WORMS (PS)
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Publisher: Infogrammes.
Developer: Team 17. Released: 1995. Genre: Turn-Based Strategy. Other versions: AMI; PC; SMD; SNES; SAT; JAG; GB. Posted 15th May 2013. By Chris Weatherley © 2013 |
Giving a bunch of Oligochaeta Megadriles the kind of firepower that would make the US army scamper away in terror and the North Korean militia hide under their Yo’s doesn’t sound like the ideals of an long-standing endearing video game, more like a one-off joke if you will. But sometimes the strangest, most comically surreal ideas are the best. Put aforementioned worms into a fantasy battlefield environment, add a dash of slapstick cartoon-like imagery, enhance the mechanics of titles like Artillery Duel and The Scorched Earth, and you have a winning formula that still runs 18 years after its inaugural outing. Like the Dizzy franchise, Worms began life as an amateur project written for the Amiga. After several roadblocks, Team 17 picked up the game designer Andy Davidson and developed the zaniest of strategy warfare titles. Like many an early nineties title off Commodore’s sweetheart, Worms was ported to many of the popular formats, the PlayStation version being one of the very best. So, let’s go hunting for that elusive Banana Bomb shall we?
What’s it like to be a hardcore combatant invertebrate then? Well, you have a team of four, armed to the teeth with a selection of weapons and hand-to-hand moves, including the obligatory and unlimited bazooka and are tasked with blowing the smithereens out of an enemy team of worms on a 2D landscape. A concept that sounds merely okay-ish, but it turns out to be a stroke of unbridled genius. Combining the cutesy cartoon nightcrawlers with the farcical military background, the thoughtful strategic gameplay makes for a game which encourages many methodical, mathematical and risk-assessing game-playing skill sets into each campaign. The final touch of excellence is added with the multi-player mode; sessions of gaming which will certainly involve hilarity, bluffing, deception and arguments between your ensemble. However, this animosity is short-lived, as the next round will return the feel-good feeling instantly, providing extra lengthy sittings of continued worm-bashing. No euphemism intended.
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In this position, an airstrike from Fork would leave everyone else forked
From the very outset, Worms sets the comic tone of parody warfare with its amusing cartoon cut-scenes, establishing the kind of Tom & Jerry slapstick violence firmly. This continues into the game itself; with measly tinny voices of provocation and the very movements and animations of the protagonists, the crazy and often impossible environments and, of course, the barmy methods of dishing out pain on fellow worms. It’s a vitally important feature too, because without the humour, everything would seem far too militant, constrained and ordered, removing any hint of fun with it. Even the CPU teams have names that either relate to popular culture, such as The Beatles, or are just named after the contents of your kitchen drawer. Comic touches are numerous and don’t really get tiresome, even with repeated plays. This light-hearted feeling leaks into the player quite infectiously, so unlike other multiplayer titles you never feel that upset to lose, as you know it’s all just a fun casual bender. No real emotional seriousness is possible whilst playing, and this is coming from a man who hates to lose; my record of ruined DualShock’s can attest to this, mostly thanks to Tekken 3.
Since the game was designed with the use of a mouse in mind, it transfers to the console format with considerable ease, much like DMA’s Lemmings had done before, to which it does bear a few comparisons. The control setup is easy to use, scrolling with a fine dynamic, zooming in smoothly and providing accurate selections. This is no mean feat, as the worms characters depicted in this first game are small, very small. This was addressed in the sequels, but for me this was not necessary as I found the original presentation more fitting to the game. The graphical overhaul in these later titles did present more detail, oddness and zest, but the look and style of the first game is still original, colourful, wonderfully-themed and offers loads of variety. This is also helped by the fact that each level in multi-play is different every time thanks to the games in-built RNG. If you happen to like a particular stage design, the game helpfully provides a code to re-generate said level. Another great touch.
