Wild 9

1998 · Action Platformer · PlayStation

About Wild 9

Wild 9 (1998) is Shiny Entertainment's 2.5D PlayStation platformer from the Earthworm Jim team, in which Wex Major uses an energy beam called the Rig to grab, bash and torture his enemies.

Wild 9 in Depth

Wild 9 is a side-scrolling run and gun platformer with 3D polygonal graphics, played on a 2D plane, although the player can occasionally move into the foreground or background. Wex Major's main weapon is the "Rig", an electrical beam projecting from his back that latches on to enemies so they can be whipped around and thrashed, typically by bashing them into floors and walls or carrying them into pits and spikes.

Lost in an unfamiliar galaxy, Wex meets eight strange adventurers and becomes leader of the group they call the "Wild 9". They include Nitro, who explodes when he meets the things he is allergic to; Pokkit, whose jacket has endless pockets of endless things; Pilfer, a lizard with thousands of personalities; Volstagg, with gorilla and gazelle DNA; the solar-powered Crystal; Boomer McTwist, who draws powers from her Scottish superhero father's kilt; the hormonal mechanic MacSheen; Henry, made entirely of water; and B'Angus, a chihuahua-like creature living in the Rig who advises Wex. The 376-year-old Karn wants the Rig to enslave the universe, and kidnaps the rest of the crew, leaving Wex to rescue them.

Making Wild 9

Designed by David Perry and Tom Tanaka, Wild 9 shared its developer, publisher and key staff with Earthworm Jim. Development began in 1996, shortly after Earthworm Jim 2, and lasted three years. A Saturn version was cancelled early, which was attributed to Perry's disillusionment with Sega of America's Saturn strategy, though he said work would resume if Sega made the Saturn commercially viable. By the end of 1997 Shiny was also looking at adding the tessellation technology built for Messiah. Interplay gave it a four-million-dollar marketing budget, large for the time, with commercials on ABC and Comedy Central and a spot on the demo disc packed with every new PlayStation.

Released in North America and Europe in September 1998, it received favourable reviews overall. IGN and GamePro enjoyed its Jim-like humour and inventive ways of torturing enemies, but EGM found it unforgivingly difficult, Edge criticised poorly placed checkpoints and scenery blocking the view, and Next Generation felt its rocky development showed in sloppy controls and a lack of variety. Famitsu gave the Japanese version 28 out of 40.

Wild 9 Trivia

Early ideas had a female hero with a glove that could vaporise enemies instantly.
Designer Kevin Munroe described it as if George Lucas had co-written Star Wars with Lewis Carroll and co-directed it with Tex Avery.
Its animation was done by hand rather than with motion capture.
In Japan, Sony released it in 2000 as Wildroid 9.
It was an AIAS finalist for Outstanding Achievement in Sound and Music, losing to Road Rash 3D.