EARTHWORM JIM SLIMES NEW HEIGHTS ON CD-ROM.Byline: Mike Langberg Knight-Ridder Tribune News Wire Earthworm Jim is to video games what the ``Naked Gun'' series is to movie satire. The story of superheroes and slime has just now wriggled out from Sega and Nintendo onto CD-ROM CD-ROM: see compact disc. CD-ROM in full compact disc read-only memory Type of computer storage medium that is read optically (e.g., by a laser). . Fans of ``twitch'' games, those hard-core game players whose thumbs are twice the size of normal, will be delighted. Earthworm Jim 1 & 2: The Whole Can o' Worms faithfully reproduces the original Earthworm Jim game, released in late 1994 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System  The Super Nintendo Entertainment System or Super NES (also called SNES and the Sega Genesis, as well as the sequel, Earthworm Jim 2, released in late 1995. That success inspired a children's Saturday morning cartoon Saturday morning cartoon is the colloquial term for the animated television programming which was typically scheduled on Saturday mornings on the major American television networks from the 1960s to the 1990s. show, now on the WB network, a line of action-figure toys and even a kids' meal at Taco Bell. Jim is an ordinary earthworm earthworm, terrestrial, cylindrical segmented worm of the class Oligochaeta. There are 2,200 earthworm species, found all over the world except in arid and arctic regions and ranging in size from 1 in. (2.5 cm) to the 11-ft (330-cm) giant worms of the tropics. who is one day struck by ``an all-powerful, indestructible cyber-suit'' that has plummeted to the ground from outer space. Hey, it could happen. Anyway, the suit transforms Jim into a goofy superhero who is trying to rescue the beautiful Princess What's-Her-Name from the evil Queen Pulsating, Bloated, Festering fes·ter v. fes·tered, fes·ter·ing, fes·ters v.intr. 1. To generate pus; suppurate. 2. To form an ulcer. 3. To undergo decay; rot. 4. a. , Sweaty, Pus-filled, Malformed mal·formed adj. Abnormally or faultily formed. , Slug-for-a-Butt. Assisting the queen are henchmen including Psy-Crow and Professor Monkey-for-a-Head, while Jim gets help from his friend Snott who is - er, um - a large animated pile of green snot snot n. Nasal mucus; phlegm. . The game follows the typical ``side scroller'' format common to Sega and Nintendo. Using the arrow keys on the keyboard or a hand-held game controller, you move Jim from left to right through various obstacles, firing a variety of weapons and using Jim's ultimate weapon: a whiplike snap of his segmented head. Surviving the eight levels of Earthworm Jim 1 and nine levels of Earthworm Jim 2 requires getting our slimy hero through numerous comic catastrophes. In the first level of the first game, for example, Jim has to drop a refrigerator on a log to catapult a cow out of his way. Jim must grab hold of a pig in the first level of the second game, then send the pig down a chute in order to distract a bad guy. On the dreaded ``ISO (1) See ISO speed. (2) (International Organization for Standardization, Geneva, Switzerland, www.iso.ch) An organization that sets international standards, founded in 1946. The U.S. member body is ANSI. 9000'' level in the second game, Jim must overcome treacherous lawyers and accountants to get the right form for renewing his rocket pilot's license. Earthworm Jim was a big hit with video-game players because it works on several levels. Children, of course, love the action and gross-out allusions to worms and mucus. Adults can appreciate the steady stream of satiric jabs at the often stilted and narrow world of video games. Like any good video game, Earthworm Jim is slightly addictive. You just can't wait to get Jim up the staircase blocked by falling grandmothers, or figure out how to save a room full of helpless puppies. And, unlike some video games I detest, there is no stooping to graphic violence as a way of grabbing your attention. |
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