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"Even better than finding one of the little things in your apple...."

Earthworm Jim is a great little platformer that has a zany sense of humour (they've have a thing about cows, I mean they're good an all, but the implementations of bovines in this game is just ridiculous) and one of the most memorable heroes that you'll ever see. It curtails the story of a defenceless little earthworm that had an amazing suit dropped on him, transforming him into the mega spunk that everyone sees, he must save the princess from that evil Queen Slug-for-a-butt and save the day! A worm may not be the most ferocious of creatures but he's a pleasure to control and he'll entertain all comers to the game.

GAMEPLAY
The gameplay is done in the classic style of platforming with some fantastic innovative ideas thrown in for a nice little blend. The level design is awesome, lots of fast paced action and mindless blasting to please most people, there's a fair amount of baddies placed throughout the game to make it just that little bit more difficult. There's all sorts of shortcuts to be found throughout the levels to make your life easier and progressing through the earlier levels a lot quicker for the better players. A lot of the level designs are quite wacky, for instance in one of them you may be put on a bungie line and most beat a booger in a fight, it's ideas like this that make Earthworm Jim stand out from the crowd. In most cases there's a challenging boss fight awaiting you at the conclusion of each level, you'll be put up against some of the weirdest villains you're ever likely to see. Between each major level there's a race through a tube against ''Psycrow'', if you beat him you get to progress but defeat ensures a battle against this psychotic bird.
Jim has some fine moves at his disposal to make his way to the end. Of course he's got the usual huge guns to intimidate the baddies and blast them away, but he's also got this lovely whip movement. The suit reaches inside, pulls Jim out and will use him as a very lethal whip, this can be used for the disposal of foes plus reaching tough to get to areas by swinging Indiana Jones style. The weapons that Jim has at his disposal perhaps could have used a bit more variety, he's got the standard automatic gun that ammo can be found for all over the place, the only other weapon is a tough to find HUGE blast that will obliterate everything it touches. Two weapons probably isn't enough and is one downside to the gameplay (it's a tiny one nonetheless).
One bigger problem that Earthworm Jim has is the lack of an option to record your progress throughout the game. The levels can get pretty darn tricky as you get further into the game and a game over is a possibility at any time. This means that players will have to tackle the first few levels more times than they'd care to just to get up to their last point, this can cause quite a bit of frustration and boredom within the player as this becomes more of a common occurence and could have been avoided with the introduction of a simple password (thankfully this problem was rectified in the sequel) but it's unfortunately a big problem in this game.
Overall, the gameplay of Earthworm Jim is for the most part side-splitting fun. It does have some problems but they're few in number and won't affect most peoples playtime TOO much. Theres some fantastic features here in the game and the levels have been constructed beautifully, it's a pretty good package on the whole and will entertain the majority of players a whole lot.

GRAPHICS
The graphics are quite good, there is a lot of detail in the backgrounds and everywhere else. No only are Jim's general suroundings quite pretty but also way off in the background there's always some sort of animation or movement going on, it makes the screen come alive and there's never a graphically dull moment because of it. The colours used here are mostly dark and gloomy as a lot of the environments that the hero passes through aren't really the friendliest of places.
Jim and the rest of the characters have some amazing designs, most of the characters you run into are terribly imaginative and are a pleasure to view. There's a huge amount of animations performed here and a whole lot of them are quite funny. Everything is very smooth and the movement of everyone is very fluent. Jim always seems to have a different facial expression for every action you make him do or situation he's put in, if you keep him still long enough it's guaranteed that he'll find a way to entertain you and make you crack up in laughter. It was refreshing to see a character with that much appeal and charisma to him, it just makes the game an even bigger pleasure to have a go at.
There's some nice effects littered throughout the game, the lighting set off by his weapons is always a pleasure to view and there are quite a few other bits of eye candy that look just as good. The whole outlook of the game is a good and at times comical one, the use of farmyard animals is the best that i've seen in any game to date (i'm not just saying that :), it's got an oddball sense of humour that should appeal to most of you out there.
Overall, it's a fresh and original look. It had some of the finest graphics that i'd seen on my trusty ol' Genesis, it's generally always a pleasure to view as there is so much contained in it that everytime you play the game it's likely that you'll see something new. A polished performance in the graphics department from start until finish.

