Earthworm Jim

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Shiny Entertainment

In Earthworm Jim, you play as an earthworm wearing a special suit while you launch cows into the air and shoot guns...And you battle an evil goldfish. That's pretty neat. There was never really a game like Earthworm Jim before it. It’s so weird, yet charming at the same time. It really felt like you were playing something similar to what you’d see in an episode of Looney Tunes with comedy, bizarre scenarios, and plenty of mayhem. The end of most levels results in an entertaining boss fight against a memorable boss (like the goldfish mentioned earlier) and sometimes between levels, you’ll race ol’ Psy-crow and need to race him. Win and you continue on to the next level. Lose, and you’ll have to battle against Psy-crow in order to gain access to the next stage. The controls may take a little getting used to for some, but once you've got them down, you’ll be treated to a wonderful and entertaining game. If you love bizarre stuff, then you will absolutely fall in love with Earthworm Jim. A lot of folks did…enough, in fact, to spawn some sequels and even a Saturday morning cartoon here in the ‘States.

Review added: 09/20/2019

Ecco Jr.

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Novotrade

Ecco Jr. is one of the better "little kid" games that I've played. It's basically just a repetitive hide-and-seek style game while you swim around as Sega's delightful dolphin or one of two of his other pals. Like the normal Ecco games, ignoring the game itself and just swimming around in the levels is fun. Taking in the environments and looking at the various sea life, is a nice, relaxing experience...And it's even mildly fun to do the repetitive tasks. Since very young children tend to like repetition, I can only imagine that they would likely adore this game. The downside is that Ecco Jr. lacks an ending. Your reward for beating the game is a level where you can swim around with your marine friends until you feel like calling it quits. Ecco Jr. isn’t a horrible game to pop in when you're bored for a few minutes to relax as an adult, but it’s not much more than passable. However, if you've got young kids, they'll probably love this game. I know I likely would have if I had this game as a young’un.

Review added: 05/25/2020

Ecco the Dolphin

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Novotrade

Ecco the Dolphin, for me, has always been one of those games where I have just as much fun, and sometimes more fun, exploring the environment as I do when I legitimately try to play the game. Swimming around as a dolphin is incredibly fun in the beginning and it’s hard to resist launching yourself out of the water and diving back into the water below. Once you begin to play the game, however, you may run into some frustrations as you’ll find that you’re not always in position to perform a movement or an attack that you need to perform, which can sometimes lead to plenty of unnecessary damage to everyone’s favorite dolphin (sorry Flipper) and/or plenty of frustration to everyone’s favorite player (you). That was sweet of me to say that, wasn’t it? It’s true, you lovable person, you. Anyway, even with some faults, Ecco is one of the most beloved games in the Genesis library. If you give it a try, you’ll likely discover why.

Review added: 03/19/2020

Eternal Champions

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Sega InterActive

When I first played Eternal Champions as a kid, I remember thinking that it was an absolutely amazing game and I loved it. Revisiting it all of these years later, I still like Eternal Champions, but I'm able to see its flaws. First, the combat hasn't aged quite as well as a game like Street Fighter II has. It's fine for what it is, but it's not a first-class fighting game in terms of controls. It's also probably the first fighting game that I'd played with a final boss that feels needlessly difficult - even on the lowest difficulty setting. It's not an impossible fight, but it does require you to be used to how everything controls, and to know the move set of your selected fighter, otherwise you'll likely be demolished. I'm fine with high difficulty, but easy modes are usually good for preparing the player for higher difficulties. Getting decimated on the easiest setting is likely going to deter most people from playing more rather than motivate them to get better. Despite those complaints, though, there are positives here, too. Because of the difficulty, conquering the Eternal Champion and seeing the credits roll is a great feeling. Also, a big positive is the cast of fighters - while not a huge roster, they're all completely different from each other, giving you a nice variety The graphics are also very, very well done in this game, resulting in those fighters being large and detailed. The stages also look nice, and each stage has their own "fatalities" that you can perform in them. Overall, Eternal Champions is a decent fighting game. It's not a must-play fighter, but it's not a bad choice if you're willing to put some time into mastering a difficult game.

Review added: 04/20/2025

Ex-Mutants

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Malibu

The Ex-Mutant comic books were kind of a unique concept…With Marvel's X-Men being a popular comic book about mutants living amongst normal people, the Ex-Mutants is a not-nearly-as-popular comic book about normal people living amongst mutants. Normal people being superior to people with mutant abilities, eh? That's kinda like someone saying that an empty candy bar wrapper is superior to the wrapper with the candy bar still inside, isn't it? Anyway, Ex-Mutants, aside from the weird concept of the comic book, just isn't a very good game. Controlling either a fella or a lady, whose names I didn't bother memorizing, your goal is to make your way through various stages of bland action until you battle the final boss, whom I also did not bother memorizing, and then you watch my favorite part of the game…the credits. I'm slightly exaggerating…slightly. Ex-Mutants isn't THAT terrible, but it really isn't anything worth playing unless you're one of the few folks that loved the comic book series and would love to play a video game adaptation of the comic book. Though, I'd imagine that playing this may actually cause some of them to become Ex-Fans.

Review added: 08/18/2023