Home Gaming Here’s your first look at Earthworm Jim 4 on the Intellivision Amico

Here’s your first look at Earthworm Jim 4 on the Intellivision Amico

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Earthworm Jim 4

Honestly, I’m surprised as you are. If you ever grew up with a Sega Genesis in your room, I’d bet my good tooth that you probably owned Earthworm Jim at some point. If you’re having a flashback right now that isn’t related to the Vietnam War and the absolute horror of Creedence Clearwater’s Revival’s Fortunate Son being used as background music, it’s one of cows, lethal goldfish and ascending your way up a staircase littered with lunatic grannies.

In 1994 when it was released, Earthworm Jim was a graphical masterpiece thanks to its hand drawn art, weird-ass levels and run ‘n gun gameplay. A sequel would arrive in 1995, a 3D game would butcher the series in 1999 and the series would lie dormant save for a Gameboy Colour game and an aborted PSP project. Earthworm Jim is finally coming back, for a proper fourth game on a console you’ve probably never heard about: The Intellivision Amico. I swear I’m not making this up.

That looks…alright? Earthworm Jim 4 retains that hand-drawn and animated style from the first two games, but it’s kind of odd to see that art in a higher resolution and with nary a jagged edge to be seen. For some reason, not having that pixel art drive the visuals just seems odd. But that’s just me! At least the iconic invertebrate still looks great!

As for the console that Earthworm Jim is launching on, that piece of hardware has been slapped with a delay thanks to 2020 being the worst year ever for productivity. “Due to the worldwide pandemic, we sat down with our retailers, manufacturers, component supplies, and distributors and decided that our biggest impact for launch would be to do it during a time when everyone else isn’t fighting for air time and shelf space,” Intellivision’s Tommy Tallarico said to GamesBeat.

It was a strategic decision that many people and partners had a say in. Our major retailers like Walmart, Gamestop, Amazon, Best Buy are excited and very happy with the new date that they themselves helped us to pick.

The biggest challenge, aside from COVID affecting [manufacture and supply], was all of the compliance testing that needed to be completed before even being allowed to sell an electronic product like ours. Because of our multi-country launch, we have over 50 different compliance tests we need to pass and they, like most companies in the world, are all very much backed up or limiting their workflow. We also want to ensure what we are putting out is of the very highest quality possible. We’re not interested in putting out an inferior product or one where we had to cut corners.

When it does eventually arrive, the Intellivision Amico will include games such as the aforementioned Earthworm Jim 4, Rigid Force Redux Enhanced and Missile Command.

Last Updated: August 11, 2020

10 Comments

  1. This looks like a complete proof of concept, rather than anything resembling a developed game. Maybe to gauge interest before full dev work starts?

    Reply

    • Steakout14

      August 11, 2020 at 14:51

      It’s wild because this was supposed to be finished in like two months. This looks like they started a few weeks ago?

      Reply

      • Brian

        August 11, 2020 at 17:18

        I mean, they STARTED in like 2007. I guess somebody finally got desperate enough that they didn’t mind working with Doug.

        Reply

    • Steakout14

      August 11, 2020 at 14:51

      It’s wild because this was supposed to be finished in like two months. This looks like they started a few weeks ago?

      Reply

  2. Son of Banana Jim

    August 11, 2020 at 16:45

    This is one of those situations where I’m a little conflicted, I like the earthworm Jim character, but I REALLY dislike Doug TenNapel.

    Reply

    • Jennifer

      August 12, 2020 at 03:40

      I’m probably going to get an Amico, but I’ll wait for a deep discount on Earthworm Jim because I also despise Doug TenNapel.

      Reply

    • Pedro Ferreira

      August 12, 2020 at 19:46

      Why?

      Reply

  3. wretch

    August 12, 2020 at 05:51

    Doug TenNapel is a piece of trash, do not forget that.

    Reply

    • Pedro Ferreira

      August 12, 2020 at 19:46

      How? Seems like a nice person.

      Reply

    • Joel Fulker

      August 14, 2020 at 18:19

      Is he even involved with this one? He seems pretty busy on his two crowdfunded comic series.

      Reply

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