Original video game characters rarely appear, and even when they do (like Mario, Sonic, or even Bomberman), they rarely become popular. In 1994, a startup company, Shiny Entertainment, led by David Perry, developed Earthworm Jim. The game quickly became a landmark due to its animation, quality, and originality. It is true that without Earthworm Jim, Shiny would not exist today (even if they only make questionable games now – anyone know Enter the Matrix?). What happened after the start of the 32-bit generation had nothing to do with Shiny’s original team, but was simply a result of licensing deals and merchandising. This is why the series ended early – or did it?

Developer History

Douglas Tennaple had the original idea for the game and created virtually all of the main characters, from Jim himself to “the Evil Queen, her pulsating, bloating, suppurating, sweaty, pus-filled, misshapen, snail-like ass…” (yes, that’s her real name). He even voiced Jim! Dave Perry himself was the primary programmer on the first two games and assembled an elite team of artists, designers and programmers, some of whom also came from his former employer, Virgin Interactive. Michael Koelsch did most of the cover and media illustrations for both titles. The now-classic soundtrack was composed by Tommy Tallarico, who has worked on literally dozens of games since, most recently Advent Rising for Xbox.

Shiny was founded in 1993 and has produced a number of hit titles, becoming one of the leading development companies in the gaming sector. One of the most recent titles, Enter the Matrix, has sold over six million copies worldwide, and the series is set to continue with The Matrix: Path of Neo. In 2002, Shiny was acquired by Infogames for $47 million.

The Games

When David Perry was starting his new company, Shiny Entertainment, he heard about Doug TenNapel through some friends. Impressed by TenNapel’s work, he decided not only to hire him but to make his demo Shiny’s first project. The original Earthworm Jim was released in 1994 on various formats, including SNES, Sega Genesis, and Sega CD (Special Edition). There were two versions for PC (one a new special edition called Can o` Worms) and one for Game Gear, and it quickly attracted many fans to New Junk City and, of course, Batville. Word of mouth and some great reviews made it incredibly popular and sold out almost everywhere. While it certainly wasn’t groundbreaking (it was essentially a well-made platformer), it was a lot of fun. The crazy humor and crazy goals were fresh and just hilarious, and the characters were very likable. No matter which version you choose, I would definitely recommend adding this game to your collection.

A sequel was released in early 1995 for the Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, Sega Saturn, and PC. It didn’t get as much buzz as the first game, and it probably wasn’t as good, but it was still a lot of fun and expanded on what was loved about the original. Being able to swim around as a blind salamander to Beethoven’s music was super cool, and that’s what made the series unique and what generated such a large fanbase. That’s why it appeared on so many platforms, and even a Game Boy version of Earthworm Jim came out around this time.

The Saturn version didn’t take advantage of the new hardware at all, aside from some improved animations and cleaner graphics. However, the game benefited from a great new CD soundtrack that you could listen to even when you weren’t playing. Earthworm Jim was a solid release for the Saturn, but only ports appeared on various platforms, marking the beginning of a three-year hiatus for the franchise. Nearly five years passed before Jim reemerged in a new adventure.

Of course, by this point he was a household name in TV and comics, thanks to lucrative deals with Warner Bros. and Marvel Comics, so it was only a matter of time before another sequel was announced. But Shiny was busy with other projects, and the emergence of 3D games proved too difficult for an established 2D platform star. Perry himself branched out, joining the advisory board of the Game Developers Conference and launching a website to help new talent break into the games industry.

In 1997, a Game Coy Color game called Earthworm Jim: Menace 2 the Galaxy was released by Crave Entertainment. This is another one of those games in a series that people try to forget exists (like EWJ 3D and Zelda II). It’s mostly based on the TV series (more on that later), and features Earthworm Jim fighting Evil Jim, and is a generic platformer that has nothing to do with the content of EWJ. They collected coins like coins and strayed far from the series’ roots.

years passed, and it seemed that the famous invertebrate was finally ready for its first original appearance on a new generation of consoles. Earthworm Jim 3D was intended to continue the plot of the series (was there a series?). But by now, almost the entire original EWJ team had moved on to other projects and companies, and David Perry himself wanted to pursue other concepts and develop new games. Moreover, Doug Tenaple had also left Shiny.

