Earthworm Jim 2
- November 4, 2009
- Shiny Entertainment
From Evil the Cat’s’Circus of the Scars’ to the planet of Meat, join Jim on a madcap chase across the galaxy. Saving cows, thwarting lawyers and outsmarting Psy-Crow are all in a day’s work for Jim. Are you up to the challenge? Can you handle the awesome new weapons? Excellent! Then stop reading this. Try it now! Trust no one, play it yourself.. or EAT DIRT!
Reviews
- The game features creative level design with a variety of unique and humorous elements, making it a fun platformer.
- The visuals and music in the PC version are praised for their quality, often considered superior to console versions.
- Many players appreciate the nostalgia and charm of Earthworm Jim 2, highlighting its enjoyable gameplay and colorful graphics.
- The PC port is criticized for being a low-effort DOSBox version, lacking proper emulation and missing key levels like Lorenzo's Soil.
- Players report issues with controls, audio glitches, and overall poor performance, leading to a frustrating experience.
- The game is considered short and linear, with limited replay value, which may disappoint those looking for a more substantial experience.
- music30 mentions
- 40 % positive mentions
- 50 % neutral mentions
- 10 % negative mentions
The music in the game is widely praised for its quality and memorable tracks, particularly in the PC version, which features CD-quality sound and is considered superior to console versions. However, some players have reported glitches that cause sound effects to drop out after extended play, detracting from the overall experience. Despite these issues, the soundtrack is often described as legendary, enhancing the game's charm and personality.
“Earthworm Jim 2 is a fantastic game, the music is the stuff of legends as well as the graphics, gameplay, and personality it has, get this game!!!”
“Excellent gameplay, responsive controls, outrageous humor, terrific song and music, and fair difficulty.”
“The music is recorded, unlike the SNES and Genesis versions.”
“- horrible glitch, after playing for 20 minutes all sounds except for music have gone for the rest of the game.”
“- horribly cut compared to the Sega and NES versions - music and levels are missing, and there is no info about that on the Steam page.”
“I might be shooting something and all of a sudden anything that isn't the music stops playing.”
- gameplay20 mentions
- 20 % positive mentions
- 65 % neutral mentions
- 15 % negative mentions
The gameplay of the game has received mixed reviews, with some praising its responsive controls, engaging humor, and challenging levels, while others criticize it for relying too heavily on gimmicks and mini-games, straying from core gameplay mechanics. While the sequel offers improved controls and hit detection compared to its predecessor, it risks feeling like a movie-licensed game with a disjointed structure. Overall, the game is noted for its entertaining elements but lacks consistency in gameplay depth.
“Good controls, music, animation, and gameplay!”
“Earthworm Jim 2 is a fantastic game, the music is the stuff of legends as well as the graphics, gameplay, and personality it has, get this game!!!”
“Excellent gameplay, responsive controls, outrageous humor, terrific song and music, and fair difficulty.”
“Cartoon humor makes it rather interesting for the first walkthrough, their first stage in both games are amazing, but then instead of developing more on core gameplay they travel heavily down the forbidden gimmicks mountain path, stumbling and rolling, a bunch of stages being straight out minigames.”
“The structure here dangerously approaches the level of movie licensed games of old, the ones that force gameplay to fit a movie story.”
“Nothing more than a DOS emulator that has gameplay and levels missing.”
- graphics16 mentions
- 38 % positive mentions
- 44 % neutral mentions
- 19 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game are widely praised for their vibrant, colorful, and detailed visuals, particularly in the PC version, which is noted as the best for its enhanced graphics and CD-quality audio. Players appreciate the cartoonish style that effectively downplays any "gross out" humor typical of the era, making it visually appealing and enjoyable. Overall, the game is considered a significant improvement over its predecessor, with better performance and controls.
“The graphics are awesome, very colorful, and every level is full of details.”
“Earthworm Jim 2 is a fantastic game; the music is the stuff of legends as well as the graphics, gameplay, and personality it has. Get this game!”
“It's in-between 16-bit and 32-bit ports, mostly being like an upgraded Genesis version in graphics and having CD-quality audio.”
“It's in-between 16-bit and 32-bit ports, mostly being like an upgraded Genesis version in graphics and having CD quality audio.”
“Graphics: 5”
“The graphics look better as well.”
- humor12 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The humor in the game is described as outrageous and absurd, providing a fun experience throughout, with a mix of surreal and cartoonish elements. While some "gross out" humor is present, the vibrant visuals make it less off-putting. However, the humor's effectiveness may wane as the game shifts focus from core gameplay to gimmicky mini-games.
“It has absolutely ridiculous humor and is just a blast all the way through.”
“There's definitely some 'gross out' humor typical of the era, but the colorful cartoony visuals make it entirely ignorable since nothing actually looks or sounds gross.”
“Excellent gameplay, responsive controls, outrageous humor, terrific song and music, and fair difficulty.”
- story6 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 67 % neutral mentions
- 33 % negative mentions
The game's story structure is criticized for resembling outdated movie-licensed games that prioritize fitting gameplay to a predetermined narrative, resulting in a lack of originality. Reviewers note that it avoids the common pitfall of sequels repeating the same story and gameplay, but still falls short in delivering a compelling narrative. Overall, the story is rated poorly, reflecting dissatisfaction with its execution.
“The structure here dangerously approaches the level of movie licensed games of old, the ones that force gameplay to fit a movie story.”
“This game didn't do what many franchises did where the sequel was the same story and gameplay.”
- stability4 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The stability of the DOS version of Earthworm Jim 2 has significantly improved compared to its predecessor, with fixed physics and no reported glitches, making it a more reliable experience. However, users note that DOSBox can still exhibit some bugs. Overall, the game runs well and effectively recreates the visuals from the Sega Genesis version.
“Doxbox can be buggy at points.”
- replayability2 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The game is noted for its short and linear structure, which limits its replayability; players may return for enjoyment, but there are few incentives to replay beyond the initial experience.