Review: Earthworm Jim (GBA)

Earthworm Jim has been around for seven years with his unusual brand of humour since the glory days of the SNES. Normally the creation of Shiny, this time the development has not been handled by the creators of Earthworm Jim because Shiny have their hands full creating the Matrix. Has this change resulted in a poor GBA version of the mighty worm or another let down like the N64 version?

Whilst most worms are content to annihilate each other, one exists solely to remove evil in the universe. Complete with his high tech indestructible super space cyber suit Earthworm Jim was born. With the bounty hunter Psy-Crow after the super space cyber suit, Jim must find the imprisoned Princess before the evil Queen can use the suit for her own evil ambitions. Your mission is spread over 9 unique levels, which range from the messy City of Junk to the insect ridden Buttville - each with an end of level boss to defeat. The cast of characters that you will come across during the game is as distinctive and varied as any other. Now any Earthworm Jim fan will immediately recognise levels called For Pete's Sake or Snot a Problem because this version is an exact port of the SNES original that stunned us; was that really over seven years ago?

For the record, all your favourite characters make a triumphant return here including Chuck & Fifi, Evil le Chat, Professor Monkey for a Head and not forgetting The Evil Pulsating Bloated Festering Sweaty Puss-filled Malformed Slug for a Butt. The game is an exact port and the GBA handles the System 7 technology of the SNES very easily. I did compare both while preparing this review and if anything, the GBA version looks slightly sharper and moves faster. While Earthworm Jim was a very good game all those years ago, the question is how does it stand up now? The 2D-platform genre has come and gone due to the bloated quantities of games it received yet Earthworm Jim is still very distinctive.

The level design is nothing special and has been seen before, countless times. What keeps you occupied and interested is the humour and visual style of the game that is still as fun and fresh as it was way back then. There isn't enough humour and laughs in games at present, goodness knows we need some light relief. Cow launchers? Yes please! Having to review this game immediately after Pitfall the Mayan Adventure was perhaps a mistake as both contain many similarities in terms of strengths and weaknesses. The animation here again is excellent, wrapped up in the cartoon style of the series it really is a joy to play. The game is silky smooth with a high frame rate and colourful graphics but after Mario Kart Super Circuit the benchmark has been set and everyone knows what this handheld can achieve.

The sound is the one area of the game that is showing its age, yes we do have some speech included in the game but the music and effects are average at best. The problems of the original have unfortunately made the transition to the handheld version, chief amongst these is the inability to run and shoot at the same time. While not a problem initially, when you start coming up against the various bosses in the game later on, you soon realise that standing still is not such a good idea. Surely this problem could have been addressed while the conversion was taking place? It is a shame that nothing new could have been added to the conversion making it more of an essential purchase and better overall value.

As with Pitfall the game does not allow the player to save their progress, meaning that unless you cheat, you are gonna have to be damn good to complete this game. As I've stated before there is no logical reasoning behind the lack of such a feature these days and for £34.99 you're entitled to expect it included as standard. It is such a shame as it knocks the shine off what is a good conversion of an excellent game that brought back so many memories while I was playing it again for the first time in years.

Rating: 6 / 10

Words by Jason Julier