Earthworm Jim (1996)
Earthworm Jim is a 1996 shooter video game made by Shiny Entertainment and Virgin Interactive Entertainment.
Jim was an earthworm, humble and purposeless, until a super suit fell from space and landed on him. Now he blasts through chaotic alien environments with a plasma blaster and the confidence of someone who has nothing to lose. Evil the Cat, Queen Slug-for-a-Butt, and Bob the Killer Goldfish stand between him and victory. The game runs on pure absurdist energy: every level invents a new rule for itself, the humor lands like a Tex Avery cartoon, and Jim swings his own head as a weapon when the situation calls for it.
Quick answers
What is Earthworm Jim about?
Jim was an earthworm, humble and purposeless, until a super suit fell from space and landed on him. Now he blasts through chaotic alien environments with a plasma blaster and the confidence of someone who has nothing to lose. Evil the Cat, Queen Slug-for-a-Butt, and Bob the Killer Goldfish stand between him and victory. The game runs on pure absurdist energy: every level invents a new rule for itself, the humor lands like a Tex Avery cartoon, and Jim swings his own head as a weapon when the situation calls for it.
When was Earthworm Jim released?
Earthworm Jim was released on 30 April 1996.
Who made Earthworm Jim?
Earthworm Jim was made by Shiny Entertainment, Virgin Interactive Entertainment and Activision.
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Explore Earthworm Jim guides
A few thoughts on Earthworm Jim
The animated series Earthworm Jim ran alongside the games with the same voice cast and writers, expanding the same universe by the same logic: the premise exists only to justify new scenarios. If Jim's particular brand of weaponized nonsense works for you, the show delivers more of it with the same anarchic energy.
Video game heroes who got their own Saturday-morning cartoon
Earthworm Jim already got the Saturday-morning treatment with its own 1995 cartoon, chaos and all. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Doraemon prove a ridiculous premise, ninja turtles, a robot cat from the future, can carry a whole show, My Hero Academia turns an ordinary kid's sudden powers into constant slapstick and stakes, and Miraculous keeps its magical transformations just as playful as Jim swinging his own head at enemies.
Gross-out, deadpan comedy that still has bite
Earthworm Jim earns its laughs by leaning all the way into gross-out absurdity, from Bob the Killer Goldfish to a boss called Queen Slug-for-a-Butt. Portal and Portal 2 get their own dry comic timing from a homicidal AI, The Boys turns superhero carnage into punchline after punchline, and Assassination Classroom and Ranma ½ prove a premise can be completely ridiculous and still hit hard.
Campy, pulpy science fiction energy in music form
Earthworm Jim's plasma-blaster chaos runs on pure B-movie sci-fi energy, and that same pulpy charge shows up across music too. The Prodigy's The Fat of the Land hits with the same breakneck momentum, Repo! The Genetic Opera and Simulation Theory lean into camp on purpose, and Deltron 3030 and Blade Runner build their own retro-futuristic worlds out of pure style.