Pirate Game of the Week 005: Earth Worm Jim 3 (FC)

This week we have yet another Famicom entry. This game was released as many different games. I will use the number 3 since that's the one it has been mostly known as. In fact, I would suggest you play this game instead of the Playstation release which was awful. When you think of pirates you always think of horrible gameplay but believe it or not, there are some good ones out there. This game is in fact pretty good. It deserves a lot of credit as the creators of this game did the best job they could to mimic the SNES release of it. But why call it Earth Worm Jim 3? I'm guessing these guys were so disgusted by the third release that they decided to take matters into their own hands and create a decent third installment to the franchise.

The gameplay was done quite well and is very responsive. The level design is decent and does its best to mimic the SNES version. They even added the select button function to switch from your head whip to your gun since the NES/Famicom controller doesn't have as many buttons as the SNES controller, now that's impressive. The bosses are awfully easy so you'll be able to get through with ease. The music is so-so as they tried to copy the SNES sound score although they felt short from making it successful, it was a good attempt nonetheless. You will be able to tell which song is which so no worries there. For 8-bit music, it's what you get for it.

This game reminds me a lot about Boogerman which I will be discussing in the coming weeks but for now you'll have to settle with Jim. It does show some similarities to Boogerman hmm maybe they used the same engine? Who knows but both deliver quite well and better than other original pirates. So as usual, here is the rom now off you go into another pirate adventure arrrrrr!

Earth Worm Jim 3

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