Earthworm Jim: Menace 2 the Galaxy

Earthworm Jim: Menace 2 the Galaxy
Earthworm Jim: Menace 2 the Galaxy Box Art
Developer	IMS Productions
Publisher	Crave Entertainment

Earthworm Jim: Menace 2 the Galaxy is a 2D platformer video game, and the fourth officially released installment in the Earthworm Jim video game series.

Earthworm Jim: Menace 2 the Galaxy was released on the Nintendo Game Boy and the Game Boy Color on November 16, 1999.

Production

Earthworm Jim: Menace 2 the Galaxy was produced independently by designers Ike Melton and Nima Taghavi of David A. Palmer Productions, under license from the franchise rights holder Interplay Entertainment. Mark Cooksey composed the game music. It was distributed by Crave Entertainment.

The game box art is done in the same style as the Earthworm Jim animated television series. However, the European game had a different box art, with the box art being identical to that of Earthworm Jim 3D which had been released only a few months earlier.

Plot

One of Earthworm Jim's enemies from the animated television series, Evil Jim, has returned to cause chaos in the Galaxy. Our hero's evil doppelganger has stolen a doomsday device, the Inter-Dimensional Transporter-of-Doom, which he plans to sell to the highest bidder.

Earthworm Jim has to search numerous worlds for the doomsday device and recover it from his evil twin, on a new quest that will bring him face-to-face with many of his oldest foes.

Gameplay

Earthworm Jim cannot use his fleshy worm head as a whip or a weapon in Earthworm Jim: Menace 2 the Galaxy, unlike in earlier games in the series. However the Super Suit's Plasma Blaster is retained, along with four different types of ammunition that can be collected, of varying strengths and effectiveness at exploding enemies. These include a rocket launcher, a machine gun and super-powered plasma.

Jim's personal craft, the Pocket Rocket, is also featured more predominately than in earlier games, and is no longer used for just traveling from level to level, or in bonus stages. In Earthworm Jim: Menace 2 the Galaxy, the Pocket Rocket can be collected as a power-up, and then controlled and flown by Jim around the levels. As well as useful for attaining flight, the Pocket Rocket can also be used a weapon, as it can fire plasma from its front turbine.

Jim's helper Snott also reappears from earlier games. In Earthworm Jim: Menace 2 the Galaxy, Snott can be collected in a manner similar to a power-up. Jim can then use Snott in a manner similar to a space hopper, bouncing safely over dangers and enemies, and bouncing very high to reach previously unobtainable areas.

There are over 100 red "nuts" in each level, all of which need to be collected in order to progress to the next. Once the player has collected the required amount of nuts in a level, Jim can use the blue transporter hidden somwhere in the level to move on to the next one. He can also use toilets and doors to move to different parts of the level. Some enemies drop different coloured nuts, which give 5 towards his nut total when collected, meaning you would have to kill all of these enemies if the player wanted to collect every nut in the level. However, if the player loses a life they will reappear at the beginning of the level losing all progress and the nuts will have to be collected again, similar to Earthworm Jim 3D and its marbles.

Although there is a password system to access previously-attained different levels from the main menu, many reviewers and commentators found the lack of save points or check points within the levels themselves to be very frustrating.

Enemies

A wide range of enemies consist of giant, worm-eating Venus flytraps, evil sheep, zombie chickens, pterodactyls, candy canes, mutant teddy bears, aliens, and smiling faces.

Levels

Despite the back of the box advertising 12 levels in the game, there are only 9 listed on the level select screen. These levels range from spooky graveyards to jungles with worm-eating plants. Before each level, Jim has to explore a City to gather nuts before using a transporter to choose his level:

• Sci-Fi
• Laboratory
• Graveyard
• Bedroom
• Sweetshop
• Desolation
• Subway
• Garden
• Happiness

The 9th and final level of the game, Happiness, is only unlocked after beating the game. However, despite appearing on the back of the box being played in black and white, this level is only accessible when played on Gameboy Colour.

Every two levels, Jim has to face a boss:

• Bob the Killer Goldfish
• Evil the Cat and Henchrat
• Queen Slug-for-a-Butt
• Evil Jim

Gallery

American box cover art

European box cover art (same as Earthworm Jim 3D)

Back of box art

Main screen

Level listing

Magical teleporting toilets

Toilet world

Climbing worm-eating giant Venus flytraps for nuts

Jim on his Pocket Rocket collecting nuts in the sky

Using the Pocket Rocket to fire at a giant bee

Using Snott to safely bounce on monster plants

Shooting a Smiley Face

Zombies in the Graveyard

Graveyard zombie birds

Hostile earthworms

Having a shoot out with a mutant teddy bear

Shooting at an alien

Approaching Evil the Cat and Henchrat

Showdown with Bob the Killer Goldfish

Fighting Queen Slug-for-a-Butt

Meeting Evil Jim on his Pocket Rocket

Reception

Like Earthworm Jim 3D, which was released a few months earlier, Earthworm Jim: Menace 2 the Galaxy had a lukewarm reception from the fans, although the slightly bigger Game Boy Color version was somewhat better received than the smaller monochrome version. The Game Boy Color version has a 63% rating on GameRankings.

IGN rated the game 6 out of 10.

On MobyGames the game has a critics rating of 58%, and a user score of 3.8 out of 5.

On GameSpot, the game has a rating of 65%.

Trivia

• To date, 1999's Earthworm Jim: Menace 2 the Galaxy remains the last original and officially released Earthworm Jim video game in the series. However, the first game was remade in HD in 2010 to some acclaim.
• The title of the game, Earthworm Jim: Menace 2 the Galaxy, is a pun on the title of the 1993 hood film Menace II Society.
• Not counting the asteroid chase bonus levels in the original game, or The Flyin' King in the second game, Earthworm Jim: Menace 2 the Galaxy contains the one of the few instances in the game series of being able to control the Pocket Rocket as Jim rides it. It is also the only time that the Pocket Rocket has been used as an offensive weapon, not counting when Jim used it to ram Psy-Crow in the aforementioned asteroid chase levels.
• Earthworm Jim: Menace 2 the Galaxy features a large number of villains from earlier in the video game series. However, there are also some characters included from the television series who had not been seen in the games before, such as Henchrat, and the game's main antagonist Evil Jim.
• Earthworm Jim: Menace 2 the Galaxy marks the only time that Earthworm Jim has fought Bob the Killer Goldfish in a fair fight. In earlier games, Bob would be protected by his minions, only for Jim to defeat them and then take Bob out in an anticlimactic and effortless way. In the original game, Jim simply knocked Bob's goldfish bowl over, and in the second game, he plucked Bob out of the bowl and ate him. However, in Earthworm Jim: Menace 2 the Galaxy, Bob has no guards but Jim is miniaturized for his fight with Bob, who will jump of his bowl to fight Jim proper.
• Although Jim's recurring helper Snott features predominately in Earthworm Jim: Menace 2 the Galaxy, Jim's other recurring sometime ally / sometime hindrance Peter Puppy does not make an appearance.

See also

• Article on Wikipedia
• Article on MobyGames