Another potential EWJ game

For those who don\'t know about Earthworm Jim:

There\'s a possiblity that (once again), Earthworm Jim will be returning. Doug TenNapel (the creator of EWJ), created a topic on the EWJ section of the TenNapel forums that said

...a deal has been signed. A press release is coming. Just so you know first!

The thread can be found HERE.

He makes a few more interesting comments about the game.
TenNapel also seems to have a lot more to do with this new EWJ game than he did in EWJ 3D or the canceled EWJ PSP game.

Also, on Lemm\'s EWJ forum, someone questioned whether or not it is actually about an EWJ game (in spite of the thread being made in the EWJ section), and \"Lemm\" responded with

And yes. It is EWJ. For that I\'m pretty certain.

Also, this coincides with Interplay working on bringing back some old franchises. According to Joystiq:

...and in November the company [Interplay] revealed ambitions to rekindle franchises like Earthworm Jim, MDK, Descent, and Dark Alliance.

Now, in yet another earnings report wrapping up their 2007 fiscal year, Interplay reaffirms its ambition to secure funding for the Fallout MMO as well as \"creating sequels to some of its most successful games,\" notably the four listed above. To that end, it\'s hiring developers and will be launching a new web site \"imminently.\" Regrettably, we won\'t be seeing any of these games as \"imminently.\"

Interplay.com

Let\'s home something happens this time! Fingers crossed!

( Edited 23.04.2008 00:34 by TAG )

YAY

To be honest, I just want a new cartoon.

Always loved EWJ, i'd probably still find the cartoon funny now :p.

Holy shit! I would get excited, but I just know it's going to be on PS3 or PSP, or be cancelled.

Personally I was pretty happy when the PSP version was cancelled. Noone's EVER going to make an EWJ game that I can't play. NOONE.

Ye no way should it be on either PS3 or PSP, DS or Wii would be awesome though! They could make it much cooler by doing something involving stylus or Wiimote depending on which

They should do a new sidescrolling one and stick it on WiiWare/XBLA/PSN. The last time they did a game wasn\'t it that horrid 3D one?

EDIT: I say for download because 2D sidescrollers aren\'t that popular anymore unfortunately. I\'d buy it. The first two are classic.

( Edited 20.04.2008 19:02 by Mason )

I agree. Wiiware would be great. I'd also buy it if it was on XBLA.

By the way, I was just checking out Shiny's website, and it seems they've merged into a company called "Double Helix Games"

I've never heard of them before, they don't have a Wikipedia page, and when "Double Helix Games" is searched on Google, they're halfway down the page.

lol?

Haven't played EWJ since I had it on the Sega Saturn years ago...I should really try to buy that again.

SuperLink said:
I agree. Wiiware would be great. I'd also buy it if it was on XBLA.

By the way, I was just checking out Shiny's website, and it seems they've merged into a company called "Double Helix Games"

I've never heard of them before, they don't have a Wikipedia page, and when "Double Helix Games" is searched on Google, they're halfway down the page.

lol?

It's new. I think it's happened within the past month. Most (all maybe?) of the Shiny team that brought us EWJ had left Shiny anyways.

Mason said:
They should do a new sidescrolling one and stick it on WiiWare/XBLA/PSN. The last time they did a game wasn't it that horrid 3D one?

The team that worked EWJ 1 and 2 and little to nothing to do with EWJ 3-D. There was also another bad EWJ game on the Gameboy Color called Menace 2 the Galaxy, which another team worked on.
Doug TenNapel seems to be involved in this new EWJ game, at least so far.

!

I actually thought that the games were based on the TV show, I'm not sure why.

If it's actually pretty good I'll get it, no question. (If it features a flying cow I might just have an orgasm.)

It was originally intended to be a multi-media megaseries, spanning games, books, comics, cartoon etc. I think only the games and the cartoon really got off though.

Bloody brilliant they both were too though!

Yeah, I only have very distant memories of the cartoon. I remember it being pretty good though, unlike most cartoon adaptions. I guess it's because they were planned alongisde each other.

The cartoons were pretty funny. I have one of the VHS tapes (had another, but it got busted somehow). My friend has all four VHS tapes. Those are the episodes I have a memory of. I think there are episodes on youtube, but I don't think I've really looked.

I also have one of the comic books 8)
Issue number 2 (there were only 3. I think there were two different comics lines, though, one of for the U.S., one for the U.K., but both were short lived).

I thoroughly enjoyed EWJ on the Sega Megadrive, although i never managed to finish it i will probably pick this up if it gets decent reviews.

Earthworm Jim 4 is officially in the planning stages (perhaps further?).

And get this, there will also be a new animated series!

But wait, there's more! Can you believe it?
There's going to be a feature film!

Doug TenNapel will be the creative consultant on the game and will also develop the animated series and movie. Which great because, as mentioned earlier, he's been left out of the EWJ projects after EWJ 2 and the cartoon.

*SOURCE*

Also, TenNapel linked to the above source on his EWJ forum. This is about as official as can be. *clicky*

A new tip has been submitted to C3 already by me. I imagine that if EWJ 1 and 2 are to be on the VC, then there's a darn good chance of it being a Wii game.

