Earthworm Jim HD - Review

EWJ lead

During the 16-bit gaming era, Shiny Entertainment'south Earthworm Jim made quite a splash. Information technology boasted very unusual character designs, an off-beat sense of humor, and excellent graphics and sound. It was likewise frustratingly hard, just then were a lot of games back and so. Earthworm Jim was such a success that it spawned a few sequels and its own cartoon series.

Fast-forwarding several years, Gameloft - the developer/publisher known for producing mobile clones of popular console franchises – has brought the original Earthworm Jim to Windows Telephone as an Xbox Live title. Is Earthworm Jim yet every bit groovy as he ever was? Yes and no. This version is pretty crude around the edges thanks to some poor blueprint decisions from the 'loft.

Swing past the jump for our in-depth review.

From the ground he did grow…

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Earthworm Jim has always lacked an introductory picture palace, only the original education manual explained the hero's origins. A stolen super-powered spacesuit falls to the earth and lands on an innocent earthworm, producing Earthworm Jim (or EWJ as I like to call him). The evil Psy-Crow is in pursuit of the suit; he works for the evil Queen Slug-for-a-Butt. The villains kidnap Princess What'due south-Her-Name and plan to take over the universe. Jim must stop them and save the princess.

Earthworm adventures

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Earthworm Jim is an activeness-platformer. Jim runs and jumps across expansive levels, but that'due south not then unusual. What really makes Jim stand out is his earthworm head: he can employ it to whip enemies, swing from hooks, hang from bondage and similar overhead objects, and float around like a helicopter.

EWJ doesn't just attack with his caput, though. He carries a rapid-fire pistol to dispatch long-range threats. Ammo is limited but players offset with a thousand bullets and ammo refills are strewn liberally virtually most levels. Jim can as well find Mega Blaster shots here and there. They kill most enemies in 1 shot. Nevertheless you simply become one shot per pickup and you lot tin't choose to switch to the regular gun and save Mega Blaster Shots for later, then information technology'due south tough to conserve them for tougher enemies and bosses.

An odyssey of levels

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Possibly the most unique thing well-nigh Earthworm Jim are its levels. They all expect completely dissimilar from each other and many have gimmicks that dramatically change how the game is played.

New Junk Metropolis: The offset level takes place on a behemothic garbage dump world with a distinctive greenish, chocolate-brown, and purple color palette. Set pieces include mounds of tires that bounce Jim effectually, a conveyor belt to climb while avoiding falling trash, and a cow that Jim launches into space by shooting downwards a refrigerator – continue an eye out for the cow in the game's ending.
Andy Asteroids: These 3D bonus levels closely resemble the bonus levels of Sonic two and take place later every normal level. Jim rides his rocket scooter through wormholes in infinite, collecting bubbles and dodging oncoming asteroids. In the mobile version, players steer by tilting the phone. Information technology actually works pretty well, though I couldn't tell exactly how to manually accelerate. Unfortunately it's often hard to meet oncoming asteroids and find a clear path due to their small size and the crummy perspective. These races get really tough eventually, though it's but a big deal for Achievement hunters as you don't actually die for failing them.
Psy-Crow: Take likewise many hits during Andy Asteroids and Psy-Crow wins the race. He and then challenges Jim to a ane-on-one boss fight against a space backdrop. Stun him with bullets and then score hits with caput whips to win.
What The Heck?: The requisite fire level looks and feels rather hellish. The dominate, Evil the Cat, dances effectually in the background as Jim dodges waves of fire and evil Insurance Salesmen. Just before the snowman mini-boss, there is a hook under the ground that savvy players tin can use to swing below the mini-boss and skip the boxing.
The true boss, Evil the Cat, is annoyingly hard to fight. He jumps down at Jim from one of three directions overhead. This version of the game doesn't give you enough time to spot Evil before he attacks, so information technology becomes a guessing game of shooting and hoping for the all-time.
Downwards the Tubes: This undersea lab consists of two portions. The first involves a lot of hiding from bruiser cats by clinging to ceilings equally they pass beneath (a fleck tough thanks to this version's shoddy controls). Riding on giant hamsters that tin can bite enemies is one of the level'southward highlights.
The 2nd portion involves steering a submarine around a maze with very limited air. Information technology's possible to refuel the submarine's air at certain points though it requires needlessly precise positioning. The phase culminates with a fantastically short boss fight against Bib the Killer Goldfish.
Snot a Problem: This level consists of nothing but three rounds of bombat bungee jumping against Major Muccus. If Jim slams the Major into the wall enough times, his snot bungee will break and Jim wins the round – the reverse also applies. At the bottom of the snot pit is a mucus monster whose jaws mean instant death.
Level 5: From here on out, the mobile version of the game tends to exist more frustrating than fun. This factory level requires a couple of precise head-swings which are maddeningly difficult to perform due to the game's bear upon screen controls. At several points Jim separates from his suit and must navigate deadly conveyor belts before returning to it.
Professor Monkey-for-a-Head pops up to attack mid-level, though mercifully the function where he throws bombs at Jim on a conveyor belt has been removed from this version. Instead of fighting the professor as a dominate similar one would expect, Jim battles a robot craven both on the footing and in free-autumn.
For Pete's Sake: Earthworm Jim is the first platform game I know of to characteristic an abrasive escort mission. Jim must help Peter Puppy return to his home by knocking him beyond gaps with head whips and killing enemies. If Peter falls in a pigsty or gets hit by an enemy, he hulks out and drags Jim back a screen or two. The player often has to knock Peter from platform to platform with trivial or no fourth dimension for error. This level but goes on and on and is no fun at all.
Abdominal Distress: Jim ventures inside a behemothic creature or something while dodging brown boulders and killing flying fish. Annoyingly, at that place is only ane mid-level checkpoint and it's possible to reach the boss, Doctor Duodenum, without even finding it, and then try not to die. Not a horrible level, simply it's like shooting fish in a barrel to see why it was cut from the Super NES version.
Buttville: This level starts out with ane of the nigh frustrating, least fun segments in all of video gaming. Jim has to helicopter down a narrow path of spiked walls. Touching the spikes (on Original difficulty) kills Jim in two or three hits. The mobile version places Jim so far downwards on the screen while helicoptering that the role player has almost no time to see oncoming spikes and react to them – an unforgivable development mistake. It took me over an hour of repeated tries and swearing to reach the end of the relatively short path.
The rest of the level consists mostly of normal platforming. It culminates in a mini-boss fight confronting J. Alfred Maggot and terminal boss Queen Slug-for-a-Barrel, who is surprisingly easy after such a tough level start.

