I never beat Earthworm Jim for the Game Gear. Wouldn't say I even came close, but there was a level that served as an excellent stress reliever.
In the preceding level, Jim is on La Planeta De Agua, trying to defeat Bob, the Killer Goldfish. To reach Bob, one must pilot a bubble submersible through a narrow passage among the reefs. Go too fast and the sub hits the reefs, and begins to crack. Hit them too often and the sub collapses and you die. But the sub can only carry a limited amount of air at a time, so you have to make it to the refill spots before time runs out, or the bubble will collapse, and you'll die.
This is one of the levels that hastened the death of my first Game Gear (along with NBA Jam: Tournament Edition), since I would die frequently on this level. Sometimes I almost make it to the end, but hit one rock too many. Or I went too slow and ran out of air. Or I was really off my game and was slamming into reefs right from the start, so there was no hope. Only rarely could I find that magical combo of speed and control that would lead to success.
Of course, if you could reach the end, Bob was a snap. He was just sitting in his goldfish bowl, no guards, no weapons. The whole challenge was reaching him. Somehow, that didn't seem right. Sure, it was nice it was easy, but it didn't provide an opportunity to vent frustration on him. Which is where the next level, Snot a Problem, came in.
The idea was simple. You're bungee-jumping over a pit with a huge monster in it. Also bungee-jumping is another of your foes, Major Mucus. Slam him into the cliff faces until his bungee cord of snot breaks, while not letting him do the same to you. Avoid the big creature when you're at the bottom of the pit waiting to go back up. It was a nice contrast to the previous level, which was all about finesse. I still couldn't hit the walls too often myself, but at least I could strike back against my foe repeatedly, give them a taste of what I was going through.
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