Games like Sonic the Hedgehog may have been the most visible legacy of the SEGA Genesis system, but it was the quirky & utterly unique platforming experience of games like the Earthworm Jim series that defined the core of the platform — and it just so happens that Earthworm Jim 2 is now available on Nintendo Wii’s Virtual Console!

Earthworm Jim 2 is as visually inventive as games get, a fun & challenging platformer with whimsical stages, bizarre enemies, and a wildly entertaining soundtrack to boot. A variety of weapons and skill-ups highlight some of the most entertaining levels in any game of the 16-bit era. Earthworm Jim 2 continues the visual inventiveness of the first game, but amps up everything by including power-ups and multiple weapons — by the time you’re using a marshmallow to rescue tiny puppies being flung out of a window by a sadistic crow, you’ll likely know you’re playing a different sort of game.

I’m actually new to Earthworm Jim 2, and when I started playing it for this Virtual Console article, I found myself hooked (pun not intended — my apologies to worms everywhere).  Rather than take you through a bunch of same-seeming platform levels, the game is a truly unique experience from level to level, including a stage in the chillingly dystopian (yet strangely hilarious) “ISO-9000″ level, a grim, gray-hued corporate wasteland where the landscape is made up of reams of paperwork, and Earthworm Jim is assaulted by implacable sentient filing cabinets. The music for the level is equally appropriate, a mournful Pink Floyd-esque guitar wail.

Actually, the whole game has pretty awesome music, a tribute to the ultra-fast metered midi creativity of the 16-bit era. Most levels feature various hard-rock guitar & drums tunes, whereas a few levels have renditions of more classic music, including “Funiculi Funicula” for a recurring bonus stage, a jaunty tango for a Circus-themed stage, and Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata” on the final level.

Did I say before that Earthworm Jim 2 was utterly unique? Perhaps this is the right time for another groaning pun — there is an udderly unique level in Earthworm Jim 2 that revolves around transporting cows that hatch from flowers around a lunar landscape while a rapid-fire polka plays. This is — well — it’s exactly as odd (yet endearing) as it sounds. Indicative of the attention to detail this game has, the cows that Earthworm Jim carries around have a bug-eyed expression that makes it clear they’re as surprised as anyone that they’re being carried around a far-away planet by a ray-gun toting worm astronaut.

Here’s a choice sample from a YouTube playthrough of the game — you get a great sense here of the game’s surreal mechanics, awesome music, and general funkiness. Depicted here are the aforementioned Cow Level and the puppy-saving mini-stage:

Earthworm Jim 2 has a lot to recommend it. The fact that I’d somehow missed playing it before means that I would likely never have had a chance to if it hadn’t shown up on Virtual Console, so I’m grateful that we’re putting classic games like this back into the public consciousness — check this game out if you get a chance!