Programming for dummies

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Some patience is required to bask the Windows Telephone version of Earthworm Jim. First off, the frame rate is rather clunky for no discernible reason. Even the credits whorl poorly. It's off-putting just you do become used to it. Oh, and even though the game is called Earthworm Jim Hd , the graphics are clearly based on the 16-scrap versions and not the Xbox 360 HD remake.

Worse are the game'due south horrid impact screen controls. The virtual pad/stick is placed besides far from the edge of the screen and can't be moved. Every bit a upshot, I frequently hit diagonally down while trying to move Jim right or left. There are three action buttons on the right side of the screen: head whip, pistol fire, and jump. Head whipping at the tiptop of a jump is often required in order to swing across gaps. Unfortunately the maneuver is way likewise hard to do here, adding unintended claiming to the game's levels.

Tougher than a tin can of worms

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Earthworm Jim has ever been a tough game. Gameloft sort of realized this and added three easier difficulty levels in add-on to Original difficulty. Like shooting fish in a barrel is a big improvement as enemies do far less damage than normal and the game auto-aims Jim'southward attacks. Unfortunately, the Hard and Original difficulties each have their own Accomplishment, so completionists will have to suffer through them instead of sticking to Easy.

Achievements

EWJ race

Map courtesy of VGMappper.com.

Gamers should earn about half of EWJ'southward Achievements past beating the game on any difficulty. Several poorly conceived Achievements require actress effort though. A truthful hero never dies requires the histrion to shell the unabridged game in a single play-through without dying. Forcing someone to play a phone game for several hours at a fourth dimension is rather inconsiderate, but at to the lowest degree y'all tin pause and restart a level if you lot die and still get the Accomplishment. Star Ruler is similar in that Jim must win every single Andy Asteroids race, and you can restart them if it looks like y'all're going to lose.

Difficult work and Never give upwards! Are the two toughest Achievements, as players must beat the game on both the Hard and decidedly non fun Original difficulties. It will take at least three total play-throughs and tremendous dedication to 200/200 this game.

Overall impression

Gameloft seemingly did everything they could to ruin this version of Earthworm Jim. Information technology runs very poorly and the affect-screen controls are every bit bad as it gets. It feels like the game wasn't tested on bodily Windows Phone hardware prior to being released. The add-on of easier difficulties is welcomed, merely the evil Achievements still brand y'all play the harder difficulties.

Despite the bad port (and the too-high $4.99 price tag), Earthworm Jim on Windows Telephone is kind of fun. Inventiveness and personality abound, the graphics are sharp (except for the frame rate), and the music, sound effects, and voice samples all charm. If you tin get past Earthworm Jim'southward controls and difficulty, the core game is still pretty corking.

Earthworm Jim costs $4.99 and there is a free trial. Take hold of it hither on the Windows Phone Store.

Update: As of April 2022, the game now costs merely 99 cents!

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