I initially had a 3/5 score logged for this game and complimented it for its expressive spritework, character designs and creative gameplay. I think I badly wanted to hold onto my nostalgia with this one, and it never sat right with me. I've periodically gone back, looked at that review, and chewed on it until it felt soggy... I know I should say something different and have a better discussion about what this game is and who its creators are, but I never could find the right words to articulate it.
Between Doug Tennepal's full-throated transphobia and Tommy Tallarico's outing as a hack fraud and pathological liar, there is nothing any childhood nostalgia can do to get me to go back to this, and I feel bad even talking about it positively in the first place. Even then, all the positively I showered on this thing was met with asterisks. "Yeah some of the levels suck," "Pete's sake is terrible," wow great, so it's an uneven Sega Genesis game and it is (seemingly) the only real claim to fame either of these losers have to their name. Doug is still getting into petty Internet slap fights over the relevancy of Jim, that is when he's not getting irrationally upset about lifestyles that have zero effect on him and slinging dogshit NFTs. Tommy has essentially been dark since April of last year, which uh, good.
The game itself is largely carried by its animation in the same way Ren & Stimpy is. God, why are animation industry dudes such pathetic freaks? I know Doug habitually Googles himself, so: you sure did draw that worm good, so cherish it as the only nice thing you'll be remembered for. There are some interesting level ideas here, and while I think the second game executes on higher concepts with better consistency, there's some real lousy stuff in each. And Earthworm Jim was never really known or appreciated for any of that anyway, so much as it was impressive that it looked the way it did on the hardware it was on. You can say that about a lot of other, better Genesis games.
I feel like there's more I want to dig into here; how there's always going to be bad people making good art, and about how we sometimes give tacit acceptance of the bad in exchange for entertainment. And I do think that's a subject worth exploring, I just don't know if I can contain that within a review about freaking Earthworm Jim and have it not spill into some "meta" thing. At the very least, it's something I'm trying to think about more on a personal level, and by the end of the day I realized I was far too uncomfortable with what I previously wrote about this game.
Adam Sessler voice: I give Earthworm Jim a one... out of five.
Oh no I just looked up the stuff Adam Sessler said, oh GOD DAMNIT!!
Between Doug Tennepal's full-throated transphobia and Tommy Tallarico's outing as a hack fraud and pathological liar, there is nothing any childhood nostalgia can do to get me to go back to this, and I feel bad even talking about it positively in the first place. Even then, all the positively I showered on this thing was met with asterisks. "Yeah some of the levels suck," "Pete's sake is terrible," wow great, so it's an uneven Sega Genesis game and it is (seemingly) the only real claim to fame either of these losers have to their name. Doug is still getting into petty Internet slap fights over the relevancy of Jim, that is when he's not getting irrationally upset about lifestyles that have zero effect on him and slinging dogshit NFTs. Tommy has essentially been dark since April of last year, which uh, good.
The game itself is largely carried by its animation in the same way Ren & Stimpy is. God, why are animation industry dudes such pathetic freaks? I know Doug habitually Googles himself, so: you sure did draw that worm good, so cherish it as the only nice thing you'll be remembered for. There are some interesting level ideas here, and while I think the second game executes on higher concepts with better consistency, there's some real lousy stuff in each. And Earthworm Jim was never really known or appreciated for any of that anyway, so much as it was impressive that it looked the way it did on the hardware it was on. You can say that about a lot of other, better Genesis games.
I feel like there's more I want to dig into here; how there's always going to be bad people making good art, and about how we sometimes give tacit acceptance of the bad in exchange for entertainment. And I do think that's a subject worth exploring, I just don't know if I can contain that within a review about freaking Earthworm Jim and have it not spill into some "meta" thing. At the very least, it's something I'm trying to think about more on a personal level, and by the end of the day I realized I was far too uncomfortable with what I previously wrote about this game.
Oh no I just looked up the stuff Adam Sessler said, oh GOD DAMNIT!!
4 Comments
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if it eases the pain, tommy didn't even compose this ost. at this point i question if he even DID the Sega CD tracks. does he even know what a DAW looks like?
@Weatherby he took credit for it so that's understandable.
"you sure did draw that worm good, so cherish it as the only nice thing you'll be remembered for"
Well, that and The Neverhood which he also worked on, unfortunately some great animation do have terrible people behind them like John Kricfalusi you mentioned in the review.
Well, that and The Neverhood which he also worked on, unfortunately some great animation do have terrible people behind them like John Kricfalusi you mentioned in the review.
Weatherby
1 year ago