Some titles live long in the minds of gamers, and the classic Sega Genesis platformer Earthworm Jim is one of them.
So it’s interesting to hear that we might still get a proper Earthworm Jim sequel from the original team. That’s according to Nick Bruty, the main game designer on the title which Electronic Game Monthly awarded Sega Genesis game of the year back in 1994.
Bruty is currently running a Kickstarter campaign for First Wonder, a story-based third-person shooter featuring people in jetpacks versus monsters. He took a break from development to answer questions on Reddit and explained how the original team behind Earthworm Jim nearly reunited a few years back and could still do so.
“A new EWJ game with the original team almost happened about five years ago, but a deal with the [intellectual property] owners couldn’t get worked out,” he said. “I think everyone would be up for it sometime. Feels like unfinished business, but [it’s] hard to align everyone. I wouldn’t do it without the key players.”
Earthworm Jim has reappeared recently in HD form, but the original team weren’t involved in that project, which was a reworking of the original title based on entirely new game code.
During his Reddit session, Bruty explained how the Genesis game, which was pretty anarchic and unique at the time, came about.
“We had just come off a run of making licensed games like Aladdin, Terminator, Alien 3,” he said. “It was fun to work on those, but they were so very restrictive in what we were allowed to build. Starting Shiny Entertainment and having the shackles removed just led to a natural explosion of ideas. It was a very diverse team — one of the best teams I’ve ever worked with, and everyone’s personality got in the game somewhere.”
Asked about the GameBoy Advance port of Earthworm Jim 2, which Reddit user lolpancakeslol is “still mad about,” Bruty said it couldn’t be worse that the awful attempt at making a 3D Earthworm Jim game — Earthworm Jim 3D for the Nintendo 64 and PC. “Only play the Shiny [Entertainment] Jim games!” he added.
Bruty also shared his favorite Earthworm Jim title, which he says is Earthworm Jim for the Sega CD (featuring an extra level and password saves). And he weighed in on the age-old Sega Genesis vs. SNES debate, saying he preferred Sega’s machine over Nintendo’s. “I preferred the higher resolution, sharper look although the limited color palette was a pain,” he said. “I wasn’t trained in art so I only learned about colors as each game system advanced!”