Introduction

THE VIDEOS!
(All my videos should be downloadable on Viddler. Please let me know if they're not. Google Video downloads look decent too.)

OTHER GOOD THINGS!

Megaspel provides this peek into Jim's more mundane affairs:


Melaneus explains why you must be this tall to ride Circus of the Scars:


Melaneus forgot to sign and initial this contest entry:


Kite Ryagara stocks the cabinet with fear:


Sartak takes us on a trip to BraziWHAT THE HELL IS THAT


DarkDude98 smuggles marshmallows from Peter Puppy's planet:


CapitanAwesome solves his problems through rodeo stunts:


CapitanAwesome shows us Jim's wait for the Failure to Complete Game form:




ABOUT EARTHWORM JIM 2 (and this LP)
Chances are that, if you know the Earthworm Jim video games or saw any of the short-lived cartoon series, this is what you remember:


Wacky humor!


Sentient animals with various mental disorders!


All-too-frequent death! _{note: this one's actually from EWJ2!}

Earthworm Jim 2 (this game! right here!) delivers on all of these, and the gameplay is pretty good to boot. Sure, on the surface, it's another rescue-the-princess platformer... but you have to imagine that surface being the underside of a second-grader's desk: covered in dried gum, boogers, and jokes about barnyard animals. Fortunately for us, the viewer, the game's sound, graphics and humor held up well over time. In my opinion, this is a better game than the original, which is why I'm jumping in with the sequel.

The Earthworm Jim series does have a backstory -- it only has marginal relevance to the gameplay, but here it is. Prior to the events of EWJ1, a super suit from space falls on Jim, mutating him. Practically everybody wants the suit, including Queen Pulsating, Bloated, Festering, Sweaty, Pus-filled, Malformed, Slug for a Butt. Jim killed her in the first game, and now the heir to the throne of... well, some galaxy, is her sister and Jim's love interest, Princess What's-Her-Name. Note: this game series was great for names.

Psy-Crow, a mercenary, natural enemy of worms, and our villain, was supposed to deliver the suit to the Queen in the first game. Now that she's dead, he sees a chance to assume this mystery throne. He kidnaps the princess, takes her to the Lost Vegas system, and plans to force her to marry him so he can become the King. Also, he kills puppies. No lie. Jim is following their trail from planet to planet, and these are the levels of EWJ2. Most of these planets are "summer homes" for the villains of EWJ1, so many of the bosses from EWJ1 make reappearances in this game.

As a playing experience, Earthworm Jim 2 is pretty fun. You get varied, humorous weapons and abilities, and the straight-up get-to-the-goal platforming is mixed up with other styles. Personally, I think EWJ2 is underrated, especially when you consider the other platformers in this style for the SNES (the Bubsy games come to mind). But, well, maybe EWJ2 isn't as fondly remembered because the level design made parts of the game clunky or just downright frustrating. Precision movement and timing are needed to pass through most of the later levels, and hit detection isn't the greatest - maybe because of the cartoony graphical style. It's not as rough as the original, but... well, maybe you were better at video games than I was when this game first came out, but I resorted to cheat codes a lot in this game back then. Mostly because I wanted to see the fun that I would be missing if I couldn't play the later levels. It's a game with a lot of parts you don't want to miss, but they're frustrating to reach.

That's what makes this game good for an LP - you get all the fun, none of the frustration. At least, that's the hope.

I'm going to play it on Difficult - a couple of the levels have additional content at the higher difficulties, and it's just more fun that way. I'll be doing post-commentary on the levels with some edits that will hopefully fit in nicely with the style of the game. Expect me to mention some things about the enemies of the level and any story behind them in the thread and possibly in the videos.



Audience Participation
I'd love to get some audience participation going, so from time to time I will post some options for you. There might be some opportunities for guest commentary depending on what level's next.

Option 1
At the end of every level, you see these two guys:


And all they ever say is "well done, well done." I think we can do better than this, and I'll try, but I want your help. Here's what to do.

• Download the video of the cows I've posted (Viddler). (This isn't strictly required, but it's there for you.)
• Mess with it however you want. Overdub new audio, make the cows explode, whatever you've got.
• Send your video to phiggleSA a gmail . com - or upload it to a place where I can download the original file.
• Post it to this photobucket account (name: EWJ2LP, pw: Level8Ate), so they're all in one place for everyone to see
  Put your name as the title and a URL for the direct download if applicable

After my first three level videos are up, I'll start splicing a submitted cow video of my choosing at the end of each level. (Don't worry, I'll give you credit.) I might also make a bonus video of all the submissions near the end of the thread. Make sense?


Option 2: CHALLENGES

1. Complete Puppy Love Part 1 losing as few puppies as possible.
1st place: MonkeyforaHead with 7 lost puppies (3 points)
2nd place: RedHasSandles with 14 lost puppies and a grocery store of lost items (2 points)

2. Complete Villi People on Normal - no firing, at least 5 questions/6 lights of the sequence.
1st place: Slaughtermelon (4 points - 3 for being the first submission, and 1 for funny semi-related cartoon audio)
2nd place: MonkeyforaHead (2.5 points - 2 for being the second submission, and .5 for similar audio fun)

3. Complete Flyin' King while meeting one or more objectives.
Slaughtermelon mashes up the level and earns the only point

4. Answer why Jim didn't bring his gun to the Circus of the Scars (Inflated Head). See here.
1st (3) - Melaneus, 2nd (2) - ChickenHeart, 3rd (1) - Suenteus Po, nth (0.5), CapitanAwesome

5. Answer questions about ISO 9000. See here.
1st (3) - Melaneus, 2nd (2) - Argon_Sloth, Toad King, 3rd (1) - Sartak, Kite Ryagara

6. Write an epilogue for the marshmallow after its puppy-rescuing career is over. See here.
1st (3) - Gummy Joe, 2nd (2) - Argon_Sloth, 3rd (1) - mobo85

7. Make up a description for the final level of EWJ2. See here.
1st (3) - Do not even ask, 2nd (2) - Melaneus, 3rd (1) - Solar System Bus

8. Trivia about the LP and EWJ2. See here.
1st (3) - CapitanAwesome, 2nd (2) - CorvusMoore, 3rd (1) - iastudent

9. Make a The End/Game Over image for EWJ2. See here.
CapitanAwesome notches three points with the above ISO 9000 image

FINAL SCOREBOARD

Melaneus - 8
CapitanAwesome - 6.5
MonkeyforaHead - 5.5
Slaughtermelon - 5
Argon_Sloth - 4
Do not even ask - 3
Gummy Joe - 3
Toad King - 2
ChickenHeart - 2
CorvusMoore - 2
RedHasSandles - 2
Kite Ryagara - 1
iastudent - 1
mobo85 - 1
Sartak - 1
Solar System Bus - 1
Suenteus Po - 1


Thanks for playing! ...oh, would you like to start a new game? Sure, go right ahead: