Worms World Party

The Good
The follow up to Worms Armageddon is a respectable game in it's own right, just don't touch it if you already own Armageddon.

GAMEPLAY

Team17's hilarious Worms franchise has developed quite a cult following in Europe and it is easy to see why. You control a team of cute little worms in a myriad of different and wacky environments as you basically try to blast the hell out of the other worm team. The 2D maps are destructible and can be used to your advantage. A couple of good maps are "Jail Break" where one team gets a fortress and hides in it as the other team tries to "smoke them out" with all sorts of wacky weapons. "Ahoy Matey" is another great map where two pirate ships face each other and the worms try and battle for supremacy. You control the worms with your keyboard's directional buttons and you jump with enter and backspace. Very simple and easy to master. Hotkeys and the mouse are used for selecting weapons and firing is simple as guessing the trajectory of your missile. In a clever twist, there is wind (which is visible in the background) so a bazooka shot may curve right back at you if you fire into head-wind. Clean simple menus offer great navigation and customizability of your worms and your game type is mind-boggling.

PRESENTATION

The worms' voices are hilarious and you can select over 40 different voices such as Redneck, British, Russian and Cyber-Worm for your team! The high pitched squeaks along with the stereotypical accents make for great fun. "Yes ma?" one Redneck worm squeaked as I selected him but sadly shouted "Dangit!" moments later as he was killed by a wayward napalm strike wrought on by the evil team "Breakfasts". Brilliant...

FUN

This game is meant to be taken light-heartedly and it shows. Weapons include a Sheep that blows up 5 seconds after launching, an old lady that spells doom for anyone near her, a poisonous skunk and a couple of uber-weapons that are absolutely hilarious - not to mention deadly.

MULTIPLAY

The game really shines here. Log on to Wormnet for some really frantic action or get a couple of buddies on the same computer and take turns kamikazing and whacking each other to death in HotSeat. The tactics you must devise are surprisingly practical if you want to win.

The Bad
* Not that many weapons are present. Strangely the real fun ones are very rare to find on the maps as the crates scattered about are always in hard to reach places. You could always cheat...

• Another bad thing is that this is essentially a rehash of Armageddon with a multiplayer online option tossed in. Shame on Team17 for such an evil commercialization of a product!

• If you play alone you might be bored as the AI is sometimes very stupid and other times godly.

The Bottom Line
If you own Worms Armageddon pass this one up, but if you're a Worms-virgin then pick this game up and start worm smackin'!