This was unquestionably Earthworm Jim's peak.
Princess What's-Her-Name has been kidnapped by Jim's Arch-Enemy, Psychrow, and it's up to our detrivorous, supersuited hero to reach stop the fiend before he forces the princess to marry him at a quick, non-consent marriage center in the Lost Vegas system.
You'll traverse across 10 wild levels, and not just in the typical run and gun/platforming style but there are lots of gimmicky stages as well.
If you thought the previous game was weird, try this one on for size. The wackiness is cranked up to 11. I'm talking about Jim playing in game shows while dressed as a blind salamander, rescuing puppies with a giant marshmallow, using cow milking machines to open gates, and much more.
The enemies and traps are just as goofy, such as falling old women, electric chairs, hopping file cabinets, giant sentient saltshakers. The list goes on.
The controls are smooth and fully responsive, though some hidden items can be tricky to reach at times. Plus, Jim's hover ability has been replaced by a sentient booger named Snot who acts as a parachute or grappling hook to reach certain areas. You can even use a manta ray for a shield to give Jim a few seconds of invincibility.
You'll have access to new weapons, such as the homing missile launcher (which fires actual houses), the barn blaster, a three-finger blaster, and, as a joke, a bubble gun.
The soundtrack, courtesy of Tommy Tallarico, consists of catchy and quirky tunes that fits the series like a glove, from the nifty techno in "Anything But Tangerines" to Beethoven's soothing Moonlight Sonata in "Jim's Now a Blind Cave Salamander".
The graphics and backgrounds are colorful and well-rendered. I especially liked the blind salamander level the most with the spotlight following and enclosing around Jim and the fluid Villi writhing n the background.
The sound effects are an amusing mixture of cartoon and sci-fi noises, from the weapons and enemy sound effects to Jim's voice clips.
The difficulty is taken down a notch from the original, though that helped endear the game to more players.