Oh yes, I'm very excited.

I just wrote a long rantish post with a lot of swearing about how amazing this is, but it got lost, so I\'m just going to say these:

- More than a dream come true
- Worst late April Fool\'s joke ever
- Don\'t cancel it PLEASE.
- It had better be real
- FUCK! >.<
- Screw Pit\'s revival.
- *dies*

( Edited 23.04.2008 00:20 by SuperLink )

Wow. I guess dreams do come true, sometimes.

Last time a dream came true, this was born:

But this has next to no chance of failing to epicly.

Can we call this the "Official EWJ Thread"? Maybe? And I'm also wondering if, based what TAG said on the VC newsie, EWJ 3D will come out on VC too?

I know it's not great, but I've heard it's not that bad I'd like to check it out anywhoo. Would make a full collection of EWJ titles on Wii if EWJ 4 came to Wii aswell.

I like the idea of my own official thread 8)

EWJ 3D had a couple of good moments, but it\'s not worth the $10 (or however much 1000 points costs over there).

My favorite bit in EWJ 3D was on the spooky themed area. There was ladies bathroom, you could enter. The camera was stationary and you saw Jim walk in. You hear a scream, and as Jim walks out you hear him say \"Great googlely wooglely!\"
I thought the disco zombies were pretty cool, too. Oh, Poultrygeist was a nice idea, (the enemies on that level were ghost chickens).

( Edited 23.04.2008 00:39 by TAG )

Sweet. This could be awesome. It fits the wii perfectly. Cartoon graphics, toilet humour. The kind of game everyone loves.

I never saw the series but I remember the games they were awesome (hard for me but I was young and so most games were). Never owned them, but WOO for VC. Shall be getting. Wiiware games required also in various forms.

I\'m hoping its a 3rd person shooter/3d platformer/Adventure game influenced by Banjo-Tooie(thinking multiplayer mode)/Mario/jet force jemini/DK64/Zelda/Team fortress II/other good third person shooters etc, with elaborate extremely detailed and varied locales dripping with all the best ideas and jokes from the series. With fast paced deep and difficult shooter gameplay and extremely easy and fluid platforming controls tested on inventive and difficult platforming sections all based on great ideas from the weird and brilliant twisted logic and sense of humour of the series.

*pants

And online modes.

Think mario up really close on flat ground and when you shoot a star bit EWJ shoots one of his many ridiculous guns. He doesn\'t even need to be looking where you aim since his guns can be one handed for better platforming. Or you can have have a more fixed camera with him facing the crosshair for more traditional shooting with wii controls.

EDIT: Typos

( Edited 23.04.2008 21:48 by KingDom )

2D Platformer with ED graphics ty Even sprites would look nicer. Nothing would capture the cartoon feel more than some great 2D Sprites.

For this, DS/Wiiware is perfect. Or XBLA, but noone cares about them :3

I'm on my granparents computer, so I can't stay on long to post much.

Doug TenNapel is sounding really excited about this. Read this post from his forum:

Ben Williams wrote:

Just wondering, what made you go back to Jim after all these years? I thought you were pretty much done with the character.

Doug TenNapel wrote:

I was done because I had no control/reason to develop. Now he's mine again so there's a reason to develop him further. Notice, I said DEVELOP. That means he's going places and I'm not here to repeat what my pals and I did 15 years ago.

Interplay is being really cool...they're hungry, so they want to see Jim fly again. That's a different strategy than just sitting on a dead liscense and try to milk more re-hashes that continue to weaken the brand.

The old game was great, but there was no room to tell a real story. It barely says anything about Jim...it's the perfect game but not a story at all. The cartoon was pretty stale with really low production values even for back then. The toy line was kind of clunky-chunky.

I'm excited to introduce him to a new generation of people. I've done a few new sketches and he's really fun, funny and just more solid as a character. I have a ten page feature script treatment that I just finished to get a look at the character...see what a feature might look like.

I'm not going to say much more. I don't want EWJ to be all about talking up a character...I'm putting the goods down on paper. We'll give you updates over on the Interplay site and I'll probably start a blog to let all of the Jim fans in on the progress of the character, game, movie, etc.

What some of you might not understand is that I haven't ever had legal control of my own character for EWJ's whole existence. I promise to deliver my very best ideas, story-telling, game ideas and I'll demand the very best quality from all parties on board. That doesn't mean it will come out a hit...I can't control that. I can only say that I really want to make him shine so you won't get some half-baked, heartless piece of crap made to exploit you for more money.

We're going for it. Your support is appreciated. Go tell all of your friends and spread the word across the internet that Jim. Is. Back.

As long as there's no major screw ups, like Interplay canning this, then this should be amazing!

His EWJ thread is pretty interesting to read. That's where I'm getting pretty much all of the information.

Hmmm... I do love EWJ and the series theme song is always stuck in my head so I'll be looking forward to it. On the other hand I also want the people at Double Helix to bring back Wild 9.

What he said there is simply inspiring. That very last line sent shivers down my spine.