Jim move. The real problem is attacking, as there is only one button available for both the whip and the plasma shooter. Thus you have to tap the button slightly for the whip and hold it down to shoot, but many times you will get the shoot when you were not meant to, and it can be annoying. Also, you can't select the type of shot you are using, you can only use it until you run out of ammo (there are only 2 types of shot anyway, but...)... which makes me wonder why they left that Game Boy button called SELECT unused in this game. So when you get a mega shot you have no way of spating it for later moments... and maybe you'll end up wasting it while attempting a whip attack. Too bad.

GAMEPLAY: 8
Yes, it's fun to play. You get 6 pretty long levels, each of them has its unique features and provides some good detours from your standard platforming experience (such as the pod ride in level 3, the bungee duel in level 4 and more). The game is full with hilarious twists: for example in level 2 (the aforementioned What the Heck, your classic fire and lava stage) you get to battle a snowman, while in level 3 you face an army of fierce cats who are controlled by a goldfish!

LASTABILITY AND REPLAY VALUE: 5
Sorry... not very good. Compared to the 16 bit versions, this game is way too easy. I finished it in 2 days or something, I recall, and it was the first port of it I had played. Sure, you will pick up this again due to its high fun factor, but it could have been longer. Pity.

STORY: 7

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 06/03/03, Updated 06/03/03