The first game was great and some feel that this even
surpassed that, well it did in almost every category. Shiny
gave this game a more cartoon appeal, made the stages
longer, and added to the fun. The different assortments of
weapons were a big change, all though some things were good
they should have been left alone. Like the special stage,
and head whip swing, these are all gone and have been
replaced by other things. On first inspection I liked this
game but then I delved deeper and realized what I have
bought, al though a good game its just not as good or won me
over like the original did.
Story 8.5/10
After the events of the original Earthworm Jim where Jim met
the princess he soon fell in love with her. He tried
everything to woo her in his direction. All though she
wasn't interested in the wormy hero even though he did save
her. Mean while Psycrow realized that with the Queen dead
that Princess What's Her Name would be in line to become the
next Queen. He decided to kidnap her and run away to a Las
Vegas type planet to marry her, so he would be king of the
Galaxy. Jim here's of his plan and decides to thwart his
scheme. The characters are:
Jim: You're run in the mill super sized worm. He is the main
character and he is on his quest to save the princess again.
Psycrow: The main villain in this game. He tries at all cost
to get at Jim, even by throwing Jim's friend Peter Puppies,
children out of the window of an abandon barn will he stop
at nothing?
Princess What's Her Name: the damsel in distress. She is
inline to become queen and soon to be married to Psycrow if
Jim doesn't put a stop to it.
Peter Puppy: Jim's lovable friend and side kick. Over the
course of the previous game Peter has grown, and had a
million puppies. You will see him in the bonus round getting
his puppies back, yes he still has the ferocious temper and
will turn into a monster if Jim drops too many puppies.
Well all these characters make their return from the
original nobody got lost or changed in the sequel, which is
a good thing. Al though this game is good it still doesn't
hold my interest like the original did.
Graphics 9.5/10
Jim kind of looks goofy in this version. Last Year he would
stand still and look pretty tough, this time he sort of runs
in place and looks pretty energetic. All though he seems a
bit smaller he is still very detailed, and the little face
icon on the top of the screen goes through the different
facial expressions with Jim. The backgrounds too the biggest
changed everything is highly detailed and it looks great.
The enemies as well look stranger and more detailed than
last year. The graphics in whole did an outstanding job to
live up what was expected to fans of this game.
Sound 9.0/10
The music in this one I have to say did improve over the
original. Some great tunes played through out the game. Even
some redone versions of the classics like in the Blind Cave
Sally Stage. The First few stages reminded me of the
original Jim's music but the later ones were truly great,
and the sound was quite close to what the SNES did. The
sound FX were even better in this version, like Jim's voice
some of the enemies sounds and gunshots all sounded quite
authentic an clear. The sound department corresponded with
Jim's Goofy Atmosphere quite a well.
Game Play 9.0/10
This game is for one player only. You get a password feature
in this one a welcome change over the original. The password
feature is stranger than any type that I have experience you
have to find 3 flags, each flag is part of Jim's name Earth
Worm and Jim. If you find them and you accidentally reset
you can get skip over the stage or try and find every flag
for every stage. Jim comes back with a huge arsenal of
weapons such as: Regular shots, Mega Regular Shots, Ultra
Mega Huge Shots, Homing missiles, Bubble Gun, and some
others, Some of them are great especially the mega one's.
The levels have stepped up some and are huge. There is even
a level where Jim is in the ground, and he is equipped with
a Sandblaster. You have Level Ate where the background is a
grill with hamburgers on it you have to jump on eggs, and
kill flying forks, and bendie straws. The bonus stage is
different in this one, you have a huge marshmallow, Psycrow
is stilling all of Peter Puppy's puppies!! You have to
bounce each pup off of the pillow back into Peter's home; if
you miss to many Peter turns into a huge monster and chews
you up. All of this was fun; my only gripe is there should
have been more bosses. Most levels once you reach the end
that's it. There is nothing to do; even the last stage
doesn't have a boss. The difficulty is adjustable, but
overall easier than the previous version.
Overall 9.0/10
Quite a good game although I enjoyed the sequel much more
than this, it holds its own as one of the better Genesis
games. A 2-player mode would have made this game even better
too bad it didn't feature one. That and the no boss's thing
ruined much of the game for me. It was kind of boring making
it to the end of the stage to find no hard boss to fight, I
guess this one was geared towards a younger audience. The
replay value was particularly low because of the fact that
there isn't nothing to do after you beat it, accept play
again, and you might not want to. Although on the contrary
the fun factor is high, with all the gadgets to try, out and
some very fun stages like the game show will keep your
interest throughout the game. If you played the original or
enjoyed the cartoon then I highly suggest this one too.
