A much-loved platform game from Shiny Entertainment. The title character (created by cartoonist Doug TenNapel) is an earthworm mutated by
a mechanical super-suit from space into a somewhat awkward super-hero, who takes it upon himself to stop the machinations of the Evil Queen Pulsating, Bloated, Festering, Sweaty, Pus-Filled, Malformed Slug-For-A-Butt and rescue the beautiful Princess What's-Her-Name. His adventure takes him from the scrap heaps of New Junk City to the sweltering fire-pits of Planet Heck (home of the aptly-named Evil the Cat) to Level 5, the lair of the evil
Mad Scientist who invented Jim's super-suit, Professor Monkey-for-a-Head. All the while, Jim is pursued by Psy-Crow, Queen Slug-for-a-Butt's right-hand man who is intent on getting the suit back.
Yes. It's
that kind of game.
In the sequel, Jim must traverse the galaxy again, this time to save Princess What's-Her-Name from a
Shotgun Wedding to Psy-crow. Jim's travels take him through such exotic locales as collapsing underground tunnels, intestines (while wearing a cave salamander costume), a carnival run by Evil the Cat, and a planet made up entirely of paperwork.
The third game,
Earthworm Jim 3D for the Nintendo 64, had Jim taking a
Journey To The Center Of The Mind after one too many falling cows to the head.
Needless to say,
it wasn't very well received.
The franchise is currently struggling to revive itself, with a
remake of the original game promised for the Playstation Portable, but
eventually cancelled. A new, fourth game, is now rumored to be in the works, along with a new cartoon and motion picture, supervised by franchise creator Doug Tennapel.
Received a
cult-classic animated adaptation.
This game features examples of:
- Anticlimax Boss: Bob the Goldfish
- Brick Joke: The cow.
- Canon Immigrant: Snot
- Dis Continuity: Earthworm Jim 3D and the GBA rereleases are often subject to this.
- Drop The Cow: Quite literally.
- Down The Drain: Down the Tubes
- Cats Are Mean: Evil the Cat. He is in the words of the creators "the manifestation of evil in its truest form (the cat)".
- Ear Worm: Basically every musical piece in the game, which ranged from creepy Danny Elfman-like weirdness, to classical music, to funk/electronica/pop.
- Easy Mode Mockery: In talkie versions, instead of the ending you get a lecture about worms and a very uplifting speech if you finish on hard.
- Escort Mission: For Pete's Sake, although the puppy you're escorting ALSO happens to be the biggest threat of the level.
- Also, several levels in the sequel in which you have to use a giant marshmallow to save Petey's children from being thrown out the window. It's roughly 357% less aggravating than the first game's Petey level.
- Exactly What It Says On The Tin: In the PAL versions, "The Villi People" level was called, "Jim's now a Blind Cave Salamander!"
- Gainax Ending: Done for hilarious effect in the second game: "And so, having defeated the nefarious
Psy-crow COW, our hero, Earthworm Jim the COW, wins back the heart of the lovely Princess What's-Her-Name COW."
- Gasshole: The boss of New Junk City.
- Landfill Beyond The Stars: Subverted with New Junk City, which appears to fit the trope, but research on the game reveals that the level takes place in TEXAS.
- Level Ate: The Trope Namer, from Earthworm Jim 2. It's made of burgers, bacon, cheese, fried eggs, and other delightfully fatty foods. Also, it's the 8th level.
- Mad Scientist: The inventor of Jim's suit, Professor Monkey-For-A-Head.
- Platform Game
- Pop Quiz: Spoofed in EJ2, where the quiz halfway through "Villi People" features ridiculous joke questions like "If cigarettes cause cancer, what causes Capricorn? A) Poor-fitting shoes in southern France B) Dental Floss C) One and one half pounds of butter"
- Porting Disaster: The first game was on many systems, but with the exception of the Sega CD and PC version, it got worse with each one! It lost a level on the SNES version, and you should expect what happened when they tried to port a game that pushed the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo to the very limit onto the Game Gear and Game Boy. Also, PLEASE don't remind a fan of the series of those atrocious GBA ports.
- Save The Princess (parodied)
- Schmuck Bait: Parodied in the manual for the SNES version - it claimed that the X button "turns on the porch light of Mrs. Schultz in Germany. So don't do it!" So naturally, what did everyone who read the manual do? Press the button. In the end averted as it does nothing at all.
- Shows what you know. It's made her complain about it for years, is what it does.
- Scrappy Level: The original's "Down the Tubes" and "For Pete's Sake", and the sequel's "The Flyin' King."
- Soundtrack Dissonance: "What The Heck?" starts with a snippet from Mussorgsky's "Night on the Bald Mountain", then switches to elevator music backed by screams of pain.
- Widget Series: A bizarre American example. Trying to make sense of these games will only cause severe migraines.
- Womb Level: "Intestinal Distress" in the first game, and "Villi People" in the second.
- A Worldwide Punomenon: Just one example: the boss of Level Ate is a fire-breathing steak named Flamin' Yawn.
