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View Full Version : History of: The Earthworm Jim series


Melf
09-28-2005, 09:28 AM
In 1994, David Perry and Doug TenNapel created a platforming icon. Earthworm Jim was a huge hit, and he has since gone on to appear on a myriad of platforms. Sega-16 takes a look at how the famous annelid got his start and where he's headed in our latest History of (http://www.sega-16.com/2005/09/history-of-earthworm-jim/) article. Come on in and get groovy!
Sega Uranus
09-28-2005, 10:18 AM
That came out shorter than I wanted to make it... oh well
Melf
09-28-2005, 01:27 PM
Weel, the length always depends on how many games are involved. The Sonic article, for example, was two pages long, while the Ecco one was much shorter. There have only been what, 5 distinct EWJ releases?

The length's fine. :)
Genesis Knight
09-28-2005, 06:38 PM
That teleporting toilet in #1 is hilarious. Quite surprising when I first used it. =P
j_factor
09-28-2005, 09:11 PM
Corrections, because I'm anal like that:

Special Edition came out later, in '95.
Can o' Worms was a double-pack of EWJ 1 and 2.
EWJ2 came out in late '95, not early '95.
EWJ2 for Saturn didn't come out until early '96.
There was also a Playstation version of EWJ2, only released in Europe, and almost idential to the Saturn version.
Menace 2 the Galaxy came out in 1999, not '97. (GBC didn't even exist yet in '97)
Wild 9 their last game? They didn't make Messiah?

Good article though.
Melf
09-28-2005, 10:28 PM
Are you sure about those dates? I got the timeline off Shiny's site.

And I believe by "last game" he was referring to the original EWJ team's, not Shiny's overall, or did they do Messiah as well? The site doesn't say.
Sega Uranus
09-29-2005, 02:19 AM
I don't recall the EWJ team doing Messiah.
16bitter
05-07-2006, 01:25 PM
factor's right -- that timeline is wacky.
David J.
05-07-2006, 02:32 PM
Their last game before the Matrix games was Sacrifice, a PC RTS with RPG elements.
16bitter
05-07-2006, 04:11 PM
Also, what were the actual sales numbers for the series?
Drixxel
05-07-2006, 05:50 PM
The only scrap of info I found on EWJ sales figures is from David Perry's website, where apparantly "The Earthworm Jim series of games racked up millions of unit sales worldwide."

I'm assuming that #1 sold better than #2, but together sold shockingly well.
Obviously
05-07-2006, 08:53 PM
They were popular enough to spawn a cartoon series in any case. I remember EWJ being a household name for a while.
Flash1087
05-08-2006, 02:31 AM
Toy lines and everything. Kind of a shame it just dropped off the face of the earth after a while.

I'd love to see an EWJ re-boot for the Wii. Remote-controlled head-whipping, anyone? :D
Hiarcs
05-24-2010, 04:47 PM
It is quite odd for me, that this character resemblances gaming for me, and still i havent played, the reason is because in the past i have seen it in almost any gaming magazine, and still does in many.
bohokii
05-24-2010, 07:21 PM
i was confused as to why jim was unlockable in battle arena toshinden

K-LocvUT-Ms
Melf
05-25-2010, 01:03 PM
Probably because it was published by Playmates, which had the EWJ license at the time.
The Jackal
05-26-2010, 07:15 AM
The link to the article leads to nothing. Well, not nothing; just a page doesn't exist message.
Melf
05-26-2010, 09:13 AM
It should work now. Thanks for pointing that out.
The Jackal
05-26-2010, 09:16 AM
Yeah, it works now.
Da_Shocker
05-26-2010, 09:26 PM
WTF is a Game Coy Color?
Assman
05-27-2010, 01:50 AM
WTF is a Game Coy Color?

I'm not sure if you're joking or not, but if it's the latter, they released a color version of the Game Boy back in the mid-to-late 90's or so.
The Jackal
05-27-2010, 05:10 AM
WTF is a Game Coy Color?

Da Shocker knows what a Game Boy Color is. He's poking fun at whoever spelt it as it is above...
Assman
05-27-2010, 10:28 AM
Whoops. How the hell did I miss that?
Thenewguy
05-27-2010, 03:21 PM
The only scrap of info I found on EWJ sales figures is from David Perry's website, where apparantly "The Earthworm Jim series of games racked up millions of unit sales worldwide."

I'm assuming that #1 sold better than #2, but together sold shockingly well.From what I understand the American sales were very far below the projected sales, there was some kind of problem with the advertising or something, I think they made a fairly risque advert but then pussied out at the last minute by which time it was too late to replace the advertising, meaning that they were effectively without advertising for the game before it came out.

I would imagine the European sales were extremely good though, there was certainly a huge amount of exposure in Britain at the time.