Earthworm Jim scores 8/10 in the verdict of The Games Market editorial team.
Once Upon a Time
Earthworm Jim... A Worm Riding a Hamster!
by Simon Larocca·January 18, 2024
In the cauldron of arcade titles from the Nineties, we can find truly everything and for every taste.
The video game developers enjoyed experimenting without restraint and above all, since they often found themselves in basements bringing pixel dreams to life, free from those dictatorial deadlines that publishers would later impose on their creatives with the mainstream rise of home consoles.
Ed it is precisely in contexts like these that crazy titles such as Earthworm Jim saw the light, delighting the palate of players like me, who have always been thrilled by aliens, bizarre guns, and absurd creatures.
Cenni storici, just to understand what we’re talking about: the title comes out in 1994 and soon spreads across almost all major entertainment systems, backed by a pretty strong appeal: colorful and rather original levels, a protagonist who would be strange is an understatement, and last but not least a classic-style gameplay with a whole series of innovations that set it apart from the mass of platform games that at the time were practically all the rage on every console in existence!
La version I (re)tried is the one released for Mega Drive, in a riot of colors that will win over your eyes right from the start of the first level.
Jim is an earthworm.
Of those curious ones, who never stand still and, let’s face it, are not satisfied with an earthly life made up of potholes, apple cores half-eaten and a view of the world from bottom to top for all its existence: it wants more, and it gets it.
From the sky, literally, a highly technological spacesuit falls onto him, which not only gives him an anthropomorphic appearance, but equips him with a laser gun and the ability to visit alien worlds and make his way through stainless-steel enemies.
The final showdown with the bad guy will be just the tip of an iceberg made of hot gameplay with increasing difficulty and amusing twists to deal with, without laughing and getting too distracted.
La particularity of Jim’s movements and the true focal point of the game, in my opinion, is our hero’s ability to hang on thanks to his extendable head, with which to launch himself onto the structures scattered throughout the levels and then make his way forward. Between one swing and another, of course.
If this already seems strange enough to you, then you still haven’t seen the game’s various levels, true pearls of bizarre architecture, yet functional and meticulously designed: my favorite level is the one where Jim infiltrates some kind of underwater base (when I was little I used to call it the Underwater Death Star, imagination is sometimes a curse!) full of cats as big as The Rock who want to kill him!
At a certain point, you will have to overcome some game sections on the back of a hamster.
Here, I said it XD
[Riding a hamster...]
What I love about Earthworm Jim is its ability not to take itself seriously, that much is obvious, but one must not make the mistake of judging it a childish game or, even worse, a cheap one: the level design work is formidable, and all the ports it has had on the consoles it landed on were carried out fully exploiting the potential of the reference platform.
On Mega Drive, it runs beautifully, and the console’s joypad, resembling a futuristic aircraft, fits splendidly with the controls needed to move Jim around within his strange game world.
8
Pro
Platform with a bizarre concept but designed with dedication and meticulous care
First-level level design, full of elements to interact with and enemies to defeat
The protagonist is an added value, wonderfully animated
Contro
Its originality and that being “outside the box” do not make it an appealing title for everyone
Mi chiamo Simon Larocca, e sono un videogiocatore, collezionista e amante della cultura pop in tutte le sue forme. Vado al cinema ogni volta che posso, leggo da quando porto gli occhiali, quindi da sempre, e ho la passione per lo storytelling in tutte le sue forme, così dirompente da farla diventare una professione. Ma come direbbe Doc di Ritorno al Futuro, non ci sarebbe presente se non si guardasse al passato con rispetto e ammirazione, ed è il Simon bambino di più di trent’anni fa, anno più anno meno.
Simon Larocca
Mi chiamo Simon Larocca, e sono un videogiocatore, collezionista e amante della cultura pop in tutte le sue forme. Vado al cinema ogni volta che posso, leggo da quando porto gli occhiali, quindi da sempre, e ho la passione per lo storytelling in tutte le sue forme, così dirompente da farla diventare una professione. Ma come direbbe Doc di Ritorno al Futuro, non ci sarebbe presente se non si guardasse al passato con rispetto e ammirazione, ed è il Simon bambino di più di trent’anni fa, anno più anno meno.
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![[Riding a hamster...]](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.thegamesmarket.com%2Fapi%2Fv1%2Ffile%2Fproxy%3Fkey%3Dstaging%252Fmagazine%252Fcontent%252Fearthworm-jim-sega-mega-drive-1994-img-0.png&w=3840&q=75)
