It’s no great secret to any of us that mobile phones are avatars of technological advancement, handheld embodiments of science in action that boast of smoothly-integrated hardware and peripherals. They’re also revolutionary bearers of communication, making groundbreaking transmissions on a daily basis as news spreads around the world and information is shared in low- and high-profile circles. Mobile phones have become emotional links as well, connecting families and friends and kith and kin around the world on ordinary and special days alike. However, mobile phones have evolved to a point where they can fulfill all these roles and one other: bringer of the fun.
Mobile applications have revolutionized how we use and see mobile phones. Smartphones like the iPhone, capable of running sophisticated operating systems, have also gained the ability to run small programs serving various functions, from serious ones like planning a business calendar or keeping track of finances to less work-based ones like using the built-in accelerometer to pretend you’re drinking a glass of beer. Mobile app developer Gameloft has stepped in firmly on the side of the latter with a long-missed mid-90s video game icon ready to make things “groovy” on the iPhone and iPod Touch – an icon named Earthworm Jim.
The Mega Drive and Super NES-born brainchild of Shiny Entertainment, the character Earthworm Jim was the star of a number of highly creative and offbeat video games. The main story was essentially that deranged space villain Psy-Crow stole a robotic suit that somehow fell to Earth, energizing a common earthworm and turning him into the hero now tasked with halting Psy-Crow’s actions with such weapons as a head-whip, a snot backpack and, well, cows that he could lift and throw. The games’ imaginative, sometimes irreverent approach and amusing upending of clichés lives anew in the iPhone and iPod Touch remake of the original game.
The mobile app version still holds faithful to the old game’s style – Jim still runs and guns as before, and the old snot bungee, head-whip and cow-launching cannons are still present as he traverses 16 levels’ worth of 10 interesting environments. 9 bosses and 12 different enemy types await him, and 4 levels of difficulty put novice players and old Jim pros through their paces as they attempt to master all four gameplay types – side-scroller, space racer, bungee jump minigame and underwater navigation – and finish the game, which has been masterfully ported over with a high level of faithfulness to the original.
Players can even access their music libraries and have their favorite tracks playing while they blast through the game, although many will probably opt to use the game’s cult soundtrack, which has been remastered for this release. In addition to the four difficulty levels [one of which corresponds to the original’s], the game allows players to continue where they left off before hitting Game Over, and the gameplay controls’ virtual pads faithfully reproduce the original’s easy-to-learn button scheme. All told, $4.99 is a steal for a port of this quality.
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