These are pretty much the same game, the only difference is the second in the series has slightly worse graphics, but better music and more weaponry and zanier things.  The original game is what started the Earthworm Jim craze.  You could see him as akin to Sonic the Hedgehog vs. Mario.  Sonic proved he could hold his own (during the 16 bit years that is).  Earthworm Jim proved his mettle and had a cult following, but he died out shortly after 16 bit.  He’s been around occasionally, but doesn’t come out of retirement much.

The original game was weird.  The story goes, an earthworm was busy minding his own business, when a super suit from space crash lands onto him.  A cow was also ready to eat this poor earthworm.  The Earthworm was now an extremely muscular super suit powered behemoth, and the cow was sadly vaporized.  This is Earthworm Jim, an earthworm with a country accent and appearantly he’s watched too many 60s/70s shows.  Of course, Jim isn’t alone, he has a space pirate, Psycrow who is hunting him down.  He’s also busy trying to win over Princess What’s Her Name.  Her sister, the Evil Princess Slug for a Butt (They’re both bees or something), wants the crown, and the suit to help give her good looks.   But whatever.

The first game has you moving in a run and gun, complete with your head as a whip, slight helicopter to delay your movements, and two different guns to help you along.  The first is a plasma gun, which shoots out a straight zap, and the little toy laser gun thing (it’s weird), that shoots out lightning.  It can hold a decent charge, well past 2000, but if it runs to 0, it’ll only recharge to 200.  The first few levels can be difficult without high ammo, but it becomes plentiful later on.  Most levels play the same, but are different variations of the run and gun platformer.  This game is more platformer than it is shooting things.  Think Mario vs. Megaman.

After each level is a bonus level, Andy Asteroids.  You run around through space on your pocket rocket.  You race against Psycrow, and ultimately get to the next level.  There is two level variations, one which is a bungy jumping competition against a bog monster, which is fun for the first round.  Then there is the ‘help the dog to the end of the level’ style game.

The ending is hilarious.

Music in this game is top notch, it is mostly techno, with some country style zings throne in.  It’s also one of the first games to throw in random sound effects for the music (Sonic Adventure was notorious for it).  Graphics are a hit or miss in this game.  Sometimes they are amazing like the first level.  The first level is NOTHING to write home about, but it combines parallax (water from the edge view, kind of), combined with lighting effects, and several scrolling backgrounds.  The second level is largely the same, but doesn’t combine as much polish.  Sounds are decent.

Gameplay is good, VERY good.  The game suffers from being too difficult though.

The second game?  The atmosphere is more varied.  This time you race around on different planets.  Why?  I don’t know.  The instruction manual seems confused as well.  The plot has been changed a little bit.  Princess What’s Her Name has survived her demise from the first game, but Princess Slug for a Butt is nowhere to be seen.  Psycrow and Peter Puppy make an appearance.   There are a few secret bonuses.  The music is different, and varied, as are the levels.  One minute you’re running around in a giant planet that is merely a giant intestine, the next you are running around on a slime filled planet, yet on another you are thrown into all the taxes filed through I assume the entire galaxy.  Graphics this time take a hit.  They tried to fill more onscreen than the previous game, and colors seem bland compared to the original.  Jim seems a bit stretched this time around.  Jim does have more weaponry, his whip can move in more directions, he has lost the copter head, but he does have a slime parachute, and that same thing can be used to fling himself from ceiling to ceiling.  The weaponry is varied, one can whip out everything onscreen, home in on enemies, and some like the Bubble Gun just seem weird and serve no purpose.  There is a lot more bosses, and some have rather comical ends without the player intervening.  This game isn’t as hard as the first, but it is still hard.

This game isn’t as fun as the original, nor does it have that ‘fresh’ feeling.  It focuses more on the humor effect of Jim, and the settings around him.  There are a ton more cows this time around.   The ending is.. weird.

After the ends of levels in all games, you are presented with a screen that lets you play around with the voice of the character on screen.  In the first, it has Jim and a button press makes him say groovy… over, and over…  The second has cows, a different button makes the cow say well done at different speeds.  And… is that cow growing a whisker?!

Jim does mutter weird phrases such as groovy, tender etc throughout the second game, whereas in the first one he just said groovy.

Yozuki’s Drive for both games - 8