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[SF Kosmo]

I’m totally lost. Maybe someone can educate me. Why release this very old, probably forgotten franchise on an unknown, hyper-niche console instead of something more common or popular?

Both the console and the EWJ reunion are the brain child of Tommy Tallarico, who was the composer from the original EWJ games and obviously has a good working relationship with those guys.

Doug TenNapel is sort of a pariah in the industry right now for being vocally homophobic (not just "not politically correct" homophobic, like "God hates fags" homophobic) mostly doing self published comic books, so this is likewise something of a rare opportunity for him to come back and head up a project like this. He did do a Kickstarter title with some of these guys a few years back but it wasn't very successful (I liked it though).

What I don't get is where the financial backing is coming from. It's just such an obviously doomed venture.

 

[#Phonepunk#]

it looks cool. yeah sort of like a Flash game but also kind of cool.

i always liked Earthworm Jim but it was largely because of the art and designs and style. as a game series they were mediocre platformers, with kind of slippery controls. you kind of suffered the controls to enjoy the experience.

i do like Doug and am even listening to his podcast right now. but i don't have a ton of faith in this being a great game.

 

[SF Kosmo]

it looks cool. yeah sort of like a Flash game but also kind of cool.

i always liked Earthworm Jim but it was largely because of the art and designs and style. as a game series they were mediocre platformers, with kind of slippery controls. you kind of suffered the controls to enjoy the experience.

i do like Doug and am even listening to his podcast right now. but i don't have a ton of faith in this being a great game.

There's a huge, weird disconnect between the character animation, which is clearly hand inked and beautiful, and the backgrounds which sort of look like flash animation from a generic iOS game.

 

[Aggressive Carrot]

it looks cool. yeah sort of like a Flash game but also kind of cool.

i always liked Earthworm Jim but it was largely because of the art and designs and style. as a game series they were mediocre platformers, with kind of slippery controls. you kind of suffered the controls to enjoy the experience.

i do like Doug and am even listening to his podcast right now. but i don't have a ton of faith in this being a great game.

This is true. I met an untimely death a lot of times because of the controls. The humor and art is what drew me in initially.

 

[Knitted Knight]

 

[Kreen101]

Doug TenNapel is sort of a pariah in the industry right now for being vocally homophobic (not just "not politically correct" homophobic, like "God hates fags" homophobic)

It's hard to tell these days, is this code for "he's an Evangelical Christian"?

 

[SF Kosmo]

It's hard to tell these days, is this code for "he's an Evangelical Christian"?

He's a particularly outspoken evangelical Christian who uses the word "fag" a lot. Overtly political, far right, Breitbart columnist... He's radioactive, no big company is gonna work with him.

He has his fans, he does Kickstarters and self publishes, he's doing just fine on his own but there are certain avenues that are just closed to him.

I've kind of made my paece with it. He's at least smart enough to keep his more noxious beliefs out of his work and I enjoy that work quite a bit, so you know, separate the art and the artist and all that. I have a couple watercolor paintings of his on my desk actually.

 

[teezzy]

Can't wait to play this on Steam eventually.

 

[Tschumi]

I came to this link expecting something along the lines of...

 

[iconmaster]

Doug TenNapel is sort of a pariah in the industry right now for being vocally homophobic (not just "not politically correct" homophobic, like "God hates fags" homophobic)

He’s an outspoken Christian, which should entail a certain perspective on marriage and sexuality. I think you’re twisting things a bit, though.

 

[SF Kosmo]

He’s an outspoken Christian, which should entail a certain perspective on marriage and sexuality. I think you’re twisting things a bit, though.

Everything I said was literally and matter-of-factly true. He calls gay people fags, openly and repeatedly, and refuses to back down on that. What you want to do with that information is entirely up to you.

I like his work a lot, I have given to his Kickstarters, I like him as an artists and I put the other stuff aside. But a lot of people in mainstream media are not going to work with a guy like that.

 

[iconmaster]

Everything I said was literally and matter-of-factly true. He calls gay people fags, openly and repeatedly, and refuses to back down on that.

Okay, that much is news to me; but there seems to be something to it (at least a certain podcast episode where the issue of bad words came up). Has he actually said “God hates fags” though? That’s the part that really made me raise an eyebrow.

 

[SF Kosmo]

Okay, that much is news to me; but there seems to be something to it (at least a certain podcast episode where the issue of bad words came up). Has he actually said “God hates fags” though? That’s the part that really made me raise an eyebrow.

Maybe not the exact turn of phrase, I'm generalizing, but I doubt even he would say it's mischaracterizing him to say he's a homophobe.

 

[Rhazer Fusion]

Both the console and the EWJ reunion are the brain child of Tommy Tallarico, who was the composer from the original EWJ games and obviously has a good working relationship with those guys.

Doug TenNapel is sort of a pariah in the industry right now for being vocally homophobic (not just "not politically correct" homophobic, like "God hates fags" homophobic) mostly doing self published comic books, so this is likewise something of a rare opportunity for him to come back and head up a project like this. He did do a Kickstarter title with some of these guys a few years back but it wasn't very successful (I liked it though).

What I don't get is where the financial backing is coming from. It's just such an obviously doomed venture.

Oh, I see. Thanks for the clarification. I didn’t know that.

