Earthworm Jim
From Sega Retro
- For the Sega Mega-CD release, see Earthworm Jim: Special Edition.
Earthworm Jim | |||||
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System(s): Sega Mega Drive, Sega Master System, Sega Game Gear, Virtual Console | |||||
Publisher: Playmates JP Sega Channel Interplay | |||||
Developer: Shiny Entertainment | |||||
Sound driver: GEMS | |||||
Genre: Action | |||||
* Presumably 1994-06-09 if 2's quiz question on Jim's birthday refers to it.
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CERO
Missing Parameter! |
Earthworm Jim (アースワームジム) is a platform video game developed by Shiny Entertainment in 1994 for the Sega Mega Drive. Highly praised at the time of release, Earthworm Jim offers very detailed and smooth graphics, a very well received soundtrack and large amounts of surreal humour and parodies of popular culture.
Contents
Gameplay
The player is the titular hero, a common garden earthworm who mutated into giant size when an alien super-suit fell from the sky and crashed on top of him. 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 (
) 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, 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. Hunting around the levels can reveal Plasma Shots that add 1 extremely powerful shot to the pistol per Plasma found (up to 9 at once), as well as Homing Missiles in the Mega CD & Windows 95 versions that home in on enemies without Jim having to aim (though these are only found in a few levels).
Levels
Earthworm Jim takes place over 7 main levels (8 in the Mega CD version), plus 7 bonus segments between levels, a boss you can avoid if you're good enough and a hidden bonus level halfway through the game.
Additional Information
Misc Items
Mega Drive Cheat Menu
The Mega Drive version contains a cheat menu. While the game is paused enter the code +
,
,
,
,
+
,
,
,
.
- EarthwormJim MegaDrive cheater.png
The crew at Shiny who made the game pop up with this message when the cheat is successfully activated, while Jim yells "Cheater!" at you.
The screen is largely informational - only the last 4 options are changeable. The cheats themselves are fairly straightforward - Cheat Mode gives you infinite health, Freezeability changes the pause menu in such a way that the music keeps playing on pause and the screen doesn't darken (but does make it impossible to re-enter the cheat menu again, or to pause the game - the freeze effect only lasts as long as you're holding start), and Map View Mode makes Jim disappear at the start of the level, with the d-pad then letting the screen scroll around the level - pressing one of the A, B or C buttons makes Jim re-appear and the regular gameplay style resume.
Start On Level has several options, listed below:
- 1 - New Junk City
- 2A - Hell or Heck?
- 2B - Snowman Boss
- 2C - Evil Boss
- 3A - Bungee 1
- 3B - Bungee 2
- 3C - Bungee 3
- 4 - Peter Puppy
- 5 - Slug for Butt
- 5B - Helicopter
- 6A - Prof's Lab
- 6C - Chicken Fly
- 6D - Naked Worm
- 7 - Intestines
- 8A - Sea Tunnels
- 8B - Pod Races
- 9A - Asteroids 1
- 9B - Asteroids 2
- 9C - Asteroids 3
- 9D - Asteroids 4
- 9E - Asteroids 5
- 9F - Asteroids 6
- 9G - Asteroids 7
- 10A - Darkness 1
- 10B - Darkness 2
- 10C - Darkness 3
- 10D - Darkness 4
- 10E - Darkness 5
- 9P - Psycrow!
One notable thing about this list (apart from the jumbled level order) is that there's no 6B slot - on Level 5, 6A is followed by 6D and then 6C, but the part of the level after the Naked Worm segment before the falling segment (i.e., the segment that ends with the first chicken boss) is not directly accessible, unlike every other area in the game.
Sequels and Re-releases
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. Enhanced versions of the game including a CD audio soundtrack were 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 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.
Promotional Material
- EWJ MD US PrintAdvert.jpg
Mega Drive US print advert
- EWJ MD US PrintAdvert 4.jpg
Mega Drive US print advert 3
- EWJ MD US PrintAdvert 3.jpg
Mega Drive US print advert 4
- EWJ MD BR PrintAdvert.jpg
Mega Drive BR print advert
Physical Scans
Mega Drive Version
90 | |
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Based on 45 reviews |
Mega Drive, US (cardboard) |
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Master System Version
Game Gear Version
Sega Retro Average | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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82 | |
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Based on 15 reviews |
External Links
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