Earthworm Jim (video game)

For the series, see Earthworm Jim (series). For the TV series, see Earthworm Jim (TV series).

Earthworm Jim
Developer(s)	Shiny Entertainment
Publisher(s)	NA Playmates Interactive Entertainment EU Virgin Interactive
Designer(s)	David Perry Doug TenNapel
Composer(s)	Mark Miller (Sega CD version by Tommy Tallarico)
Series	Earthworm Jim
Platform(s)	Sega Mega Drive/Genesis, SNES, Sega Mega-CD, Game Boy, Sega Game Gear, PC, Sega Master System, Game Boy Advance, Virtual Console
Release	Sega Mega Drive Super NES Sega Mega-CD Game Boy Sega Game Gear PC Sega Master System BR 1996 Game Boy Advance PC (GOG.com Re-release) Virtual Console
Genre(s)	Platform Shoot 'em up
Mode(s)	Single Player

Earthworm Jim is a run and gun platform video game starring an earthworm named Jim in a robotic suit who battles evil. The game was developed by Shiny Entertainment, released for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis in 1994, and subsequently ported to the SNES, Game Boy, Game Gear, Sega Master System, and years later, the Game Boy Advance. Upon its release it was praised for its detailed animation, polished gameplay and surreal humor; it became the first game ever to receive a 100% review in GamesMaster magazine. A special edition of the game was released for the Sega Mega-CD which features a Red Book audio soundtrack, improved graphics and expanded levels [1], and an even further enhanced version with redrawn, 256 colour graphics and an Earthworm Jim desktop theme, as well as all the Mega-CD improvements, was released for Microsoft Windows 95. The Sega Mega Drive/Genesis version was released through Wii's Virtual Console service in Europe on October 3, 2008, and in North America on October 27, 2008.

Plot

The storyline involves many colorful characters. Jim himself (a character designed by Doug TenNapel) was at first an ordinary Earth earthworm who did very earthworm-like things such as flee from crows and eat dirt. One day, in the space above Earth, the evil Psy-Crow had cornered a rebel spaceship pilot who had stolen an "Ultra-high-tech-indestructible-super-space-cyber-suit" built by Professor Monkey-For-A-Head. The suit had been commissioned by the evil Queen Pulsating, Bloated, Festering, Sweaty, Pus-filled, Malformed, Slug-for-a-Butt so that she could further conquer the galaxy. In the ensuing space fight, the suit was dropped to Earth, and fell on Jim. By a stroke of luck, Jim managed to land within the collar of the suit, and it ended up mutating him into the large and intelligent (at least by earthworm standards) superhero he is today.

Jim overhears Psy-Crow talking to Queen Slug-for-a-Butt about the scorch marks left by the suit and her plans for her sister, Princess What's-Her-Name. Jim thus sets out to rescue the princess, fighting many enemies along the way, such as Major Mucus, Chuck and Fifi, Evil the Cat and Bob the Killer Goldfish, although none of this is apparent throughout the game.

Gameplay

The gameplay of Earthworm Jim is very bizarre, to say the least. Launching cows, using Jim's head as a whip, and other bizarre twists add to the insanity. The player controls Jim at all times of the game. In the level sections, Jim can run, use his gun, swing on hooks, and get powerups for the blaster. The in-between levels called Andy Asteroids place Jim in a semi-3D race against the evil Psycrow. If Psycrow wins, then Jim must fight him in one-on-one combat in order to progress. Throughout the game were many added features, such as mini-bosses whose weaknesses Jim would need to find through trial and error. Crystal treadmills, underwater pod races, and other related things also appear.

