Earthworm Jim

"A real disappointment, it could have been so much better."

Earthworm Jim was a title released for the SNES/Genesis way back in 1994. It quickly became known for it’s originality and strange sense of humour and quickly became a classic. Game Titan & Majesco ported this Interplay game over to the GBA, with some rather disappointing results.

Graphics 8/10

Well, this is pretty good. The characters and backgrounds look a lot like they did in the SNES version. The only problem is the choppy animation that can get a little distracting after a while. Another problem is the collision detection, I literally aim my gun a centimetre away from the enemy and don’t hit him (this only seems to happen when you aim diagonally). This gets really aggravating after a while.

Sound 8/10

Wow, the music & sound effects carried over here quite well. Though they do sound a little teeny on the little speaker, they still sound like their SNES counterpart. Jim’s voice still sounds the same and really brings back a lot of good memories for me. It’s really amazing how the music hasn’t changed all that much and fits the levels quite well.

Control 6/10

The biggest problem I have with the controls is the little lapses in between the buttons. When you’re firing your gun and quickly go to jump, it’ll literally take a whole second for Jim to switch over to jumping. This is annoying during boss battles where you have to jump over the boss at times. Also it’s a little hard to aim your gun at enemies and actually shoot them since the collision detection is a little off. Other than that, Jim handles OK.

Gameplay/Replay 3/10

Sadly, this is the part where the game stops: There is no save feature. Even a little password function would have done this game good, but alas, there is none. I can’t play a GBA title long enough to completely pass this game and I’m sure there’s not many that really can. This hurts the game bad. It still plays like it’s SNES counterpart however, it’s fun and nostalgic to play all those old levels again.

Final: 5.6
Rounded Off: 6/10

Bottom Line

I would avoid this one, it’s really not worth the money or frustration. If you were a big fan of Jim back in the day, then you may want to rent this first, to see if you like it. I’m really disappointed with this one, it could have been so much better if it had a proper save feature.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 05/27/02, Updated 05/27/02