Earthworm Jim

Honest. The next really big video game/TV/comic character— bigger than those pizza-chomp-ing turtles, bigger than those mighty morphing knuckleheads — might—just might—be a common earthworm with a superpumped suit from off in the stellar boondocks. You heard it here first, so you owe us, OK?

Earthworm Jim from Playmates is your average, everyday slug who discovers a robonic suit, a plasma gun, and a pet named Snott. He's also the first creation from Shiny Entertainment, a hot new studio that boasts some of the biggest talent in the video game industry.

Jim's adventures are coming to the Genesis this summer from Playmates, but that's just the beginning. According to David Perry, president and founder of Shiny, several major TV and film companies have already approached him about turning Earthworm Jim into a regular animated feature. Some of the biggest names in Hollywood are just itching to sign on as the voice of this slimy superhero.

Check out Jim's origin and his amazing cast of cohorts and enemies, and you'll understand why.

The Supercondensed Version Of Earthworm Jim's Amazing Origin

Somewhere in space, an intergalactic chase is nearing its gruesome finale. An interstellar bounty hunter and all-around louse named Psy-Crow blasts a small ship to smithereens. The ship's cargo, an indestructible robonic suit, plummets to Earth, where it lands on top of an ordinary earthworm named Jim.

Jim's soft, supple, slimy flesh interacts with all the cosmic heebie-jeebies of the suit. He swells to man size (well, more like Schwarzenegger size).

Jim finds he has incredible strength and powers in his new duds. He also discovers the suit has infinite internal space, so he can stuff everything from a plasma gun to a baby grand inside it.

Jim thinks he's got it made until he discovers that Psy-Crow is hot on his trail.

Shiny News Nugget №1

Shiny was founded by David Perry, the producer and programming genius behind Disney's Aladdin for the Sega Genesis. A native of Ireland, David began programming games on a 1K Sinclair computer and became a leading force in the English video game community before coming to America.

Shiny News Nugget №2

All but one of the people at Shiny worked on the amazing Aladdin Genesis game. The animation processes that made Aladdin a visual feast have been taken another step for Earthworm Jim's adventures.

Shiny News Nugget №3

Doug TenNapel, Earthworm Jim's creator, headed up the Jurassic Park Genesis team for Sega. Though Doug created the character back in his comic book days, he says the story for this game (and the crazed characters it contains) sprang from the collective talents of the entire Shiny team.

Shiny News Nugget №4

The name Shiny came from the R.E.M. song "Shiny, Happy People," which the team played continually during their many all-nighters on Aladdin. One of the dictionary definitions of shiny by the way, is "highly polished.''

Shiny News Nugget №5

When the team designs a new level, everyone is asked to contribute ideas and sketches on what it should include.

"We're trying to get everyone to think in a twisted direction," says Doug TenNapel, acknowledging that they often have to twist the imaginations of the programmers some, while untwisting the imaginations of the animators a bit.

Shiny News Nugget №6

Half of the Shiny team is British and half is American. So what, huh? Hey, these News Nuggets can't all be important.

Shiny News Nugget №7

We actually wrote only six News Nuggets. OK, five and a half.

Meet The Characters

Earthworm Jim's world is filled with an outrageous cast of monsters, mutants, and generally bizarre beings. Here's a few.

Evil The Cat

So evil, in fact, he runs his own prison planet named Heck.

Queen Pulsating, Bloated, Festering, Sweaty, Pus-Filled, Malformed, Slug-For-A-Butt

Well, her name just about says it all. Oh yeah, she bleeds acid and controls all the insects in the universe. Her body is an entire level of the game.

Psy-Crow

Interstellar bounty hunter and the evil ranger of the empire.

Major Mucus

A gross, gooey drill instmctor-type on a planet where all living things eventually turn to snot. Stay there too long, and you'll be snot too. We were told this joke was snot funny.

Chuck And Fifi

This pair runs the giant junkyard that makes up the first level of the game. Chuck is a big lumbering slob and Fifi is a rabid, totally mental dog who eats trash.

Peter-Puppy

A lovable little pooch who turns into a slobbering monster at the least convenient times.

Princess What's-Her-Name

Hey, get this! The game has a princess in it! And she's in trouble! And you have to rescue her! Wow, how do they come up with this stuff?

Professor Monkey-For-A-Head

The mentally tortured genius who invented Earthworm Jim's amazing suit. His human and simian sides wage a continual battle for control of the body. On those occasions when the monkey wins, the character's name is changed to MONKEY-PROFESSOR-FOR-A-HEAD.

Snott

Jim's pet who lives in his backpack. Secret codes will allow Snott to mutate into all sorts of useful and disgusting things during fights.

Shiny And Playmates—Partners In The World's Next Major Hero

When Richard Sallis, president of Playmates Toys, met David Perry at the Consumer Electronics Show, he could tell that David's plans for a new software company fit in perfectly with Playmates' plans for video game development.

"We simply wanted the best," said David Luehmann, executive producer for software development at Playmates. "David's group is clearly the best of the best."

Perhaps best known for introducing the world to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles toys, Playmates has the kind of marketing muscle and distribution power a developer like Shiny needs to successfully launch a character like Earthworm Jim. Playmates was key in forming the new studio and helping finance the startup. They helped create a state-of-the-art game-development facility where programmers and animators want for nothing.

"Playmates is like a big brother to us," said Perry. "They protect us from the big, mean world and open our eyes to all these new opportunities."

Playmates sees all sorts of possibilities for Earthworm Jim, according to Luehmann, including a toy line, a Saturday morning cartoon, and maybe even a movie.

"Shiny has created fantastic characters," he said. "They're the sort of ideas marketing people can really grab onto and run with."

A worm is hiding in his hole, trying to escape a hungry crow. Wondering if it is safe for him to come out, I he sticks his head out. He looks left and right, unaware of a suit falling from the sky.

By the time the worm sees the suit coming, it is too late to get out of the way. The suit lands on top of him, completely covering his body.

A strange interaction of the worm's flesh and the suit's particles creates a mutation of the worm's body and brain, transforming him into "Earthworm Jim." The suit has come from a battle in space where Psy-Crow is trying to retrieve a stolen suit. Amidst the chaos, the suit gets lost and and sees Jim and the suit, and thus begins the chase.

The characters are of a good stature, they all have an original look and have excellent animation. The animation must be seen to be believed, it's some of the smoothest ever seen in a video game in my opinion. Small graphical touches like snot coming off of your opponent in the bunjie jump levels or Jim's humorous waiting animations round out the beautiful graphics.

The clear voice effects and music score make this game friendly to the ears. Earthworm Jim is a stand-up comedian and sometimes, he just likes to sing. The booming and sometimes hilarious sound effects are really cool too.

Earthworm Jim is one of the better games for the Sega Genesis, with it's very diverse and a little strange levels and creative characters it is sure to be a game that will have you hooked for a while. You will be doing everything from racing a crow in a space suit to bungee jumping with a chunk of snot.

Jim the Earthworm is one character to remember. The earthworm dressed in a robotic suits who fought enemies was complex. He could run, shoot, swing on hooks and use power-ups for the blaster. I remember how good the in-between levels looked, when Earthworm Jim was placed in a semi-3D environment to race against Psycrow. Unlike other games, Jim didn't have to fight the bosses, but to find their weaknesses and exploit it. This was something new during an age of violent fights between chracters and bosses.