 

[existensmaximum]

All 13 people are going to love this

 

[Golgo 13]

This entire game is a mistake. Much less that atrocious console.

Fixed that for you.

 

[Tell_men]

The original is such a fun game. As long as I can launch a cow, I’m happy.

 

[j0hnnix]

 

[acm2000]

So this is what a 12tf game looks like.

 

[phil_t98]

Was anybody asking for this? The megadrive/SNES games were awesome but we moved on

 

[Froschi]

Sure, why not? Gonna play this directly after the Commander Keen reboot.

 

[Kreen101]

He's at least smart enough to keep his more noxious beliefs out of his work

So he's the opposite of all the big North American video game companies... I'd rather support a bigot who keeps his opinions out of his work than a SJW who puts all of his propaganda in every one of his games. That being said, Earthworm Jim was never a good game, the controls and hit detection were off and sloppy. It got by on style, humor and attitude.

 

[carlosrox]

Completely uninspired little reveal they got here.

I expect it to be pretty bad, if it doesn't end up being vaporware.

 

[Rob_27]

The console looks like a house phone and cradle

 

[idrago01]

Everything I said was literally and matter-of-factly true. He calls gay people fags, openly and repeatedly, and refuses to back down on that. What you want to do with that information is entirely up to you.

I like his work a lot, I have given to his Kickstarters, I like him as an artists and I put the other stuff aside. But a lot of people in mainstream media are not going to work with a guy like that.

he's mainly against gay marriage related to him being a christian. i've seen countless livestreams of his and he's never uttered these words or done anything as to what you described

 

[SF Kosmo]

he's mainly against gay marriage related to him being a christian. i've seen countless livestreams of his and he's never uttered these words or done anything as to what you described

He used to be a real cunt on his forums back in the day. He has gotten a lot more tactful in public over the last 10 years but like I said, still casually calls gays fags and is generally not someone I think big companies want to work with as a result.

He always struck me as kind of a jerk broadly, cranky to the press and to fans and just not very nice.

I'm not trying to cancel the guy I'm actually a big fan, but yeah.

 

[idrago01]

He used to be a real cunt on his forums back in the day. He has gotten a lot more tactful in public over the last 10 years but like I said, still casually calls gays fags and is generally not someone I think big companies want to work with as a result.

i mean we have developers spouting marxism, violence, and racism against whites but these companies don't seem to have a problem, but if it goes against the gay or feminist agenda than that's where they draw the line? i agree with your take though, seperate the art from the artist is a good rule of thumb to live by.

 

[-Minsc-]

You're assuming the dev team is that big.

It might be Tommy Tallarico and 12 family members.

One of them will be Victor Lucas

 

[Rat Rage]

While the first moving image of EWJ4 does look kinda bad (which is valid criticism), people really need to stop pretending that a new 2D Earthworm Jim game/attempt isn't a big deal.

That's ridiculous!

Eartworm Jim 1 and 2 are run'n gun masterpieces. Aside from the amazingly varied level design, great music, SUPERBE 2D graphics and animation, the game is still super fun and butter-smooth to play.

It really holds up well! A fucking TIMELESS classic.

 

[Bankai]

Can't wait to play this on an emulator one day.

 

[Polelock]

I've never heard of the Amico, WTF were they thinking on those controllers... Looks like some early 2000's mp3/zune shit

 

[UnNamed]

Some of you have a distorted idea of what a flash games is like.

Child of Light and Dragon's Crown have flash-like animations since arms and legs moves indipendently from the body.

This game have clearly a full body animation, every frame is different from the previous one, full redesigned.

 

[NeoIkaruGAF]

This is true. I met an untimely death a lot of times because of the controls. The humor and art is what drew me in initially.

That was 90‘s western platformers for you. Attitude, jokes, graphics, edge, and attitude. Good gameplay and balance came much later in devs’ priorities.

Eartworm Jim 1 and 2 are run'n gun masterpieces. Aside from the amazingly varied level design, great music, SUPERBE 2D graphics and animation, the game is still super fun and butter-smooth to play.

It really holds up well! A fucking TIMELESS classic.

Let’s not get carried away here.

EJ’s animations were cool, but movement was jerky. Collisions we're always dubious, when not abysmal: it’s hard to tell if you’ll hit what you think you’re shooting / whipping at, and there’s basically zero hit feedback. Telling foreground and background apart was always a struggle in Shiny Entertainment games, and EJ didn’t make an exception. And difficulty balance was all over the place.

EJ’s rise to fame was a masterclass in gaming PR, and graphics and attitude were 90% of what the games were about. Its momentary success is understandable when we consider that 1993 was a year of substantial rest for the big Japanese game makers while license games and Sonic “rivals” were all the rage on 16-bit consoles.

I’ve played the EJ games, but never particularly enjoyed my time with them.

 

[Moonjt9]

Wait, they’re making a new intellivision? Lmao wat

I’ll play this game on switch later

 

[John Mullins]

What the heck?

Damn this is obviously low budget.. and why is he is a tropical paradise setting? WTF.

His surroundings are usually hellish.

 

[JCK75]

The idea of a 2D only console that focuses on REALLY pretty 2D is highly appealing to me..
but the controller is hot diarrhea and it's the primary reason I'm out.. Nobody and I mean Nobody misses fucking knobs as controllers.

 

[Alter_Fridge]

What year is it