progress through levels, and if the player causes Jim to take too much damage, the player must start the level over again, with zero items collected. The game was poorly-received as well, with reviewers complaining about the tedium of the collecting, and the game lacking the charm and style of the original games. Dormancy and cancelled games The series lay dormant for the first half of the decade. Rumors of a new Earthworm Jim game for the PlayStation Portable started in 2006. Referred to as Earthworm Jim (cancelled video game), it was originally believed to be a remake of the original Earthworm Jim due to footage of Jim in a level very reminiscent of the "New Junk City" level from the first game. The game was formally announced at E3 2006 by Atari, who had obtained from Interplay a five-year license of the right to develop Earthworm Jim games for handheld devices. However, the game was reported to still be made by members of the original two titles, Earthworm Jim and Earthworm Jim 2, including Shiny Entertainment founder Dave Perry, Doug TenNapel, Nick Bruty, and Tommy Tallarico. The developers later announced that the game would be mostly new content, with elements of the earlier games included. Past characters to return in the game included Princess What's-Her-Name and Peter Puppy. The game was to retain the gameplay of the original two titles, playing as a 2D sidescrolling platform game with elements of a run and gun, but now with 3D computer graphics. It would be two-dimensional gameplay with three-dimensional graphics, much in the vein of Sonic Rivals or Klonoa: Door to Phantomile. 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. By August 2006, the game was reportedly 80% complete, and many video game journalists had hands-on playable builds of the game, such as GameSpot, GamesRadar, and IGN. It was scheduled for an early 2007 release. However, Atari quietly put the game "on hold" by mid-2007. The game was later reported as cancelled due to financial troubles. Financial problems at Atari caused it to sell off its internal development studios, including Shiny Entertainment, which it owned at the time, and ultimately to cease development on all of its game projects, including Earthworm Jim, by the end of