Earthworm Jim (GOG)

An ordinary earthworm gains a stolen alien battle suit and suddenly becomes the galaxy’s least likely action hero. Earthworm Jim turns that absurd setup into a fast, loud 2D platformer packed with grotesque villains, cartoon violence, and jokes that deliberately push every idea beyond good taste. Jim’s mission is to rescue the vaguely named Princess What’s-Her-Name while escaping the bounty hunters and freakish creatures sent by Queen Slug-for-a-Butt. The tone is pure mid-90s animated chaos: heroic poses, disgusting monsters, and worlds designed around punchlines as much as danger.

Levels send Jim through alien junkyards, hellish industrial zones, underwater caverns, and other bizarre stages where the rules constantly change. He fires a blaster at enemies, uses his worm body as a whip, swings from hooks, hangs from lines, and bounces across hazards with the suit’s exaggerated mobility. Platforming demands careful timing, especially when stages introduce conveyor belts, falling traps, instant-death pits, and oddball objectives such as racing through a level while protecting Peter Puppy. Boss fights lean into spectacle rather than precision alone, with memorable encounters against Psy-Crow, Bob the Killer Goldfish, and other oversized cartoon nightmares.

What makes the adventure endure is its willingness to interrupt a familiar run-and-gun formula with nonsense that somehow still feels playable. The hand-drawn animation is expressive even by modern standards, giving Jim’s flailing, panicked movements and enemy reactions more personality than many cleaner-looking platformers. Difficulty can be unforgiving, with limited lives, demanding jumps, and levels that expect players to learn through failure, so patience helps more than nostalgia. Fans of Contra-style shooting, classic Disney-era animation, and challenging platformers such as Aladdin or Cool Spot find plenty to enjoy, while newcomers should expect an inventive but unapologetically old-school ride.