Like many other games, if the player leaves Jim stationary for an extended period of time, he will begin to entertain himself with various actions. These include: flexing the muscles in his body until his pants fall, which he promptly pulls back up; flexing his muscles so much that he blows up into a mass of muscle; throwing his gun in the air and catching it; throwing his gun in the air, donking him on the head; throwing his gun in the air and landing it perfectly in his holster, accidentally shooting himself with his plasma gun, leaving a face made of soot and two eyes wide open; the super suit removing Jim, using the worm like a skipping rope; singing "la la laaa" to himself, much like Toejam does in Toejam and Earl; and spinning the gun on his finger using the trigger guard.

Levels

Earthworm Jim in the 'New Junk City' level on Super Nintendo

New Junk City

Obviously a play on New York City, the opening level is a massive junkyard filled with trash. It is almost entirely lined with car tires and features a hidden toilet, several trophy moose heads and a conveyor belt with bowls of goldfish, bells, old television sets, faucets and witches hats. The level also includes possibly the most memorable and famous feature about the Earthworm Jim series: launching a cow into the stratosphere, one that would later haunt Jim. Near the beginning of the level, he comes across a fridge hovering above one end of a tree branch, which has a cow standing above the other end. He cannot progress until removing the fridge from the crane that holds it in the air. Upon whipping it or bumping his head into it 3 times, the fridge is released, landing on the branch and launching the cow into the sky. With a loud moo, a "Cow Launched" title flashes momentarily onto the screen and the level continues. Enemies in the level include worm-hungry crows that snap at Jim's head, junkyard guard dogs that try to eat Jim and two bosses. The mini boss is an animated garbage can with tires for arms and legs and a desk lamp for a head. It has two forms: car mode and human mode. While in car mode and stationary, it shoots anvils at Jim. It can also roam back and forth in an effort to run Jim over. In human form, it stands like a person stomping the ground causing tubas to fall from the sky. When first encountering the mini boss, a large "Warning" title flashes on the screen to prepare the player. And when he is defeated, a "Very Cool" title flashes. The final boss is the owner of the junkyard, Chuck. He uses an electronic clothesline with a large magnet to dump tubas onto Jim. But, rather stupidly, he also provides wooden crates that Jim can use to attack him, and when he does, Chuck coughs out dead fish.

What The Heck?

As the name implies, this level takes place in a Hell like planet called Heck. Jim must make his way through Hellspawn and eternal flaming damnation before he can progress to the next level. Assistance is provided by green stone-like spheres that are used to transport or elevate Jim to the next area. Enemies include lost souls that resemble floating, dog-like beasts and unscrupulous men in suits (possibly lawyers) who shoot paper from their briefcases. There are also several elements in the environment throughout the level that can harm Jim. These include sharp-pronged spikes, fire and fast-closing gates. Evil The Cat, who can always be seen in the background of the main level, is the boss, antagonizing Jim in several ways. Firstly, halfway through the level, he makes his appearance by blowing up a bomb causing Hell to quake, showering Jim with sharp pieces of stone. Secondly, during the boss sequence, he shoots fireballs at a suitless Jim (how he loses his suit is not explained). When he finally regains his suit, a "Finish Him" sign flashes on the screen, in much the same way as it does in the Mortal Kombat games and the cat literally attacks Jim left, right and centre. Evil The Cat has 9 lives and each must be killed before Jim can progress. The level also includes a mini boss: a snowman who belches fireballs and teleports in and out of the screen by melting and refreezing.

File:Level 3 Down The Tubes.gif

Jim rides the submerged glass watercraft to the next safezone in 'Down The Tubes'

