He's taken a wild trip through videogamedom – one of the few gaming heroes ever to make the trip from cartridge to cartoon. He's Earthworm Jim, a creation of Shiny and Doug TenNapal, and he's gone all over the industry on the Super NES, Genesis, Saturn N64…and has recently appeared in a Game Boy Color game from Crave. Majesco Sales has scored the worm as one of its flagship titles for the Game Boy Advance – and if you're a fan of the original game in the series, you should keep your eyes out for this one.

Once an ordinary earthworm, our hero is a reluctant man of action when he's pelted over the head with a cybersuit and transformed into a mean, lean, buff invertebrate. Now he's gotta save the universe from the evil Psy-Crow, the evil buzzard who's out to take back the lost suit – worm or no worm. Of course, with his newly-found powers our slimy hero isn't going to give up without a fight.

The Game Boy Advance version of Earthworm Jim will be a direct conversion of the original game that hit the Genesis and Super NES more than a half decade ago. As the worm in the suit, you'll run, jump, shoot, and whip enemies by pulling your worm body out of its protective suit. Jim can even latch onto hovering hooks with his head and swing across dangerous pits – a really clever animation that has to be seen to be appreciated. The game will have seven locations including New Junk City, Andy Asteroids, Snot a Problem, and…wait for it…Intestinal Distress. You'll meet up with characters (in every sense of the word) such as Doc Duodenum, Professor Monkey-for-a-Head (who has, you guessed it, a monkey for a head), and the buxom Princess What's-Her-Name. Of course, you'll meet up with the appropriately named Queen Pulsating, Bloated, Festering, Sweaty, Pus-filled, Malformed, Slug-for-a-Butt…who can forget a woman like that?

For the uneducated, Earthworm Jim utilized extremely detailed hand-drawn images for its animation, giving an original feel to the familiar side-scrolling action genre that glutted the industry in the 16-bit days. The Game Boy Advance will hopefully convert all of the original details that gave Earthworm Jim its fantastic charm – the Game Boy Color version failed to offer the animated feel of the classic. With the power of the GBA at Majesco and Pipe Dream Interactive's fingertips, we're sure the conversion will go smoothly.The Game Boy Advance version of the game will also include a bunch of minigames, including one where you'll have to shoot Psy-Crow in the butt for bonus points.

Majesco plans on having Earthworm Jim on shelves by this summer – shortly after the Game Boy Advance's launch in the US. The following shots appear to be from the console versions of the game -- we'll update our preview with Game Boy Advance screens as soon as they're available.

-IGN.com