The series had lain dormant for almost a decade before Gameloft remade the original game in HD for PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade in 2010.

Interplay announced Earthworm Jim 4 in 2008; little to no information surfaced until May 2019 and August 2020,[3][4][5] and development was believed cancelled by the rights owners by 2023, as it had never left pre-planning stages.

[6][7] Playmates Toys, finding success with the license for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, wanted to start their own franchise.

[8] From there, the game's design actually started with creator Doug TenNapel's simple sketch of an earthworm that he presented to Shiny Entertainment.

[9] Impressed, David Perry and the rest of Shiny bought the rights to Earthworm Jim from TenNapel, and started developing the game.

The developers also created a wide variety of colorful villains for the game as well, including Psy-Crow, Queen Slug-for-a-Butt, Evil the Cat, Bob the Killer Goldfish, Major Mucus, and Professor Monkey-for-a-Head.

The game featured an increase in difficulty level and a secret room which, when reached by the first 200 players, would display a password and a toll-free telephone number.

Those that called the number were awarded special prizes, such as a book and action figures, as part of Jim's shortly-lived toyline from Playmates Toys.

The premise of the sequel was largely the same as the original; traverse through the levels in order to save Princess What's-Her-Name and defeat the game's numerous enemies, namely Psy-Crow.

[17] Additionally, Jim's friend "Snot" travels with him, and can be used to stick and swing to other slimy green surfaces, or as a parachute, upon jumping.

In the third level, "The Villi People", the player must guide Jim, defenseless in the disguise of a blind cave salamander, through intestinal passages, while avoiding exploding sheep and hazards embedded in the floor and walls.

[18] Yet another plays as an isometric shooter, with Jim again on his "pocket rocket", where a balloon with a bomb must be directed to the end of the level, and defended from enemies.

[16] However, the game was later ported to the more advanced PlayStation and Sega Saturn systems, and those versions were generally criticized more due to not having any significant improvements despite the more powerful hardware.

[23] Subsequently, the franchise was given to VIS Entertainment, and it was decided that, like many platform game series at the time (Super Mario, Sonic the Hedgehog et al.), gameplay would transition from 2D to 3D.

One hurdle, early on, was the necessity to redesign the characters from side-scrolling 2D to free-roaming 3D,[25] while the frame rate and animation were still causing issues with game development more than 70% complete.

[22] Also, many locations displayed in early versions of the game, such as a level set in a house wherein Jim is ant-sized, are non-existent in the released copy.

Perry and original series creator Doug TenNapel were at first involved in the game as minor consultants, but were dismissed for unexplained reasons.

[36][38] Similar to the original two games, the gameplay consisted of maneuvering Jim through levels through running and jumping, and defeating enemies with a machine gun, and by using his head as a whip.

[55] In May 2019 Doug TenNapel raised money through Indiegogo to self-publish a new Earthworm Jim graphic novel called Launch the Cow.

[56][57] A crowdfunding campaign for a second new comic book, Earthworm Jim 2: Fight the Fish, was announced in August 2020; this also eclipsed the $100,000 threshold in its first day.

[60] The original two Earthworm Jim games of the series have been praised for their detailed graphics, well-developed platforming, and wacky humor.

Next Generation reviewed the package, rating it four stars out of five, and stated that "This is what the PC really needs sometimes – a nice, fast-action game that will distract the player from the more mundane pursuits of word processing or data entry, without requiring the commitment of a huge RPG or strategy title.

[22][24][30] Earthworm Jim: Menace 2 the Galaxy was even more poorly received,[66] with reviewers claiming it had lost the charm of what made the originals good, and pretty much "killed the series".