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Worms has seen many formats over the years and now it is the
NintendoDS’ turn. From developer Team17 – the creators of the
series as well as those infamous
Lemmings, Worms: Open
 Warfare is what appears to be
a match-made-in-heaven for Nintendo’s dual-screened mobile gaming
HUB.
Worms: Open Warfare is a battle game that plays teams of
four worms against each other in a fight to the death. Aiding you
are weapons and tools, some of which are limited in number, of mass
worm destruction. Throughout the game, Weapon and Health Crates are
dropped randomly to help you, although you are not able to tell
which weapon you are collecting until you have collected the Crate.
However you get your hands on the weapons, they should be used to
blow your enemy away before they have a chance to do the same to
you. Examples of weapons available are Shotguns, Grenades, Fire
Punches, Sheep and the world famous Kamikaze.
If you are familiar with previous Worms titles, you will
notice similarities to the original PC and PlayStation versions.
The game operates on a turn-based system. The time allowed for each
turn is displayed on the Touch Screen along with the time allowed
for the Match. If the time allocated for the Match expires then
the game moves to Sudden Death, where all Worms have their energy
lowered to one hit-point and the water level begins to rise. You
are still able to collect Health Crates giving you an advantage
over other players. The game is won when only one team remains; all
competition is eliminated. When a Match is over all worms are
graded in several different categories including the likes of:
Winning Team, Total Time Elapsed, Match Worm, Most Damage, Best
Shot, Flo’ Nightingale, Happy shopper, Survivor Award, and Biggest
Coward. All Worms titles use similar grading systems and
make the game more fun, especially when playing with friends.
You are able to select from different options to customise the
game. Options include the type of scenery, the health that the
worms start with and the weapons that will be included. There is
also a Multi-Player function for up to four players so that you can
play wirelessly against friends with only one Game Card. This is an
endless part of the game that is really addictive and lots of fun
and will take competitiveness between friends to another level. The
game makes use of both screens effectively; utilising the top
screen to view the action and the Touch Screen to select weapons
using the Stylus. There is a very nice Map feature on the Touch
Screen, where if you touch a point on the Map, the top screen will
move to the corresponding point.
There is a Tutorial part to the game which takes you through the
basics of moving around and weapon use. Once you have completed the
Tutorial it moves on to Challenges. These begin very easy and give
you a team of worms to destroy another team. As these Levels
progress they become more difficult giving more worms and altering
their health. When you get to the last Levels you will find
yourself with less worms than the other team and find that yours
have less health also. There are twenty of these Challenges to
complete in total. One extremely funny feature in Tutorial is that
you can change the language the on-screen avatars use, to things
like Cyberworms, Scouser, Angry Scots, and Rasta giving the worms
real character.
Other Worms titles have opted for better graphics and moved
to 3D gameplay, which is nice and gives some games added depth, but
there is no need when the game is as fun to play as this, simple
games often are highly addictive, an obvious example being
Tetris, and it appears that Team17 have also realised this,
having recently stated that they are now opting to keep Worms
as a 2D franchise. Graphically, it works, as amazing graphics
are not needed for the Worms. The textures for the backgrounds look
good and the battleground as a whole reflects that. The sound is
great and although it does not challenge the capabilities of the
NintendoDS, it remains very comical and adds real depth to the
game.
The use of the Touch Screen makes this the most playable version of
Worms to date due to the ease of use. With a sequel due to
arrive prior to the year’s end, it’ll be interesting to see how
much more spice Team17 can squeeze from the ageing franchise. Those
who enjoyed the really early versions of Worms will love
this game and those who have never played them will want to after
this experience. The Multi-Player games are endless fun and will
have you playing until the early hours of the morning. It is the
kind of game that you will play-and-play, leave for a month and
pick-up again for another game, and still find it just as
addictive.
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