The game has seen numerous incarnations but just like wine, Eartworm Jim never gets old.

Earthworm Jim ($6.99)

There are iPhone ports that tweak themselves a little too much, and there are those who barely made any changes to adapt their game to the platform. Thankfully, Earthworm Jim falls in the middle and gets everything right. It’s the same old game we dearly loved, ported to the iPhone successfully with a few couple bonuses.

Presentation

The game is a port (and clone of the original), so it does have the same look and graphics from the console version (SNES, Genesis, etc.). And it looks fantastic. The thing I love so much about this is that it’s not just jump and move like most platformers.

You play as Jim, the earthworm who uses a robotic suit to fight evil wherever it might be.  On your quest to battle evil you will go to the oddest places and battle the oddest enemies.

Controls

Controls feel great. By default you have a d-pad but you can change this to a joystick in the settings if you wish. There’s a jump, shoot, and whip button. To aim the ‘gun’ or whip, use the d-pad. Though you can’t shoot in the air you can use the whip in the air to swing a la Indiana Jones.

Like I said above, the thing I like most about this is that it’s not just running. There are different controls as sometimes you go into a part that requires using objects. For example when using the hamster to get across, you get one button to open its mouth (to  “avoid” (or swallow) enemies). Or when you must control the submarine-like “vehicle”. The controls are really nailed down and perfect, at least for me.

Gameplay

Here I go again, Earthworm Jim is not your typical platformer . Some people refer to it as a gun-and-run platformer, which I guess is a bit of a appropriate term for it. You play Jim, the gentle earthworm in the bionic robotic suit, who battles evil. Earthworm Jim has the same amount of levels as the originals, and they will keep you entertained for quite a while.

The gameplay consists of getting though the level collecting as many blue (coins?) as you can to restore your health, gun power-ups to give you more ammo, and “super-gun” power-ups which give you a plasma shot (more powerful than a regular shot). Like any platformer the main goal is to make it though to the end of the level.

As you play Jim will battle “mini-bosses”. Each has a difffrent weakness that will allow you to destroy them, but tis is a secret, you must figure it out though trial / error process. Once you finish the level. there are in-between levels called Andy Asteroids where Jim in a semi-3D race against the evil Psycrow. If Psycrow wins, then Jim must fight him in one-on-one combat in order to progress

Suggestions

I found one big con. The game, when you quit, won’t save your progress. So for example if you get a call in the middle of a level and answer it, when you come back you have to start the level all over again, which isn’t fun when you’re battling the final boss of that level .

Other than that the only other con I can see people having are the controls. Though I find them great I understand some people will have some trouble with the virtual d-pad, and they’ll have to get used to it before they have complete control of everything.

Conclusion

Earthworm Jim is a classic re-made for iPhone and Gameloft did a great job (aside from our little problem mentioned above ). It’s nice to see an “old” game brought to iPhone as a actual app, not a cheesy emulator like some others do. Keep em coming Gameloft.