Earthworm Jim

For the Sega Mega-CD game, see Earthworm Jim: Special Edition.

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Mega Drive Game Gear Master System
Earthworm Jim
System(s): Sega Mega Drive, Sega Master System, Sega Game Gear, Virtual Console, Nintendo Switch Online
Publisher: Playmates Interactive Entertainment (US) Virgin Interactive Entertainment (EU) Interplay (JP; Sega Channel) Ballistic (US re-release) Tec Toy Interplay
Developer: Shiny Entertainment Eurocom Entertainment Software M2
Supporting companies: Moore & Price Design Group (US) (packaging)
Distributor: Metro Games (AU) Ecofilmes (PT) SF Interactive Media (SE rental) Tec Toy (BR) Consumer Electronics (ZA)
Sound driver: GEMS
Genre: Action, Action/Humour
Number of players: 1
* Presumably 1994-06-09 if 2's quiz question on Jim's birthday refers to it. Release Date RRP Code JP ▼ (Sega Channel) 1995-12-01 SUBsub US 1994-10 $69.9969.99 T-132036 US (re-release) 199x EU 1994-11-11 T-70386-50 PT 1994 MD70386 UK 1994-11-11 £44.9944.99 T-70386-50 SE (Rental) 199x AU 199x BR 1994 047080 ZA 199x US 1995-07 $39.9939.99 T-132028 EU 1995-07 T-70178-50 UK 1995-08 £29.9929.99 T-70178-50 BR 1997-03 028690 JP ▼ 2008-12-16 600pts600 US ▼ 2008-10-27 800pts800 EU ▼ 2008-10-03 800pts800 AU ▼ 2008-10 800pts800 JP ▼ 2022-09-16 SUBsub US ▼ 2022-09-15 SUBsub EU ▼ 2022-09-16 SUBsub AU ▼ 2022-09-16 SUBsub
Non-Sega versions No results

Earthworm Jim (アースワームジム) is a Sega Mega Drive action platform game developed by Shiny Entertainment. First published in November 1994 to commercial and critical acclaim, it is most remembered for its self-aware humor, detailed graphics and animation, well-received soundtrack, and surrealist parodies of popular culture, and has since become one of the most fondly-remembered American-developed Mega Drive titles.

Story

The story begins with Jim, a common garden earthworm, primitively evading a hungry crow on Earth. Meanwhile, up in space, Psy-Crow pursues a renegade ship that has stolen an ultra high tech super suit and, under orders from Queen Pulsating, Bloated, Festering, Sweaty, Pus-filled, Malformed, Slug-for-a-Butt, blasts the renegade ship to smithereens. Following the explosion, the suit plummets down to Earth, and lands right on top of Jim as he was checking his surroundings. Through sheer luck, he was enveloped in the neck ring of the suit.

Suddenly, a rapid light-speed evolution is triggered by the particles in the super suit, vastly increasing Jim's size and intelligence and granting him full control of the suit. Taking his time to figure out how his suit works, Jim ends up blasting the crow that pursued him with the suit's plasma blaster, and crushes the crow while leaning against a tree while gathering his thoughts.

Just as he thought he was getting it easy in life, he sees Psy-Crow investigating the suit's landing zone and reporting to the Queen that the suit is very near, with Jim overhearing that the Queen wants the suit to make her more beautiful than her imprisoned twin sister, Princess What's-Her-Name. Afterwards, Jim decides to go and meet this princess before Psy-Crow finds him.

Gameplay

The player takes control of the titular hero, Earthworm Jim. Jim quickly finds that while getting used to being able to jump (), shoot (), and fly with his Pocket Rocket, he's being eyed up by several villains for the suit... Whipping with and shooting his way through the game's levels, Jim also has the ability to twirl his head around like a helicopter to slow his rate of descent by repeatedly pressing while in the air, as well as being able to use his whip to not only shoot down enemies (including some impervious to his pistol), but to use with hooks to navigate to otherwise impossible to reach areas.

The super suit's energy is measured by a percentage - it will drain if Jim takes damage, and if it drops to 0%, the suit will explode, taking away one of Jim's lives. If Jim's ammo runs too low, the plasma gun will slowly recharge itself, but it is generally a good idea to conserve ammo as much as possible. Hunting around the levels can reveal all kinds of hidden items.

