Returning from the GDC, over there I got the soundtrack of the first 2 games for the Earthworm Jim franchise in a collection called Earthworm Jim Anthology. I already owned the soundtrack of the first game since I bought the PC CD-ROM version that had a remastered soundtrack on the CD for the BGM of the game. But this one contains probably the remastered soundtrack of the second game as well.
I have always liked the EWJ franchise, somehow games with wacky humor have always appealed to me; games like Psychonauts, MDK2 (the MDK franchise is in my opinion the spiritual succesor of EWJ), and of course EWJ.
EWJ games stood on their own not just because of the quality of the animation or the memorable and lovable characters but also because of their unique approach on the level design.
Not just every level played differently but also differed on it's theme, the second game's level themes where so bizzarre one can only think they were part of a twisted dream. So diverse settings also meant little connection between themselves and as such the story suffered.
But wait... what story? The only thing that connected the worlds was that you were supposedly traveling from planet to planet to rescue the princess Whats-Her-Name, right?
Probably this approach helped design and program diverse settings and free the designer's imagination, but IMHO if a game has a story you should at least make some clear connections otherwise the story will be broken and you will have a broken element on your game.
I bought the soundtrack because listening the first one's while I was drawing late at night helped me inspire on the world I was creating, I thank Tommy Tallarico for that.
The music has some clear Italian inspirations, as one could expect, I hope they take in consideration on playing EWJ music on a Videogame Live Concert.
I have always liked the EWJ franchise, somehow games with wacky humor have always appealed to me; games like Psychonauts, MDK2 (the MDK franchise is in my opinion the spiritual succesor of EWJ), and of course EWJ.
EWJ games stood on their own not just because of the quality of the animation or the memorable and lovable characters but also because of their unique approach on the level design.
Not just every level played differently but also differed on it's theme, the second game's level themes where so bizzarre one can only think they were part of a twisted dream. So diverse settings also meant little connection between themselves and as such the story suffered.
But wait... what story? The only thing that connected the worlds was that you were supposedly traveling from planet to planet to rescue the princess Whats-Her-Name, right?
Probably this approach helped design and program diverse settings and free the designer's imagination, but IMHO if a game has a story you should at least make some clear connections otherwise the story will be broken and you will have a broken element on your game.
I bought the soundtrack because listening the first one's while I was drawing late at night helped me inspire on the world I was creating, I thank Tommy Tallarico for that.
The music has some clear Italian inspirations, as one could expect, I hope they take in consideration on playing EWJ music on a Videogame Live Concert.
