Earthworm Jim 2

Another BAD GBA port for a mostly dying series. Unacceptable!

User Rating: 3 | Earthworm Jim 2 GBA

By BobtheVila | Review Date: July 31, 2009

Now, EWJ on the GBA looks to have gone downhill, but without these reviewers, it's apparent that Majesco screwed them up from day one. It was doomed from the start because the first port was slow, easy and basic beyond comprehension. It felt like playing a preschooler edition of the game because nothing felt hard due to the simplistically slow physics and features. In fact, I see improvements in this game that would make me want to play this one over the first. This said, it still disgusts me enough not to want anything to do with the port.

Now, what is better you ask? Well, the new problems definitely make it feel sloppy and undesirable, but they do in fact make certain things faster and more fluid, even making the gun sound effects and jumping nearly spot on. Flying enemies and certain others are really making it feel they had improved, but there are, as the GameSpot review notes, new problems that render it almost unplayable.

Firstly, the game's version of the whip is awkward, needing to hold it in to get in a full hit. This makes it annoying when you think of playing with the original game in mind. Most likely, many will begin a whip attack and forget about the game's sloppy physics for it, only to have it mysteriously cut short due to not holding it down. Unlike EWJ 1 & 2, neither GBA port has any ability to crack the whip at a great speed. Now, while you can jump in a medium distance, there are still problems with it and everything else. While the first was another subject altogether, this one feels like the Sonic port to GBA. It's mostly intact, but limited into buggy obscurity.

Now graphically, this is one of the showings of laziness within the port. It mostly stands, but you will even see that some sprites have white pixels around the edges. Nope, they didn't even cut around the edges of the sprites fully. Another thing is that some sprites are doubled, meaning, four pixels making out one and completely pixilated. The game can look great, and then it can look awkward to horrid. Lastly, your jump, with other animations, will shift around with each frame. This leads the port to looking completely unprofessional.

In conclusion of both ports, there is, as we should all know…NO ESXCUSE! You can't even say that they tried. They don't even need these comforting statements anyways, they aren't homebrew. I mean, no other ports from SNES to GBA are this bad. Why do we need to deal with this? It's not GBA's hardware and even if it's a bad couple out of the bunch of ports, it's bad regardless. This being a dying series is enough to make this unacceptable. They are fun games regardless of any flaw, so it needs not this attention.

Other Helpful Reviews for Earthworm Jim 2

• Rating:1

  this game is a complete waste of time!

  By BiTtErT | Review Date: Apr 17, 2006 | GBA

  i reccomend to not buy this game. its absoulutly crap! its so not worth it. first of all its too dark to even see anything. and the layout is just thought about propably! i mean yes it is pretty cool the way you can shoo... Read Full Review

  4 of 10 users found the following review helpful
• Rating:4.3

  So so but not worth more that $5.

  By Caleb0379 | Review Date: May 26, 2006 | GBA

  The game had its elements of fun but the frustration of trying to figure out the point of the game made it lose its value. The music was good though; it compelled me to keep playing. Controls were ok; you just jump and s... Read Full Review

  0 of 2 users found the following review helpful