Earthworm Jim

A worm with a gun instead of hands — that's Earthworm Jim, and when you first grab the controller, you feel like you've picked up something alive and squirming. The Sega Mega Drive got one of the craziest platformers of its era in 1994, created by Doug Tennapel. This game has no intention of being normal, and that's exactly why you'll keep coming back.

You play through four levels — each one is a different flavor of insane. You're a worm in a rocket suit, jumping and firing spit as projectiles. Stop expecting logic. The levels range from vehicles through robotic environments to outright absurdity — and each one looks completely different. The end of each level brings a surreal boss fight with some weird enemy. The game knows what it's about: chaos is a design choice, not a bug.

The controls are snappy, but sometimes those worm legs don't quite obey your intentions — this worm hops on its own path and you're trying to steer it. It's a bit frustrating, especially when you tumble into a pit you didn't see clearly. Shooting works solidly, but you're really just firing spit, which looks hilarious and plays without a shred of self-consciousness. The graphics? Surreal, colorful, packed with background details that don't matter at all but beautify the world.

Earthworm Jim brought a dose of madness to nineties platformers that few games had. The same team behind the animated series of the same name, so you're in the middle of an author's vision, not generic arcade fare. The game has aged reasonably well — it looks sharp on modern displays and still plays at a snappy pace. Only those jump precision moments occasionally sting.

Play it today if you love something unconventional, if a bit of control frustration won't scare you off, and if you want to remember when the nineties were allowed to be weird without apology.