All these changes caused a lot of turmoil in the game’s development. Interplay bought Shiny, its license, and Earthworm Jim in 1995, and sold the publishing rights to the series in 1999. After much confusion about who would ultimately publish it, VIS-PLC (now VIS Entertainment) took over development of Earthworm Jim 3D. Very early in development, Douglas TenNaple and Dave Perry expressed some interest in participating, but the development team rejected their suggestions and input without reason. The game took much longer than expected (it was even canceled once!). For some reason, most of the development work was eventually completely abandoned, causing even more chaos upon release. It contained a ton of glitches and bugs, which led most people who bought it to return it. The gameplay was terrible (made worse by perhaps the worst camera ever put into a platformer). The appeal of the first two parts is almost gone. Even the plot is as bland as it can be. Jim falls into a coma after being hit in the head by a flying cow, and the player must journey through his mind to find all of the “marbles”. Hmm… Okay.

Earthworm Jim 3D also had feces, and took itself way too seriously, as “fart spurts” were the lowest level the series could offer. VIS-PLC relied on the saleability of the license, rather than focusing on the quality and gameplay that fans wanted, which meant there were even levels that were cut from the final game, but included on the box itself.

After stumbling into 3D, the series retreated to the safe two-dimension. In early 2001, Earthworm Jim was released for the Game Boy Advance. Published by Majesco and developed by Game Titan, the game was a port of the original game. The following year saw the release of Earthworm Jim 2, also a port and developed by Super Empire. Unfortunately, these ports ran poorly and lost a lot of its charm in the conversion process.

THE SOIL, HE DID CRAWL (it’s part of the TV show theme song)

When the first two EWJ games were released, it was clear that Earthworm Jim needed to be on a TV show with a ton of merchandise. Even the cartoon was inevitable at the time. Douglas Tennaple (thankfully) was the executive producer of the animated series, and had also worked on the lesser known series “Project Geeker” (another character created by Douglas), so knew the show’s writer, Doug Langdale. He was mentioned in the credits, and Jim even got to thank him on air.

Universal Cartoon Studios and Warner Bros. created Earthworm Jim in a different style than the original video game. The humor was very different for the most part (more political and sarcastic, and the characters’ behavior and designs were very different as well). Jim was voiced by Dan Castellaneta (the voice of Homer Simpson). Jim was originally going to be voiced by actor Matt Frewer, but for some reason was changed. Jeff Bennett voiced Peter Puppy (now Jim’s sidekick) and the Narrator. Peter had a completely different design. Princess What’s-Her-Name (yes, that’s her real name) was voiced by Kath Soucie and was very feminist in every way. Evil the Cat got very smart and brought a new character, Henkrat, under his wing. The series was designed for a specific audience and only ran for two seasons (23 episodes total). The network aimed the show at a younger demographic (much younger than they were meant to be), but it didn’t get the high ratings it needed. I’ll never understand how little kids would understand the jokes, which had political overtones and sarcasm, but it was still a great show.

A line of Playmates toys came out to accompany the show (I had them all!). Thankfully, the designs were based on the character designs in the show and were pretty high quality (except for Jim’s damn head, which is obviously too thin). The PC game Earthworm Jim: Can ‘o Worms also included promotional giveaways with the toys. Then, in 1995, a three-issue comic series was produced by Marvel Absurd. An attempt was made to make the game and the show more in tune with each other, it was a fun little series and not bad at all.

LOST IN THE DIRT?

In 2002, Infogames (now Atari) bought Shiny Entertainment from Interplay, and all licenses acquired with Interplay at a later date became the property of Titus. It is unclear as to who currently owns the licenses. The last game developed by EWJ staff was Wild 9 for the Playstation. It is a quality game (very fun, if I do say so myself) and although the way it plays is very different from EWJ, it has the same charm and appeal (Tommy Tallarico is also the music for this game!). It’s as cheap as a Playstation game can be and my local Rite Aid carries it, so I highly recommend it.

It’s a shame that Earthworm Jim is nowhere to be found, as this was once a great franchise, but as it stands… I’d like to keep the series as it is. However, while it would be nice if it ended up in the hands of Sega, Nintendo, or even Treasure (now that’s wishful thinking), I doubt anyone can make this series shine again like it once did with Shiny.

The complete release chronology is:

• Earthworm Jim, Genesis (1994)
• Earthworm Jim, SNES (1994)
• Earthworm Jim 2, Genesis (1995)
• Earthworm Jim 2, SNES (1995)
• Earthworm Jim Special Edition, Sega CD (1995)
• Earthworm Jim special Edition, Game Boy (1995)
• Earthworm Jim, PC (1995)
• Earthworm Jim 1 & 2: The Whole Can ‘O Worms, PC (1996)
• Earthworm Jim, Game Boy Color (1997)
• Earthworm Jim 3D, N64 (1999)
• Earthworm Jim 3D, PC (2000)
• Earthworm Jim, Game Boy Advance (2001)
• Earthworm Jim 2, Game Boy Advance (2002)