Earthworm Jim… such a super guy. Earthworm Jim… Rockets through the sky… or some such nonsense.

Gone are the days of the Earthworm Jim Cartoon aired every saturday on Channel4, t-shirts and merchandise have been relegated to collectors only accessable through the most hated of online auction sites. In its prime, EJ was easily a B-List gaming mascot at worst, with his status reaching the dizzy heights of gaming only surpassed by legends such as Link, Mario and the Spiky Blue One.

Surprising then, that Interplay would suddenly see the opportunity to dig up and re-release Jim’s adventures for a new generation. EJ landed in the Apple AppStore and holds true to the original Mega Drive and Super Nintendo outings. With a quick run through the first level, colours and Animations are vivid and smooth with a surprising amount of clarity from the sounds and music blurting out of my iPhone Speakers.

Controls have been kept as simple as possible with a virtual D Pad located on the left and three action buttons on the right. They skew the view somewhat but not to the point you cant see whats happening. Reactions are also impacted due to the onscreen controls and the old “Jump then Whip” combo is unfortunately quite difficult to pull off much of the time.

Scrolling and jumping caused no issues in terms of gameplay, although one enemy encountered (the Charging Dustbin) seemed to cause a little slowdown but this was really only a slight concern in the greater scheme of things and could perhaps be rectified if played on a 3GS, for example.

With the full game on the AppStore now, nostaligia willing we’ll see Jims Second outing if sales are good, especially at £2.99.

Alex