Game Reviews

When discussing games that invoke an incredible amount of nostalgia, few games hit the nail on the head as directly as Earthworm Jim. The quirky tale of the lowly earthworm that gets involved with a super space suit was perhaps an unlikely classic when it was released in 1994, but sure enough, it has maintained a cult and mainstream following during the 16 years that it has been out. At one point, it was even rated at the 114th greatest game ever released on a Nintendo system by Nintendo Power magazine.

Gameloft is now testing the waters to see if a game of such age can survive in today’s vastly different market. While many games in the Sony Playstation/Nintendo 64 eras didn’t age quite as well, Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis titles seem to age like fine wines. Earthworm Jim is no exception. With slightly more polished graphics and the same great controls and humor as before, Earthworm Jim HD for Xbox Live Arcade is, without a doubt, one of the more fun titles to come out on the virtual markets in recent memory.

For those unfamiliar with the concept of Earthworm Jim, you play as a simple earthworm just trying to make your way through the level without dying. Sound boring? Well howabout you fuse that earthworm with a space suit that enables you to run, jump, shoot and even swing through the various levels.

The gameplay is that of a typical classic platforming title. You run through the level (generally from left to right) while defeating any bad guys you may encounter along the way. Most levels will culminate in a boss battle of some sort. These boss battles are incredibly unique and often-times challenging. No two bosses are the same and most require large amounts of creativity to defeat. If you do have issues with figuring out how to go about facing a particular boss, however, you can take the easy way out and read tips that are programmed into the title. On the normal difficulty, these tips are automatically issued before the boss battle, so on a first playthrough, it does somewhat take away from the overall experience.A platforming title that has it’s control scheme down is only as good as it’s level design. Luckily for Earthworm Jim, the level designs are nothing short of brilliant. They accurately represent the game developers’ sense of humor and really shows why the 90′s were the best years for the platforming genre. From “New Junk City” to “What the Heck?” the levels fit perfectly in with the game’s overall sense of originality and humor.