

Then, there's his body, which can be used to whip monsters out of the way, or can be used to swing across hooks and ravines. Jim comes equipped with a big red gun, which he can fire in a number of directions, to dispatch any foe that comes his way. For a start, there's none of this monster squishing, or spin attacking in this game. Instead of taking its cure from Super Mario, or Sonic, EWJ is suitably original. "EWJ gives a breath of fresh air to the whole platform genre. Chris McMullen's very thorough review for Games Domain describes what makes it a must-have:

Like The Simpsons, Earthworm Jim (who was a lowly earthworm until he was one day accidentally given superhero powers) deftly walks the line between slapstick humor and social commentary-you could even call it subversive.

What makes Earthworm Jim games a lot of fun is the excellent characterization of the hero. The game was so successful that it inspired a whole range of toys, as well as its own TV cartoon series. After successfully updating classic Atari cartridge game Pitfall! to the '90s with Pitfall: A Mayan Adventure, the first platform game for Windows, Activision next turned their excellent game engine to Earthworm Jim, a cult classic on the SNES and Megadrive console systems.Įarthworm Jim was the brainchild of talented folks who created Aladdin for Disney, and later formed Shiny Entertainment (who would later be much more famous for MDK).
