Here’s a little history and context lesson before we start with our 3rd Earthworm Jim review. The first Earthworm Jim was made in 1994 and many ports and remakes would continue to come out in most of 1995. Earthworm Jim2 was then released in 1996 with the same Developer and publisher; Shiny Entertainment and Playmates (respectively). (This of course all changes depending on your region and version). After that it would take three years before Jim would return for his own game. However, the trip would apparently be bumpy. The game ended up getting developed by VIS Entertainment and published by Rock-Star Games (pre-GTA 3 of course). What I’m getting at is that most of the original team didn’t seem to work on this game and because of the development complication, this game had a lot cut out and was rushed. But, we still got our third game, so let’s dig into Earthworm Jim 3D.
Get it? Earthworm? DIG into!?*rimshot*
The game’s plot is just great. Instead of being a parody this time around, the game decided to be original and wacky. As the opening credits roll, we see Jim get crushed by a cow. Once he wakes up, he finds he’s trapped in his own mind. Peter Puppy tells him that he’s gone insane and lost his marbles. Literally, you spend the game collecting them back along with golden cow udders (more on that later). Jim will travel in all 4 of his brains and deal with representations of his memories, fears, fantasies and happiness (yet sadly, Princess What’s-her-name is in neither of the last two; guess they were really trying for something different). The characters, settings and tasks all add to this wackiness. I don’t know how else to put it other that I just loved this game’s story and how it was pulled off: it is fun!
This game is all about collecting. I haven’t gotten into many free roaming 3D platformers (other than Spyro 2), but when 3D adventuring was still relatively new, the easiest way to make one was to make you collect things by both finding them lying around the levels and collecting others by completing tasks. In this one, you’ll find up to 100 Marbles lying per stage and normally 5 or 6 Golden Udders of lucidity to collect. Both of these, Jim is told, will restore his sanity and allow him to wake up from his coma.
And as fun as the collecting style is (with games like Mario 64 and Banjo-Kazooie), this one has a major problem; the camera. The camera is always looking down at Jim, which lets you see the floor nicely, but nearby enemies; not so much. Or platforms you want to jump on either. I am surprised that this comes up as an issue after two really smooth platformers, but half of the jumps I made, I wasn’t sure I was going to make it. This made me land into a lot of pits, which drain your health stupidly fast (25% a hit and no recovery time). It’s also not intuitive at all, meaning you’ll be adjusting it all the time, but it unlike Spider-man Shattered Dimension, adjusting in the camera is jarring, sudden and hurt my eyes.
Also using your gun makes you stop and the boss levels are just frustrating but let’s move on.
Earthworm Jim was not one of the series successfully converted to 3D, but with the amount of changes it apparently had in developers, that doesn’t surprise me. The camera beyond irritated me and I’m sure I’m not the only one. That said, this game did charm me enough to like it. Sure, I like collecting-based 3D platform games, but I love the new plot. It’s so different they avoid Princess What’s-her-name, and the direction they go in is used to its full potential with fantastic, wacky lands that never takes itself seriously. Looking at the information I dug up, this game was more modeled after the TV show (which makes it a video game, based on a TV show, based on a video game?) and that shows, especially with the voice acting including Dan Castellaneta (better known for voicing Homer Simpson) once again voicing the worm. If it’s more like a tie-in game (for a show off the air three years prior) it would explain the lacking game play. But like I said, the plot and great setting just made this game for me and I could put up with every other flaw just for the joy of Jim; it captures it at least better than Earthworm Jim 2. I suggest you give it a shot if you’re a fan of the series and enjoy games like Banjo-Kazooie. I give Earthworm Jim 3D for the Nintendo 64 7.5 levels out of 10.
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