Items

	Plasma Power
	Adds 250 rounds of plasma power to the pistol.
	Mega Plasma
	Adds 1 extremely powerful shot to the pistol (up to 9 at once) that will instantly wipe out any regular enemy in one shot.
	Suit Power
	Recharges a small percentage of the suit's energy.
	Super Suit Power
	Recharges a huge percentage of the suit's energy.
	Extra Life
	Awards an extra life.
	Asteroid Shield
	Appears only in Andy Asteroids. These can be activated with to temporarily protect Jim from asteroids.
	Atomic Accelerator
	Appears only in Andy Asteroids. Instantaneously gives Jim's rocket a burst of speed.
	Fuel Pod
	Appears only in Andy Asteroids. Collect 50 of these to earn a continue.

Levels

Earthworm Jim takes place over 7 main levels, plus 7 bonus segments between levels, bosses for the player to fight and a hidden bonus level halfway through the game.

	New Junk City
	The first level, New Junk City, is a giant rubbish dump. Tyres can be bounced over, ziplines hooked on to and conveyor belts climbed. Watch out for crows and Fifis - the crows will try to pull Jim out of the suit, damaging him in the process, while the Fifis try to bite Jim (though shooting them will gain some health back). In the Mega-CD version, there's an extra segment where Jim is suit-less and has to time jumps between platforms to reach the suit again. Shown here is the cow near the start of the level - whipping the fridge launches it into space, where it will fly past in the background in some levels, moo-ing in terror as it does so. The first boss Jim encounters has two forms - the kart shown here, and a humanoid shape where he calls tubas down from the sky to fall on Jim's head. If he hits Jim when he's driving around as the cart form, he'll go back up to full health. The first end of level boss (and planet mascot) of the game is Chuck - a magnet drops crates and tubas on Jim from above, while he sits on a zip line. Dodge the tubas (or whip them away), and whip the crate on to the spring while he's under it - but watch out for the resulting fish he starts throwing up. He can't be hit directly so only the crates will work.
	Andy Asteroids?
	At the end of every level is a transition racing level to the next planet, one of a steadily-growing harder set of stages called Andy Asteroids (named after Andy Astor, one of the game's programmers). Here, Jim has to race a giant bird in a spacesuit called Psy-Crow to the end of a tunnel, accelerating with while dodging asteroids and collecting Fuel Pods & Asteroid Shields. Picking up the Atomic Accelerators will give Jim temporary invincibility and a short jump ahead in the race - getting these are later on the only way to win the stages. Psy-Crow will grab these if given the chance after the first stage or so.
	Psy-Crow!
	If the player loses a race in Andy Asteroids, then they must battle Psy-Crow, who will attack Jim with a fish-hook gun. Shoot him and when he's dazed, whip him to finish him off and start the next level proper.
	What the Heck?
	Home to Evil the Cat, What The Heck? is the second level proper. Elevator music plays in the background (with the occasional scream of horror from the musak), demons are everywhere and Jim will also need to dodge fire & brimstone - plus suitcase-wielding lawyers (Hell is full of them, after all). The Mega-CD version has an expanded section of level just before the first boss, which is a giant snowman that belches fireballs that must be dodged. Evil the Cat makes numerous appearances throughout the level to impede Jim's progress by throwing a bomb and trying to impale him with falling stalactites. Should Jim make it to the end of the level, Evil will manage to get Jim's suit away from the worm and fires balls of flame at him from an oversized gun. However, the shots melt the support for the platform he's standing on and it collapses, causing Evil to run away and Jim to reclaim the suit. From there it's just a case of shooting away his lives (9, naturally) and dodging the flames that come from the sides of the screen.
	Down the Tubes
	Down The Tubes is a water-themed level consisting of rooms linked by tubes (some of which Jim will travel down riding the back of a giant hamster that can eat all obstacles in its path, with Jim clinging on for dear life). Shown in the first screenshot is one of the two level mascots, No. 4 - these muscular cloned cats are all over the level acting as bodyguards for the main level mascot. Touch one and they'll punch Jim so hard he'll go flying back and lose health in the process. The Mega-CD version has a hidden spot that when touched, has a secret alternate Andy Asteroids level with no asteroids in and no Psy-Crow - just speed boosters, Fuel Pods and Shields, that takes the player straight to Snot A Problem without having to do the second half of the level. This level is possibly best known for the second half (one of only 2 levels to have more than one title card displayed, not counting the multiple Andy Asteroid races; the other being Snot A Problem), which is mostly navigating one of the glass pods from the first half of the level around on a time limit with a lot of walls, some narrow sections, and not a lot of air refillers. If the pods hit the walls too many times, they will shatter, resulting in millions of gallons of wet death. At the end of the pod navigation sequence, Jim will come face to face with Bob the Goldfish. Somewhat of an anticlimax after the pod, the player can complete the level either with a single pistol shot, whipping Bob or simply walking into the bowl - all three knock it to the floor, where as he flops about, Jim hops on the Rocket and zooms off.
	Snot a Problem!
