iPhone Review: Earthworm Jim

Developer/Publisher: Interplay/Gameloft
Genre: Action/Platformer
Price: $6.99 (on sale for $4.99)
Acquired: Review Copy Provided
Verdict: The game stands the test of time, but the port to the iPhone has some key flaws.
Pros: Game still plays as well as it did 15 years later; controls work great
Cons: Save system absolutely needs to be revamped to let you resume from checkpoints mid-level, not just from completed levels

Earthworm Jim is a game that plays like it came straight out of 1994, in both a good and bad way.  The classic gameplay is still intact, and has held up well from 1994. Unfortunately, while the gameplay is intact, other odious elements of 1994 gaming have come with the game. Namely, a save system straight from iPhone gaming hell.

If you’re unfamiliar with Earthworm Jim, remember that this game has some history behind it. You may know the name of Dave Perry, who helped design some of the 16-bit era’s best platformers, including the Sega Genesis Aladdin game (not the SNES one), Cool Spot, based off of the old 7up mascot, and one of his first original intellectual properties, Earthworm Jim. Earthworm Jim had all of the great elements that made those games great – tight level design, unique enemies, exploration in the levels, sizable but never unfair degrees of challenge, great animation, and a sense of humor that made the games enjoyable to play.

In 2009, all of these elements have stood the test of time – Earthworm Jim feels as fresh and fun to play as it did back during its release in 1994, and it’s the kind of platformer that modern developers can still look at for inspiration. The level design, which is still aggressively multi-directional as Dave Perry platformers tend to be (meaning that progression through levels isn’t just left and right – you will be going up and down a LOT, so advancing through levels doesn’t just mean “go right and keep going right” – you have to actually figure out where you are going), is still very good today, and its quasi-non-linearity is something that modern 2D platformer designers can take notice from. The game’s absurd humor also still strikes a chord – all the characters are still as gleefully bizarre today as they were years ago. The graphics have been smoothed out and given a fresh coat of paint to look nicer, but they still have the great animation from the original, and the game generally just looks like you thought it did back in 1994, just now on your cellphone or mp3 player. Sadly, the game appears to be based on the Genesis and SNES versions of the game, not the Sega CD special edition, which was notable for its expanded levels and the exclusive ‘Big Bruty’ level. Well, in all truthfulness, I hated that level because it was difficult to beat (yes, I had a Sega CD growing up, go ahead and laugh, but Sonic CD was a damn good game and I will not apologize for it!) so maybe it’s a good thing that it’s not in here.

However, with platformers on the iPhone, the controls can make or break the game, and I am thankfully here to say that the game is not broken by its controls. The virtual d-pad is large enough and responsive enough that it works well enough compared to an actual physical d-pad, you can even use diagonals well enough that  it’s something that other games can look at as a benchmark for on-screen d-pads. There are 3 action buttons – jump, shoot, and the whip button, which has your suit use you, the eponymous Earthworm Jim, as a whip to attack enemies, or swing from hooks, et cetera. The buttons are a little small, but usable all the same, no complaints here.

Not everything is gravy with this iPhone port, however. The save system is borked or non-existent -  the only way to save your progress is to complete whole levels. This is inexcusable. This is not a single-use game system, we are talking about playing a game on a device where you have many uses for it – you may need to make a phone call, reply to an email, post a stupid picture to Twitter, or text your lady friends. My expectation from an iPhone game is that if I have to do this, I should be able to return to my game afterwards at a reasonable point. Being forced to complete entire levels over again is inexcusable, and for the first update to this game, Gameloft absolutely needs to add the ability to resume from checkpoints – there’s no reason at all for this not to have been in the game already, and considering that the game’s levels are not just short 2 or 3 minute affairs, the ability to resume from checkpoints (which are in the game already!) is an affront to iPhone gamers.

Adding insult to injury is the iPod music support. If you try to play your music coming into the game, it will be turned off, but you can play your own tracks in the game. Well, technically, you can attempt to play your own tracks in the game, as instead of calling up the system’s iPod view as a game like Inkvaders does, it uses its own interface. And much like the lack of a mid-level continue system, I have to ask if anyone actually tested this, because playing what you want is impossible. It seems to only play the first entry in a list reliably, or sometimes I’ve managed to get tracks from an album playing, but in a seemingly random order. I’ve reset my iPhone 3G, I’ve reinstalled the game, and it still doesn’t work. Yes, this is an optional feature, but intentionally stopping iPod playback and then replacing it with your own borked functionality is not the way to do things.

However, the good news is that the game’s flaws are fixable, and the gameplay’s innate quality is still intact. So should you pick up Earthworm Jim? Well, if you’re the type of iPhone owner who’s frequently attempting to multitask in the way that only an iPhone owner can, by jumping in and out of apps like a game of whack-a-mole, then maybe you might want to pass on Earthworm Jim if and until an update addressing the game’s issues is released. If you’re more a more focused grasshopper (who doesn’t mind listening to the in-game music, which is pretty good), and want to relive or enjoy for the first time one of the 16-bit era’s great treasures, then Earthworm Jim is worth a pickup. As a game, it’s worthy of an iPhone port 15 years later. As an iPhone game, it needs work.