Earthworm Jim slithers onto the iPhone via Gameloft

Gameloft on Wednesday announced the release of Earthworm Jim for the iPhone and iPod touch. It’s available for $4.99 from the App Store.

earthwormjim Earthworm Jim is a remake of the beloved action platform game that originally debuted for Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo video game consoles in 1994. It tells the story of an ordinary earthworm who is transformed into a musclebound superhero bent on saving Princess What’s-Her-Name from Psy-Crow and Queen Slug-for-a-Butt. (Let’s face it, you can add muscles to an earthworm, but you can only go so far in the brains department.)

The game features 12 different types of enemies and nine bosses, four different styles of gameplay including side-scrolling run and gun, space racing, bungie jumping and underwater levels, 16 levels spanning 10 different environments, four levels of difficulty, and iPod access so you can play your favorite music while playing the game, if you prefer not to listen to the remastered soundtrack.

You can play Earthworm Jim on the iPhone or iPod touch, as long as it’s equipped with iPhone OS 2.2.1 or later.

http://www.saudimac.com/ Khaled

and at a reasonable price … is it a full rewrite of the game, taking advantage of the controls or using an emulator?

http://www.loopinsight.com Peter Cohen

Gameloft tends to price their stuff significantly lower than the AAA price commanded by the “big guys” like EA. If EA wants $10 for Madden, Gameloft charges $7 for their football game. Likewise, Earthworm Jim, which might cost $7 from someone else, is priced at $5.

Anyway, this is a remake developed specifically for the iPhone. It uses a “virtual” on-screen gamepad for input.

http://tewha.net Steven Fisher

I’ve never played Earthworm Jim, but at $5 it’s pretty much inevitable that I’ll pick this up next time I’m bored with a charged iPhone.