	The next level is Snot A Problem! - an interesting change in that not only are there 3 sub levels (each with a progressively more intelligent Major Mucus), but Jim has none of his normal weaponry available. Instead, Mucus must be defeated by ramming him against the sides of the level until his rope snaps, but he can do the same to Jim - and he has a spinning attack that will also wear Jim's rope down. There's an added hazard for the second and third bouts - a monster at the bottom of the screen. For the first round it just watches, but from the second round onward it will actively try to eat Jim when he reaches the bottom of the chasm and the cord stretches out, snapping the rope (and Jim!) instantly.
	Level 5
	The rather imaginatively titled Level 5 (which thanks to the inclusion of Big Bruty, is actually the sixth level on the Mega-CD version) is a giant laboratory, home of Professor Monkey-For-A-Head (and his flipped personality, Monkey Professor-For-A-Head). Both will attack Jim as he progresses through the level dodging leaping brains, flying eyeballs, giant cells, green blobs with eyes on a stalk that explode into a shower of maggots, and electrified ball platforms. Later in the level Jim gets separated from the suit and must navigate spiked platforms and fans to re-connect with it. The boss of Level 5 is a chicken in a mech suit - it lays eggs that roll towards Jim and explode, and flies over his head occasionally. It must be defeated by whipping the target when the chicken is below the drop chute, which will cause a giant cell to fall onto the chicken and hurt it. When the chicken has taken enough damage, it will shift to a second form, where it and Jim are in free-fall down an endless shaft. Here the method to kill it is simple - just shoot at it with the pistol. Dodge the bombs it drops and the feathers it sheds that explode, as well as the mecha-chicken itself, and eventually it will blow up, ending the level. This level is not present in the Game Gear and Master System versions. About halfway through Level 5, the player will come across a section with health leading away in an arc from a large black box with a red dot in the middle (shown in the second screenshot). This can be ignored with no repercussions, but if Jim ignores the indicated route and jumps into the dot of light...
	Who Turned Out the Lights?
	...he will enter a secret level titled Who Turned Out The Lights?, that's played with Jim entirely in silhouette apart from his eyes, with the enemies in the level also only being visible by their eyes. There are 5 sections to the level, all of which are fairly short - Jim transfers between them by running out of an exit door and into the next room. In the 5th room, Jim will scream in terror at what's this level's mascot - a giant pair of eyes that will roar and chase him. Jumping over the eyes and running as fast as you can to the right, Jim will enter a point where 3 rays of light meet and be teleported back to the same point in Level 5 that he left, with all the items just as they were when he left it. This level is not present in the Game Gear and Master System versions.
	For Pete's Sake!
	The next level proper is For Pete's Sake!, which has Jim playing escort to a prancing Peter Puppy who is trying to get back to his house at the end of the level. There's a slight problem - if he gets hurt or falls off the main path, he transmogrifies into a demonic beast and grabs Jim in his mouth, flying backwards in the level until the last invisible checkpoint passed whereupon he spits Jim out and turns back into his normal self. Jim has to not only whip him over gaps and shoot down asteroid bombardments but must get Peter past cement mixers with electric sparks, shoot down flying saucers (that don't hurt Peter or Jim, but capture Jim for a few seconds which can be long enough for Peter to end up in trouble and transforming), and giant vines that grab Peter, squeezing him until he transforms and bursts them apart. Eventually, Peter Puppy's house is in sight, but the player has the option of whipping him over the house for a more difficult section of level for bonus items. Either way, when Peter enters one of the houses, the level is over - there's no boss here.
	Intestinal Distress!
	The penultimate level is Intestinal Distress! - Jim must tackle spikes, wind pipes, flying fish and balls of.... something.... to reach the end of the level. The boss of the level is Doc Duodenum, who likes to jump around rapidly and spew material at Jim. Defeating him rewards the player with one last Andy Asteroids before the final level. This level is not present in the Game Gear and Master System versions. Some non-Sega versions of the game, such as the Super NES and IBM PC versions, also lack this level.
	Buttville
	Finally, Jim has reached Buttville. The first section sees Jim using his helicopter move to navigate a maze of thorns - it's short, but difficult, and this is only a taste of what's to come later on. When Jim reaches the bottom, he will teleport to the main section of the level. In Buttville proper, Jim must avoid bugs that spew from nests, one-hit knock-out worms that jump in and out from the background (shown to the right of the second shot), more thorns and creatures that spit electric sparks at Jim. Should the player survive all of this, they'll start to pass under a large segmented ceiling, which when they reach the end of it is revealed to be the game's final boss, Queen Pulsating, Bloated, Festering, Sweaty, Pus-filled, Malformed, Slug-for-a-Butt. To fight her, Jim has to stand on the floating Snott platforms that circle her and shoot her at the 3, 6, 9 and 12'o'clock positions, or whip her once, finally defeating the evil queen and meeting her sister, Princess Whats-Her-Name (who clearly got the more attractive end of the gene pool, as Jim discovers). However, the rather bitter-sweet ending has one final surprise in store for the gallant earthworm...

