Earthworm Jim HD (360) / DSi / 3DS

[toythatkills]

Looks alright, didn't think much to the game, though. Saying that, I'd have probably loved it when I was eleven, I just didn't play it back then so I don't have the rose tinted glasses to look through. What I wanted was a platformer, and it doesn't really work as that. Mainly because there doesn't appear to be any way to see what's part of the background and what's not. Sometimes you can jump through stuff, sometimes you can't jump through something that looks identical. The floor is just about clear, but even that's not great and sometimes you'll walk to bizarre places or not be able to walk where there's clearly ground beneath you or fall off for no reason. This was all from level one in the trial.

Combat is best described as rubbish, eight way aiming, natch, being a retro effort, which makes it harder than it needs to be to kill enemies that are above you or at a slightly wrong angle from where you are. Probably not much they could do about that.

Then there was some flying minigame thing which was crap.

So in summation, awesome, as long as you played it in 1994.

[englishbob]

Was best left in 1994 really, it was awful then. I can't see a HD makeover improving things.

Great if your a fan, but I can't see any new ones being made...

[rmoxon]

I disagree with those comments, I think it still holds up really.

You can see clearly what platforms are in the backgrounds and which are in the foreground, I'm not sure where you get it from that you cant really.

To be honest I'm not really sure if this is worth the money though (there dosent seem much new besides tact on co-op play and the fact that they have added new easier difficulty levels so now most people will actualy be able to finish it), they might as well have just released the original game for 400 points, but the game still plays well and feels as fresh and inventive as it did back in the 90's

[arcnas]

i Will probally skip it because i bought it on DSI ware but its still a good
game, probally overated at the time but just about worth 800 pts in my opinion.

[Morph]

The SNES version is in no way overrated at the time this had some pretty cool and wild ideas animated in beautifully exaggerated fashion. I think this new version feels a little different somehow, you are right in that it may not grab peoples attention that much any more but at 800 points its still worth it especially if you've never played it before.

[Legendary Wolf]

Back when it was first released it was visually quite groundbreaking. There had been other games that had cartoon graphics but the art style and animation made it stand out. Add in some strange levels that broke up all the platforming and you had a very good game. I hadn't played it in years and once the demo downloaded all the memories came flooding back.

Sure it doesn't offer anything new now but having played the original on the MD, this version plays pretty much identically and it looks great in HD. I haven't bought the full version yet but probably will eventually.

[hush]

I think this was one of the first game I bought with MY own money (pocketmoney) back in the day so when i saw the it was coming on both of the HD consoles. I pick it up with out a thought for my PS3 and am loving it so far not spent that much time with but it is a pick and play

[saturn-gamer]

Demo was better than I expected. I do think the gameplay is kind of rubbish by todays standards. It just feels clunky to time jumps and grapples.

Although I never really liked the franchise back then, I used to prefer EWJ1 over 2, until I played the 32-bit version with CD audio that is. Brilliant pieces of music, especially Moonlight Sonata during a trip thru someones rectal area.

[FelixofMars]

The quality of the art and animations where cutting edge back then and very few games could match it, also I cannot think of many modern 2D platformers that actually are any better?

[Legendary Wolf]

The quality of the art and animations where cutting edge back then and very few games could match it, also I cannot think of many modern 2D platformers that actually are any better?

True, before it came along the only games to offer similar cartoon style graphics were Castle of Illusion, and Mickey and Donald: World of Illusion, which were fantastic for their time. Also Aladdin and the Lion King which came out later were good too, all are Disney games so Earthworm Jim offered something different. I also remember Comix Zone late in the MD's life although I've not played it.

[nakamura]

I still think it is a decent game. It was never as good as the press made it out in 1994, neither were the rest of Shiny's games.
It has some madcap level design with some superb visuals. The music is fantastic also but the SNES version sounds better imo.

[Lyris]

The quality and personality that comes through in the animation is better than most modern games and TV shows, I think that's still pretty special by game standards.

The only problem is that Earthworm Jim has all the hallmarks of the 1990s 'tudey game mascots which I think has dated it somewhat.

Also, I don't understand why in this remake, they've not used the music from the Sega CD/PC versions but have instead done some weird new mix.

[Leon Retro]

Also, I don't understand why in this remake, they've not used the music from the Sega CD/PC versions but have instead done some weird new mix.

It gave the developer's sound guy something to do.

[Sketcz]

I'm disappointed to see that while they went to the trouble of redrawing the original animation frames in a higher resolution, they've mirrored the sprites. for left and right, making Jim ambidextrous.

This is such a lazy thing to do, and frankly I am getting fed up of every 2D sprite based game being like this. It's just not on - it's rubbish.

Super Metroid didn't have mirrored sprites, and that was a SNES game, so why is it that 99.9% of all other sprite based games feature mirrored sprites? GAH! It's as infuriating as 50Hz!

[saturn-gamer]

I think there were LOTS of better platform games than what Shiny made. Just not in the animations department.

They were actually short games where the level design and challenge was all over the place. Not to mention the bugs. Aladdin was graphically wonderful, but the leveldesign was mostly cack if you're being honest. And full of bugs IIRC. Game lasted for only 45 minutes or so too, without any kind of challenge. EWJ was the same, but just very hard instead and at times due to the poor leveldesign and cheapness.

Sure, Megaman, Mario, Sonic, Metroid, CV and what not didn't sport those animations, but were far better thought out and lasting games.