Down The Tubes

This level is split into two parts. Both take place entirely underwater in long, twisted, oxygen-filled tubes connecting several rooms. Jim fights his way through various enemies that include pink, floating orbs and two enemies invulnerable to Jim's attacks: a large beast called Number Four who unleashes an awesome punch on his weak worm opponent and small orange cat guards who slam Jim on the ground back and forth. In these levels, there are several giant hamsters that Jim can ride. When he does, the player has control of the hamster and must eat the orange cat guards before they can beat Jim into submission. The main setpiece of these levels includes Jim riding around in a glass, underwater, orb-shaped watercraft. The player must guide the craft through the underwater caverns, avoiding the walls, as each hit will crack the glass and too many will shatter the craft, killing Jim instantly. There is a limited amount of air in the craft, signified by a timer that the player can see in the corner but there are some oxygen pumps throughout the caverns that increase the oxygen level giving Jim enough time to get his craft from one safe zone to the next. Part 2 of Down The Tubes was renamed "Pod Race" for the PC release. The boss at the end of Part 2 is Bob the Killer Goldfish. Before Anything But Tangerines in Earthworm Jim 2, this was possibly the easiest boss in gaming history, only requiring Jim to knock the fishbowl over to defeat him.

Snot A Problem

A level split in 3 Rounds, Jim comes up against Major Mucus, an evil monster made of green mucus. Together they bungee up and down a deep ravine with cliff walls either side of the screen above a pool of more green mucus where a monstrous alligator-like pet named Mucus Phlegm Brain roams waiting for dinner. The objective is to bump and grind Major Mucus (using either of the action buttons on the control pad) into the cliff faces, stretching thin his snot bungee cord before he does the same and rips apart your rope cord. However, he has two attacks: he too can bump you into the wall but he can also spin wildly out of control while bumping Jim for several seconds, tearing his rope even if he doesn't rebound into the wall. The degree of difficulty increases with each progressive round as Major Mucus becomes harder to manoeuvre into the walls. In addition, the, Mucus Phlegm Brain becomes an active enemy in Round 2 snapping his powerful jaw as you stretch at the bottom of the ravine (he only roams in the mucus pool in Round 1). In Round 3, he swims faster towards you and becomes harder to dodge. If he catches you in his mouth, it's instant death but if his bite catches Major Mucus, nothing happens. After 3 Rounds dunking your opponent into the pool, Jim progresses to the next level.

Level 5

Aptly named, the fifth level is set inside a futuristic-looking laboratory that is home to Professor Monkey-For-A-Head. It is filled with escalators, conveyor belts, electrified orbs and posts, teleporters and metallic walls and floors. This level has the most number of enemies fighting to kill Jim. They include green floating cycloptic aliens that explode into jumping maggots when shot, hopping brains, the Professor's assistant Monkey Professor-For-A-Head and floating eyeballs. The Professor also makes an appearance throwing beakers at Jim. Level dangers include the aforementioned electrified objects, other dangerous machinery and ravines. At one point, Jim enters a cage and is forced to fend off excessive amounts of attacking objects. Level 5 also includes the one other time (apart from the battle with Evil The Cat) where Jim loses his super suit, courtesy of running into several ceiling fans, and is forced to move as a lone worm. The suit follows on a conveyor belt below, waving frequently at the player and pointing at the neck hole advising Jim where to jump in. The end boss is the Robo-Chicken - half robot, half chicken. It lays explosive eggs and shoots other explosive objects that home in on Jim. By whipping a target, Jim is able to drop an object onto the chicken's head as a form of attack. After several hits, Jim and the Robo-Chicken are teleported to a bottomless shaft lined with spiked walls where they fall endlessly while attacking each other. Jim shoots at the Robot, which exposes a bomb that explodes in its face. After several explosions, the Robo-Chicken is defeated and Jim progresses.

Level 5 includes the least well-hidden secret level, Who Turned Out The Lights?. Set almost entirely in the dark, Jim must find his way to the exit doors in the darkness of several rooms, dodging the beady eyes of unidentified monsters with the assistance of the limited lighting generated by spotlights to the boss, the humongous beady eyes of another unidentified beast. It resembles a big cat like a tiger or lion and it is invulnerable to any of Jim's weapons.

