Earthworm Jim 3D

Earthworm Jim will always rate some stars just for the comedy value of the games. However, this game is spoiled by glitchy controls and a camera that simply refuses to cooperate. It's sadly indicative of the 3rd person action genre that these issues have continued to plague gamers to this day. My advice, play the original 2d platform games, and leave it at that.

It's hard not to be enamored with the Earthworm Jim universe. The previous two installments aren't perfect, but they existed in a totally unique world with just the right balance of cleverness, atmosphere, and oddball humor. However, those two games are in 2D; Jim's transition to a new dimension didn't come out so well. This game is your basic half-baked 3D platformer with EWJ characters and setups. The technical aspects of the game --even taking its age into account-- are inexcusable. Collision is rough, combat is clunky, quests and levels are repetitive, the platforming segments are choppy and unforgiving, and the graphics are just 'meh'. The camera system is lackadaisical and schizophrenic, and boss battles are oftentimes frustrating and bland. What did this game get right? The IP. If this were just any other game, and it might as well be, this probably wouldn't even be up for download. This game's pedigree grants the quirky moments some resonance, and they don't seem too out-of-place here. However, this game feels like it's trying too hard and doesn't quite make it. It's extraordinarily rough around the edges. Even back when it was released, it wasn't up to snuff. Now, it's painfully so. Casual fans should stay away; this game is only meant for hardcore EWJ fans or those with strong wills to put up with inadequate programming and design.

It's a hard game, very frustrating, lousy camera controls, unfair deaths, lots of backtracking if you die, yes. But the ONE THING no here is mentioning is that the game has ZERO controller support. So if you thought the game was hard when it was originally on the N64 with a proper controller, now try playing it on a keyboard! I don't know why publishers/developers keep releasing their retro console titles and GOG keeps accepting them WITHOUT ANY CONTROLLER SUPPORT; what's the point, if you can't even re-create the console experience?! Your competitors are able to include controller support in their games; you should too! I'm so glad that everyone here is so adept at gaming on their keyboard...

Oh man, well, I loveeeeeeee earthworm Jim. I love the TV show, have it on DVD. As much as I wanted to love this game, it's pretty rough. It's fun to see the Jim in 3d, but this is one of those games that was just trying to cash in to the whole new 3d thing at the time. It's definitely not as fun as the 2d EJ 1 & 2, get those first before playing this, or actually play this first, then play those, and you will never come back to this one. It's great finding it, after all these years on a site like this, but save the money and get something better like Fallout or Fallout 2 :)