As many of us know the Earthworm Jim was one of popular platform series back in the 90’s especially during the 16 bit era.  When Earthworm Jim 1 & 2 was released they received great receptions from critics for different things such graphics,  gameplay and having high replay values.  By the time the Earthworm Jim series arrived on the N64 it was probably the beginning of the end for the series.  

When Earthworm Jim 3D was developed by VIS Entertainment and released for the N64 in 1999 the game itself did not live up to the expectations of many people.  The fact that Earthworm Jim 3D had decent graphics was  probably one of the few good things about the title.  Everything else that made the Earthworm Jim series appealing during the early 90’s including the cartoonish graphics were absent in Earthworm Jim 3D.  To make matters the landscape of the platform genre was starting to become more competitive from the mid 90’s to the early 00’s.  

In the mid to late 90’s we saw the emergence of new names such as Spyro the Dragon, Rayman along with Crash Bandicoot on the PS1.  Also when it came down to transitioning from popular to 2D platform titles into 3D games names like Super Mario 64 and Sonic Adventure left Earthworm Jim 3D in the dust. We also saw the emergence of other platform games such as Banjo Kazooie for the N64  during the late 90’s and Jak and Daxter in the early 00’s.  

The platform genre had started to evolve as the 90’s progressed into the new millennium.  While Earthworm Jim attempted to make its mark in the realm of 3D gaming the series would have been better off maintaining the 2D cartoonish side scrolling gameplay that made it popular to begin with.