For Pete's Sake

Set on a distant planet prone to several meteorite attacks, Jim is taking his innocently happy pet dog and best friend Peter Puppy for a walk. But without the assistance of a leash, Jim must guide Peter over ravines and shoot at attacking enemies to make sure that he has a safe stroll through the planet's harsh terrain back to his kennel. However, if Peter should happen to fall or be subjected to an enemy's attack, he will morph into an overgrown purple monster, grab Jim in his mouth, chew him up, send him back to a predefined checkpoint in the level and spit him out, taking a huge chunk of Jim's health with him. He will then morph back into his cute lovable self again and the level will continue. Enemies include shoddy-looking mini UFOs that spin Jim like a top, snake-like weeds that smack Jim and squeeze the life out of Peter, roaming robots that resemble satellites and the aforementioned meteorite attacks that include small, medium and large sized meteorites. As well as taking away some of Jim's health, the enemies distract him from his goal to keep Peter safe, which will result in his monstrous turn. The terrain includes many ravines, which require Jim to whip Peter over, sometimes while still in the air, and several see-saws and spring-loaded platforms that shoot Peter up, back and forward. When Peter makes it to his kennel, Jim has the option of letting him enter, or whipping him over it to continue the level in a much more difficult route. At the end, Jim has no option but to let Peter enter his second kennel where he waves goodbye to his faithful owner.

Intestinal Distress!

Jim is inside an unidentified body and must fight his way through several enemies to the boss level while navigating through various level-specific obstacles, most of which have no place inside a stomach, just like the enemies. Most of the roaming takes place on intestinal tracks but the level includes tubes, darkness and walls that Jim runs behind. At the end, Jim will confront Doc Duodenum, who has a habit of squirting bile out of his body (though in actuality, he's quite a neat and tidy individual).

Buttville

The final level is split into two uneven parts. The first (shorter) part, often referred to as 'Use Your Head', starts at the very top and requires Jim to use his helicopter head technique to float down through a maze of sharp-pronged spikes all the way to the bottom. There are several ways through (the first third of Part 1 has an easy and a difficult route, as does the final third) and the player can choose either way through. The middle section is a wide open space that is easier to navigate. No matter which path Jim takes, when he lands at the bottom, he is teleported to the second part of the level.

Set in the Queens lair, Jim fights to the Queen herself. He battles through various enemies, including hives that shoot out endless wasps until they are destroyed, little green bugs that dig their way out of the ground and scream incessantly, and a hidden insect who emerges randomly, slicing Jim in half and killing him instantly. He must also swing, jump and float his way through even more spikes that line the level. Towards the end, Jim happens onto a large grub-like surface and the player soon discovers that this is the rear end of Queen-Slug-For-A-Butt. A mini-boss episode ensues in which Jim must whip the absolute rear end of the Queen's butt until she screams and the floor crumbles. Following along to the Queen, Jim has to avoid more enemies and exploding bits of pus that rain down on him until he comes to the Queen herself. Riding along on a snot-covered platform that circles the Queen, Jim must shoot at her and the wasps she conjures up until she explodes in a mess of bones, blood and guts.

Andy Asteroids?

This levels appears after each of the other levels (although Down The Tubes Part 1 and 2 and Snot A Problem Rounds 1, 2 and 3 occur successively and Buttville is the final level except for the PC release which has an extra Andy Asteroids? between Down The Tubes and Pod Race aka Down The Tubes Part 2). Jim rides his pocket rocket through an asteroid field in a race against the nefarious Psycrow while dodging asteroids and picking up powerups that protect him or temporarily speed him up. There is a map meter to the left of the screen that tracks the distance between the current winner and loser. Upon winning the race, Jim advances to the next level. However, if he loses, he must engage in a battle on land with Psycrow before he can enter the next level. Each successive level of Andy Asteroids increases in difficulty: less protective shields, less speed boosters, Psycrow stealing speed boosters and more asteroids. By collecting 50 of the blue orbs, the player receives a can of worms (ie. A continue).

