Lookout for Earthworm Jim 3D Beta Build!
Hello! We at the Summer Home are currently on the lookout for any leads to some Earthworm Jim lost media. To be more specific, the beta or development build of Earthworm Jim 3D!
Earthworm Jim 3D had a rocky development, and visually changed millions of times between 1996-1999. We've shared and archived most if not all of the available screenshots and photographic proof that the beta did exist in some form to at least be advertised in magazines and trailers. There's playable betas of the two previous games, but not EWJ 3D.
So, we must ask you for help. If you can help us potentially find any leads or the full beta itself, then please do.
We do have some links to forums or online conversations to get your search started, as well as listing out some of the known dev team responsible for EWJ 3D.
Development teams:
Shiny Entertainment
VIS Interactive/Entertainment
Publishers:
Rockstar Games
Interplay Entertainment
Details:
Development started in 1996
Beta contained Evil The Cat as Fear boss
Evil Jim supposedly in the game
Appearance of Pocket Rocket with fuel gauge
VIS Interactive went defunct in April 7th, 2005
People of Interest:
Chris van der Kuyl
Peter Baillie
Doug Tennapel
Kirk Ewing
Paul Munro
Ged Grimes
Links:
https://www.unseen64.net/2008/06/04/earthworm-jim-3d-n64-beta/
https://forums.lostmediawiki.com/thread/3026/earthworm-jim-3d-beta-build
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Guess who’s Birthday it is =D Jim turns 29 today so I doodled something for the occassion ^_^
Always open for commissions!
If anyone wants to watch I did do a review of his first two games the other year over here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_809sjSjLQ
And did a Let’s Play/Playthrough of the games the other week here:
1: https://youtu.be/zsE-D-acSUs?t=181
2: https://youtu.be/4lydMxmq0WY?t=116
If anyone wants to see more of my stuff the Gallery is here: https://warahi.deviantart.com/gallery
And here’s my Patreon if anyone would like to support the stuff I create: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=49390038
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Does anybody remember this game? Sacrifice from Shiny Interactive, one of the most bizarre and wonderful strategy games I've ever come across.
These here are my sister's fanart for the game's five deities, a colourful bunch. Oh, and their wizards/priests.
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R*st*r Studios droppin' more Earthworm Kim holiday merch! I mean, let's be honest, ya'll love it too.
We've made sure to make them reasonably priced, as well as being in multiple sizes for people of any weight and size. You don't have to be skinny to be groovy.
Whether you're a fan of Earthworm Jim but don't want to bankroll Doug Tennapel, want something weird, or want to support me and the content I make, check out the merch!
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look here's the thing:
"hey there demons, it's me, ya boi" "i've connected the dots/ you didn't connect shit" "rock n roll buckaroo!" "we're here for the cult stuff, we saw an ad on craigslist" "(wheeze)"
those Iconic Quotes? all from buzzfeed unsolved!! when has watcher/ghost files, with their stylized graphics and higher production value, ever churned out this kind of banter!!
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[Review] The Golden Compass (PSP)
His Dark Tie-in Game.
Wayyy back in 2016 I played the DS licenced game for the Northern Lights movie. I still haven’t seen the film but the PSP game is a decent way to follow up the Arctic animal companion game Never Alone, thematically. The DS game was unique among all the released versions; every other port was made by Shiny Entertainment. Remarkably, they put out the same game on PC, Wii, PSP, PS2, PS3, and 360.
The PSP might actually be the format it’s best suited to, with its cramped level design and disjointed gameplay. Or to put it another way, every other port was hampered by game design decisions built around the limitations of the weakest platform. My experience did suffer from mid-level loading and frequent audio hitches, not to mention the less-than-ideal PSP thumbstick. But there’s some kind of charm to the relatively low-res textures that are trying to capture this detailed fantasy world.
This version of the game certainly does a better job adapting the film than the DS game did (although apparently the structure of the game is based on a version of the film prior to a last-minute edit that rearranged the third act), with a richer 3D world and a mix of in-engine cutscenes and FMV movie clips. There’s spoken dialogue throughout with Lyra and Pan’s actors reprising their roles and everyone else with decent soundalikes, while the gameplay has a try at representing different tones and scenes with its various states and modes.
The problem is that none of these modes is well executed, at all. When it’s Lyra 3D platforming it’s clumsy, with a bad camera and no drop shadow. When Iorek is brawling it’s shallow and repetitive. Lyra and Pan are sometimes called upon to do “evasion” sequences of boring QTEs, while Lyra’s silver-tongued conversations are presented as gauntlets of tedious (and difficult!) minigames. These latter two also have a set of consumable items to make them easier, although you get totally loaded up with more than you’d ever need.
I do like how Pan has different forms that let him buddy-up with Lyra for different abilities: the ermine takes on precision actions and can scan your surrounds for interactables and lore, with the cat you can dash and climb, the hawk lets you glide Pathless-style, and the sloth(!) can grab and swing on poles. They’ve also added bits to the story which I always love to see in a tie-in game, although it’s mostly in the form of new boss characters for Iorek to fight, like an electro-tank, a magic shaman, a super-hunter with a wolverine dæmon, the witch-queen, and a heavily armoured flamethrower guy. But the strongest sections of the game are when it slows down and Lyra can explore an area, take in the detail they’ve packed in to make it feel real. These “adventure game” feeling parts also spotlight the alethiometer feature.
The eponymous device has a complex series of symbols, which Lyra gradually learns more about. This is often represented by picking up a big glowing collectible in the world, but there’s cleverer occasions where an object in the world will grant you the understanding of one of the three meanings of an icon, representing how Lyra’s life experiences are giving her deeper wisdom which leads to more accomplished use of the oracular object. You can then ask it prebaked questions, whether for plot or fleshing out the lore, using the meanings you’ve discovered and filling in gaps as a player by induction or intuition. Sadly this does then lead to another boring minigame, but there’s the core of a really interesting dynamic here.
Due to the nature of the story the back half is very action-heavy when Iorek becomes playable, although they move a section of this to the start of the game, I guess for a more exciting cold open. But it’s rarely engaging enough to not become frustrating or dull, even with how varied the gameplay styles are. Every individual part is stilted and ends up dragging, so ultimately the game feels like it both skips around and plods along. The sprinkling of good ideas, occasional cheesiness, and the strength of the source material can sometimes shine through, but on the whole... what a mess.
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