Nintendo Switch Online Finally Gets Earthworm Jim

When Nintendo Switch Online added Earthworm Jim 2 to its SNES library earlier this year, everyone scratched their heads and wondered “Where’s Earthworm Jim 1?” Looks like the worm’s inaugural outing made it after all — just in a different collection.

We got the Genesis version of EWJ — it should be in that folder as of this morning (if it isn’t, let the update download itself). This isn’t a bad thing. Even though the Super NES version of Earthworm Jim has slightly better graphics and sound effects, the Genesis version is considered the definitive version as the game was made for that system (and also, people tend to like the FM-chip version of the soundtrack more).

Earthwirm Jim is what happened when the team behind the Genesis’ landmark Aladdin game broke off from Disney and pursued their own passion of making the weirdest platformer they possibly could. The result was a mix of cutting-edge (for the 90s) graphics and a very bizarre sense of humor. There’s nothing like EWJ unless you count EWJ 2. If there’s a downside, it’s that the team went so overboard with the painted graphics and wacky animations that it’s hard to gauge hit detection or what Jim can stand on, leading to a lot of unintentional deaths.

Two other games are now part of NSO: Alisia Dragoon is an offbeat platformer (though not nearly as offbeat as EWJ) where you can incinerate the screen with bolts of lightning and have dragon pets to do your bidding. Beyond Oasis is a half-RPG, half-action game from an overhead perspective. All three are now playable in the expanded version of Nintendo Switch Online.