Psycrow

This level is only accessible upon losing to Psycrow in any 'Andy Asteroids' level. Jim must fight Psycrow until he chooses to surrender and fly away into the distance. A successful hit against Psycrow involves shooting him and then whipping him while he his dazed seeing stars. Psycrow's only method of attack is to shoot hooks at Jim and to ram into him. With each progressive level of an 'Andy Asteroids' race, a loss requires that Jim fight Psycrow for longer: he must sustain several more hits before he surrenders.

Cameos

Shiny have also made references to Earthworm Jim in its later titles; their game Sacrifice features an earthworm-like god called James, and there were additional references in the game MDK. Over ten years after its original release, Earthworm Jim was the featured game in Nintendo Power's first ever edition of Playback. On the PC CD-ROM version of the game there is an Assets folder, containing a PC desktop theme and another folder named EWJ_DT00. This folder contains a picture of a boy wearing a white Snoopy shirt standing next to a screen, the words "Tin with 1,000,000 points in Activision's Laser Blast, from 1982." written in white at the top. The remaining file is a wave file 26 seconds long of someone cussing while playing Earthworm Jim, with increasing frustration due to repeatedly "getting hurt" on the game.

Other

In 1999, Interplay had plans to make several of its games into movies, with Earthworm Jim being one of them. Since then, no movie was ever made.

Earthworm Jim 3D paid tribute to the original Earthworm Jim, by having Jim initiate a "Fridge Launch" in the first level, similar to how a "Cow Launch" occurred in the first level of the original. Unlike Earthworm Jim, which had a single cow occasionally fly by in the level background, five fridges were launched (six in the PC version). In the PC version, the first fridge falls on Jim in the intro (In the Nintendo 64 version, this fridge was replaced by an N64 logo). The other four fridges landed on characters just as Jim helped them out, with one fridge in each brain. Seeing the fridge for Fear is entirely optional. Humorously, the fridge in Fantasy missed its target, but a safe containing a Golden Udder inexplicably falls instead. The joke climaxes by having the final fridge fall on top of Jim in the game's ending.

Reception

Reception

Review score

Publication	Score
IGN	? of ?

Earthworm Jim was awarded Best Genesis Game of 1994 by Electronic Gaming Monthly. Earthworm Jim was rated the 114th best game made on a Nintendo System in Nintendo Power's Top 200 Games list.

Sequels

A sequel, Earthworm Jim 2, was released in 1995 for the Mega Drive/Genesis, Sega Saturn, Sony PlayStation, SNES and PC, and a port was later released for the Game Boy Advance. Although the first title retains the same platforming gameplay throughout most of the game, many of the stages in the sequel feature some bizarre twist or gimmick, requiring the player to adapt to a new control system. For example, one level requires Jim to burrow through dirt using his gun; another is presented as an isometric shoot 'em up; in another the character wears a salamander suit and must be guided through an intestine lined with villi.

Two further games, Earthworm Jim 3D (1999, PC, Nintendo 64) and Earthworm Jim: Menace 2 the Galaxy (1999, Game Boy Color), were produced without the involvement of Shiny and were met with mediocre to poor reviews. Earthworm Jim also starred as a fighter on Interplay's Nintendo 64 title, Clay Fighter 63 1/3 in 1997 and the Blockbuster rental, Clay Fighter 63 1/3: Sculptors Cut in 1998. In the original, Jim was a default character, however in the Sculptor's Cut, he was required to be unlocked. Also in the game, he and Boogerman hold a strong rivalry between one another.

An enhanced remake of the original Earthworm Jim (with a working title of "Earthworm Jim PSP") was planned for a 2007 release, but was ultimately cancelled.

On April 22, 2008 Earthworm Jim 4 was announced, though details are scarce and no solid platform or release date have been revealed.

See also

• 1994 in video gaming
• Doug TenNapel
• Tommy Tallarico
• Dave Perry

External links

• Earthworm Jim at Eurocom
• Earthworm Jim series at MobyGames