The multiplayer similarly struggles to find its’ own identity. When making large jumps we’ve been trained to get a running start and jump at the last possible second, but more often than not that last possible second comes sooner in Earthworm Jim than it feels like it should. Jim’s jumps also feel quite different to those possessed by other classic characters. Sometimes you’ll jump towards a ledge expecting Jim to grab it and he won’t, or worse yet you’ll clip a spike and die, having thought it was a background element and of no immediate danger.

Platforming in Earthworm Jim has always felt a bit dodgy because of the actual platforms that Jim deals with it can often be difficult to differentiate what pieces of the level can actually be interacted with. In these new modes arrows have been peppered throughout, bosses now have health bars, attacks deal less damage and so on, but one of the fundamental issues of the original that inadvertently made it more difficult has not been resolved. To address this Gameloft has added three new difficulty levels, in addition to the option to play HD in its Original difficulty. The other major hurdle for new initiates would likely have been the extreme difficulty of classic Earthworm Jim. It’s literally filled wall to wall with so much absurd nonsense that no amount of shoehorned explanation could ever do it proper justice. Earthworm Jim isn’t so much a product of its time as it is the product of someone’s mind. Gameloft, developers of this new HD version, have made subtle attempts to flesh out the universe for new players with a brand new prologue comic and level descriptions, but the game still feels completely random.

There’s absolutely no context to let players know where they are, who they’re dealing with or why.

The problem with remaking Earthworm Jim today is gamers’ expectations are much different than those found during the 16-bit era Jim barely has a story to speak of.

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