Alright. I love Earthworm Jim. The games, the cartoon, and the toys. Heck, I made an unpublished FAQ detailing the differences between the main versions of the games. There's some new graphical effects and redrawn graphics. Also, you get the cd music which is great. But the versions are far from perfect.
Here's the lowdown of the versions of the two games in this compilation.
Earthworm Jim. Okay, this is seriously a weird hybrid of many versions. You get the Super Nintendo backgrounds, you get the cd music, you get great redrawn graphics and effects. The control is terrible with horrible collision detection (on only this version of EWJ1). The boss second half of the boss battle with the cyborg chicken is missing. You don't get the level Intestinal Distress from the Genesis/Sega CD/Win95 versions. You don't get the level Big Bruty, extra parts of levels, extra secrets, the extra weapon and new animations/graphics from the Sega CD/Win95 version. Of all the versions of this game (besides the portable versions), this is by far the worst. Missing content (that's all available in the Win95 version of the game, which came out before this one), and horrible gameplay. Get the SegaCD/Win95 version, called Special Edition.
Earthworm Jim 2. The terrible control and collision detection of EWJ1 doesn't exist in EWJ2. The controls are on par with the Genesis/SNES versions, and better than the PSX/Saturn versions. You get the CD music from the PSX/Saturn versions. You get the Genesis backgrounds. So, overall, you could say it's a great port. EXCEPT, it's missing the second level, Lorenzen's (Lorenzo on some versions) Soil for no reason. So close. I'd recommend the SNES version, which overall is the best version of EWJ2.
So yeah, if you want cheap EWJ, this is decent. EWJ1 is somewhat playable. And besides the missing level in EWJ2, it's a contender for one of the best versions of the game.
So much potential with this one. But questionable flaws like the missing level in EWJ2, missing boss battle in EWJ1, the missing content from EWJ Special Edition, and control/collision detection issues in EWJ1 (but oddly, not in EWJ2) makes you wonder what the heck they were thinking.
Again, I recommend the SegaCD/Win95 version of EWJ1, and the SNES version of EWJ2. I'm giving the game a 3/5 mainly because these games are outstanding, and should be enjoyed by almost any way possible, but you can do better.