Misc items

• 

  Jim exits each level by hooping on his Pocket Rocket and flying off to the next world, via an Andy Asteroids stage.

• 

  "A whole new can of worms", these are granted by picking up 50 blue orbs in an Andy Asteroids stage.

History

Head programmer and Shiny Entertainment founder David Perry.

Development

With most of Shiny Entertainment originating from Virgin Interactive Entertainment, Earthworm Jim was built using similar techniques to Cool Spot and Disney's Aladdin. Animations were drawn by hand and digitised into the game.

Release

In the United States, television advertisements featuring an old lady eating (plastic) earthworms garnered some controversy, with complaints forcing the advert to be pulled from television network in Portland (Oregon), Spokane (Washington) and Sacramento (California).

Legacy

Earthworm Jim was quickly ported to a variety of systems including the Sega Game Gear, Super Nintendo and Game Boy. It was released for the Sega Master System in 1996 exclusively in Brazil by Sega's distributor Tec Toy.

An enhanced version of the game, Earthworm Jim: Special Edition was released for the Sega Mega-CD and Windows PCs, and in more recent times ports have been made to the Game Boy Advance, iPhone, Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network and the Wii's Virtual Console service. The game is also included in the Western units of the Mega Drive Mini.

The game was followed by Earthworm Jim 2 and a variety of other sequels. It also led to a cartoon show by Universal Animation Studios, which is arguably one of the more successful video game cartoon adaptions of all time.

Versions

The Sega Mega Drive was the lead platform for Earthworm Jim, with all other ports stemming from this version. This includes the port to the Mega Drive's nearest rival, the Super NES, which although benefits from a increased colour palette, uses fewer animations due to sprite and memory limitations.

The Intestinal Distress stage was originally exclusive to the Mega Drive version of the game, reportedly put in at the last minute due to a request from Sega (thus making the game bigger than the Super NES version). In return, Sega reduced cartridge manufacturing costs for the game.

Production credits

Mega Drive version

• Program: Andy Astor
• Programming: David Perry
• Additional Programming: Nicholas A. Jones, Andy Astor
• Original Concept: Douglas TenNapel
• Level Design: Tom Tanaka
• Animation Director: Michael Francis Dietz
• Animators: Edward Schofield, Douglas TenNapel
• Art Director: Nick Bruty
• Lead Artist: Stephen Crow
• Ink & Paint: Eric Ciccone, Mike Pilotti
• Clean Up: Clark Sorenson, Ryan Silva, Nicholas Wilson
• Additional Artwork: Lin Shen
• Music and Sound FX: Mark Miller
• Designed by: Shiny Entertainment [Many, Many Shiny Meetings]
• Produced by: David A. Luehmann
• Development Tools by: Andy Astor, Dan Chang, Psy-Q, Rob Northern Computing
• Special Thanks: Playmates Toys, Richard Sallis, Becky Tran, Bug Busters, Game Test, Michael Koelsh, Sachs Finley & Co., Golin Harris Communications, Moore & Price Design