SOUND
The sound of Earthworm Jim is just as good as the graphical areas of the game are, it retains the same style of humour and general mood of the game that the visuals set and goes further to give the game a great character and some fine atmosphere. The background music is haunting at the appropriate times, and when the atmosphere is more cheerful it will perk up to suit the game. The background tunes are quite memorable and are definitely listenable, they're not too repetitive at all and don't assault a persons eardrums too much at all. There's a whole lot of comic appeal here, this best shown in the second level, it's a very barren and is representing the place best known as heck. The music playing is deep, scary music complete with accompanying screams that can send a chill down your spine, then suddenly a few minutes in the record is seemingly taken off and replaced with soft-playing, pleasant sounding music. It's ridiculous and typifies what EW Jim is all about.
Sound effects aren't too sparse and are of a fine quality. There's a fantastic little collection ranging from some fantastic gunfire to some oddball speech done in burping style, it ranges from the norm to the downright sick and sometimes it can be hard to draw a line between the two of them. The sounds have been selected perfectly for their action and never appear out of place, everything is done logically and the end result is an audio package of a high quality.
Overall, the sound section is of a superb quality and there's never a silent or inaudible moment throughout the whole game. Everything has obviously been selected with great skill as there isn't a single flaw or general problem to be found anywhere. It's a job done with class and it creates the perfect lighthearted mood and atmosphere for the game.

LIFESPAN
The lifespan is actually pretty good, the lack of a password system hurts but does not completely demolish the long-term playability of Earthworm Jim. There's enough variety and mirth offered by the game to keep the player coming back repeatedly for a fair amount of time, there's a lot of various hidden shortcuts to uncover and a good bit of time can also be spent performing this task. There's a surprising amount of depth here for a platformer and should take up a fair bit of your spare time before you finally tire of it and say seeya' later to the cartridge for good.

FUN FACTOR
The fun factor simply put, is enormous. It's one of the wittiest and comically superb games of it's time and will entertain the player seemingly without trying. There are a few areas scattered throughout the game which may frustrate whoever is playing the game but get through these and the rest of the game is pure bliss to have a go at. From the opening scenes right through to the completion of the game, you're guaranteed a good time from Earthworm Jim, there are few games of this type that will give you as much fun and merriment as this one has at it's disposal, heck, the manuals even entertaining reading...

CHALLENGE
The challenge is somewhere between medium and difficult, there are three levels of difficulty for you to choose from. Each increase in difficulty offers more enemies (they also get a bit stronger) and less of those helpful pick-ups that everyone loves so much, this isn't a really big difference and it means that the difficulty range is not as large as many other games perhaps have. The levels have a good learning curve for the first few, but can then suddenly turn a whole lot more difficult, it's not the easiest game going around and can prove particularly difficult to some of the less mature players. Finishing the game is a less than simple task and it will take a good player to complete the game.

OVERALL
Earthworm Jim is close to being an absolute classic game, noone can deny the appeal of the lead character and this is just one of many reasons why this game is so good. IT has a few downsides but these can be easily forgotten and shouldn't detract from the players happiness too much. There is rarely a dull moment throughout the whole game and there are some pure classic moments of gaming (who can forget their first cow launching?), it's a very solid game from top to tail and is one of the finest Genesis platformers ever released. It's got enough appeal to rival even the well-known Sonic The Hedgehog series, if you haven't tried this game on one of the many systems that it has been released for then it's an absolute neccessity that you do.
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GOOD POINTS
- A fantastic lead character, we all love you Jim!
- Superb level designs, built for some fine exploring
- Fantastic sense of humour in every aspect of the game

NOT SO GOOD POINTS
- I wanna password! I wanna password!
- An uneven challenge is evident in places
- I would really like a password......
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GRAPHICS - 9/10
SOUND - 10/10
GAMEPLAY - 9/10
LIFESPAN - 8/10
FUN FACTOR - 10/10
CHALLENGE - 7/10
OVERALL - 9/10

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 07/02/00, Updated 09/10/01