Have you ever wondered what might happen if an everday common earthworm suddenly became the proud possesor of an intergalactic suit, that not only gave him arms, legs and a gun, but also gave him superpowers? Well, no, neither did we - but apparently, someone did way back when in the mid 90s, and so strong was their vision, that they even decided to make a game about it. A game about an earthworm named Jim.
Earthworm Jim HD is an upgraded version of the original game, that sees you playing as the suited and booted annelid in question, as you jump around the various levels, using your own (real) body as a sort of fifth limb (a bit like a monkey's tail), whipping your head around hooks to swing to higher platforms, and fending off an earthworm's worst enemy, the crow, using either your own body - or your gun. You can probably guess which one works the best.
This is one of the more frustrating levels - trying to protect the little pink dog thing from enemies, and his own stupidity, as he's apparently incapable of realising that there's a gap in front of him, and if he doesn't jump it, he will die.
If it all sounds very surreal, that's probably because it is, as Earthworm Jim is one of the strangest, most bizarre platformers around. Sadly, it's also one of the most confusing, and convoluted platformers on the Xbox Live Arcade, due to its complete lack of a tutorial, and habit for dropping people in at the deep end.
Of course, this is at least partially because the game's a remake of a much older game - back in the days when gaming was pretty much the exclusive property of the hardcore teenagers, and not at all the far reaching industry it is now. And while a few attempts have been made to make finding your way a little bit easier (certain parts of the levels are, quite literally, signposted on the easier difficulty levels), managing to successfully navigate around each world is still somewhat hit and miss - a fact that's only compounded by how obscure most of the things you've got to do seem.
Part of the problem is not being able to tell which things you can actually use, and which things are simply parts of the background. Randomly spiking yourself on something you thought was part of the scenery is not fun, and spending ten minutes wandering around a level, before you eventually spot the slightly glistening hook you need to use to whip yourself to a different area, or work out that you actually need to manage to jump on the gem, and run in a certain direction to spin it, when the game seems to be doing everything in its power to make sure that you stay firmly on the ground, is about as fun as it would be if you were forced to eat the hero.
Co-op saves the day, once again - although the most entertaining part is just laughing at how rubbish you all are.
Thankfully, however, Earthworm Jim is almost saved from the depths of gaming mediocrity by the inclusion of a nifty co-op multiplayer mode, that sees you and up to three friends taking on slight variations of the single levels as a team. That said, even with the entire Everybody Plays team playing, it still took us more than ten minutes to work out that we could had to use our body to whip a random wheel/ship's tiller in the level, that would then lift a gate - and that the wheel could only be whipped if we pressed B when we were exactly the right distance away from it.
Earthworm Jim is a game that's obviously been aimed at the people who played the game the first time round, and have strong memories of it. If that describes you, then there's a fair chance you'll to get your moneys worth out of this on pure nostalgia value alone, but unfortunately, despite a noticeable effort from the developers to make it more accessible, the game still remains just an average platformer, raised only by the co-op mode.
Format Reviewed: Xbox 360