Game Gear version

• Conversion Developed by: Eurocom Entertainment Software
• Programming: Dave Looker, Kevin J. Grantham, Dave Pridmore, Tim Rogers
• Graphics: Andy Bee, Nigel Bentley, Steve Bedser
• Sound: Martin Walker
• Quality Assurance: Kevin Holt
• Producers: Mat Sneap, Mark Hetherington, Hugh Binns

Playmates Staff

• Quality Assurance: Ray Nivarel, PIE QA Crew
• Executive Producer: David Luehmann
• Project Manager: Scott Herrington

Source:

In-game credits

Digital manuals

• 

  Mega Drive Mini US manual

• 

  Mega Drive Mini EU manual

Magazine articles

Main article: Earthworm Jim/Magazine articles.

Promotional material

Main article: Earthworm Jim/Promotional material.

Physical scans

Mega Drive version

Sega Retro Average
Publication Score Source (FR) 97

	97
Based on 1 review

Sega Retro Average

Publication Version Score (RU) 70 (RU) 80 (UK) 88 (UK) 89 (UK) 70 (US) NTSC-U 67 (US) NTSC-U 88 (RU) 80 (RU) 80 (IL) 97 (US) 95 (US) NTSC-U 96 (US) NTSC-U 100 (UK) 93 (UK) PAL 94 (UK) PAL 93 (US) NTSC-U 92 (ES) 95 (AU) PAL 94 (CZ) 85 (DE) PAL 86 (UK) PAL 92 (FR) PAL 97 (DE) PAL 87 (SI) 91 (FR) 100 (UK) PAL 93 (US) NTSC-U 75 (FR) 98 (YU) 88 (DE) PAL 87 (DE) 89 (UK) PAL 93 (UK) PAL 94 (UK) PAL 93 (RU) 92 (RU) 94 (UK) PAL 94 (ES) 93 (ES) 95 (RU) 81 (RU) 93 (UK) 93 (DE) PAL 95 (US) 90

	90
Based on 45 reviews

Earthworm Jim

Mega Drive, US
Cover
Cart Manual Poster

Mega Drive, US (cardboard)
Cover
Cart Manual

Mega Drive, EU
Cover
Cart Manual

Mega Drive, PT
Cover

Mega Drive, SE (rental; SF)
Cover

Mega Drive, GR (Zegetron)
Cart

Mega Drive, AU
Cover

Mega Drive, BR
Cover
Cart

Mega Drive, ZA
Cover
Cart

Master System version

Master System, BR
Cover
Cart Manual

Game Gear version

Sega Retro Average
Publication Score Source

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Based on 0 review

Sega Retro Average
Publication Version Score (US) NTSC-U 58 (US) NTSC-U 65 (IL) 82 (US) NTSC-U 76 (US) NTSC-U 73 (DE) 87 (DE) PAL 75 (UK) PAL 90 (FR) 93 (DE) 83 (UK) PAL 91 (CZ) 82 (UK) PAL 91 (ES) 93 (ES) 86

	82
Based on 15 reviews

Earthworm Jim

Game Gear, US
Cover
Cart Manual

Game Gear, EU
Cover
Cart Manual

Technical information

Main article: Earthworm Jim/Technical information.

External links

• Eat Dirt!: A Conversation with Earthworm Jim Creator Doug TenNapel article by Jason Anders at Fülle Circle Magazine
• Athena's Earthworm Jim Shrine! fansite (Wayback Machine)
• Virtual Console listing (Sega of Japan)
• Virtual Console listing (Nintendo of America)
• Virtual Console listing (Nintendo of Europe)
• Virtual Console listing (Nintendo of Australia)

References

Earthworm Jim games for Sega systems
	Earthworm Jim (1994) | Earthworm Jim 2 (1995)
	Earthworm Jim: Special Edition (1995)
	Earthworm Jim (1995)
	Earthworm Jim (1997)
	Earthworm Jim 2 (1996)
Earthworm Jim-related media
	(?)