It had been revealed previously that Earthworm Jim would make his triumphant return to video games in the arenas of Xbox LIVE Arcade, the PlayStation Network, and WiiWare with a remake of the original game. But what has yet to be revealed are any further details about what this new game will entail.
That is, until now.
One thing that was confirmed by Gameloft previously was that the game would be released first on Xbox LIVE Arcade, but that knowledge is now enhanced by the details that it will be exclusive to that platform for a one-month period.
The game will use the SEGA Genesis version as its base, though it will be rebuilt completely from scratch without any of the original code. In addition to the graphical facelift and smoother animation, the new version of Jim will feature adjustable difficulty settings that the first one was so sorely lacking.
Better still, the game won’t be derived solely from the Genesis game; it will borrow one thing from its SEGA CD/PC big brother in the form of an extra level called “Big Bruty.”
GamerBytes takes care to note that there are no screens available yet for the new version of Earthworm Jim, and have instead created the above comparison shot of the original with the iPhone version, noting that “we can hopefully expect that much care and dedication to the original game to flow through the rest of the remake.”
While Dave Perry and Doug Nepal, creators from the original game, will not be involved, one can still expect to hear the delightful soundtrack by Tommy Tallarico.
In addition, the WiiWare version is “being developed by one of Gameloft’s many development studios, and have several production teams working to maintain consistency between the platforms.” In the end, the games should play just the same as one another, with the Wii version only lacking a little bit of resolution.
In addition to surprises that will be revealed at a later time, fans and dedicated gamers alike can expect to find leaderboards which track a number of statistics, among which are total time and the number of enemies who have met the business end of Jim’s ray gun.
Finally, as far as a PlayStation Portable release as one of the platform’s “Minis” is concerned, it is something the people at Gameloft are “considering,” but they presently have their hands full with a number of other mini titles.