Since the game was designed with the use of a mouse in mind, it transfers to the console format with considerable ease, much like DMA’s Lemmings had done before, to which it does bear a few comparisons. The control setup is easy to use, scrolling with a fine dynamic, zooming in smoothly and providing accurate selections. This is no mean feat, as the worms characters depicted in this first game are small, very small. This was addressed in the sequels, but for me this was not necessary as I found the original presentation more fitting to the game. The graphical overhaul in these later titles did present more detail, oddness and zest, but the look and style of the first game is still original, colourful, wonderfully-themed and offers loads of variety. This is also helped by the fact that each level in multi-play is different every time thanks to the games in-built RNG. If you happen to like a particular stage design, the game helpfully provides a code to re-generate said level. Another great touch.
He remembers a time when Holy Hand Grenades were Monty Python's alone
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A bit of dynamite here and TPE could end up short of a writer or two
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No qualms
can be said about the general appearance nor the sounds of Worms.
The title mock military march theme with added weapon sounds is signatory, the
morbid and echoed BGM is suitable because it creates atmosphere but doesn’t
hamper the SFX, as this is yet another imperative comic effect. The thumps,
punches, guns and bomb sounds are again flawlessly placed, and when things get
seriously mental, such as launching the devastating banana bomb or letting loose
the random exploding sheep, he blasts become greater,
louder, seemingly emphasising the
extremity of the destruction. The reproduction quality could be higher, and the
menu/management screens could be clearer (some colour clash does occur), but
it’s mostly all good. My personal favourite moments come in the form of
voiceovers, such as the cry of “Shoryuken!”
with the mock dragon punch honouring Street
Fighter II, or the kamikaze scream with one of the best (if stupidly
suicidal) moves in the game.
The clincher for me with Worms comes down to the vast selection of regular and wacky weapons and gadgets, how they are deployed and the clever, adaptive physics of the environments. The scrapyard level for instance creates a gravity effect that of Earth, so shooting your grenade, cluster or bazooka is straightforward considering the wind direction. In the space setting, the gravity is far less and no wind, so adjustments have to be made to perform the same shot and the reverse of this is true in the hell stages. It’s a clever part of the game mechanics which, amidst all the japery and larks, forces you the think about your choice of weapon, your position, shot selection and possible after-effects, such as where the worms you hit will end up or what damage any debris will do. Underneath all the folly, there is a serious brain-stretching strategy game yearning to be let out.
In all truth, Worms plays best as a party game; with its unpredictable level designs and fully customisable settings, it can be a focus of many hours of throwaway fun. It brings people together in a joyous way because everyone can get to grips with the playability and humour of it all. Passing the controller around can be irritating, the entering of names can take a while, but this is soon all taken as a given after the first few rounds of total wormage (original working title) have taken place. This is a game that simultaneously makes you think, calculate and plan, but also smile, laugh, and brush off any hardship that you may endure. No wonder this has continued to this very day, and is now migrating to the mobile app format. Angry Birds? Sod that, this is a far better experience in every conceivable way, and a lot funnier too.
The clincher for me with Worms comes down to the vast selection of regular and wacky weapons and gadgets, how they are deployed and the clever, adaptive physics of the environments. The scrapyard level for instance creates a gravity effect that of Earth, so shooting your grenade, cluster or bazooka is straightforward considering the wind direction. In the space setting, the gravity is far less and no wind, so adjustments have to be made to perform the same shot and the reverse of this is true in the hell stages. It’s a clever part of the game mechanics which, amidst all the japery and larks, forces you the think about your choice of weapon, your position, shot selection and possible after-effects, such as where the worms you hit will end up or what damage any debris will do. Underneath all the folly, there is a serious brain-stretching strategy game yearning to be let out.
In all truth, Worms plays best as a party game; with its unpredictable level designs and fully customisable settings, it can be a focus of many hours of throwaway fun. It brings people together in a joyous way because everyone can get to grips with the playability and humour of it all. Passing the controller around can be irritating, the entering of names can take a while, but this is soon all taken as a given after the first few rounds of total wormage (original working title) have taken place. This is a game that simultaneously makes you think, calculate and plan, but also smile, laugh, and brush off any hardship that you may endure. No wonder this has continued to this very day, and is now migrating to the mobile app format. Angry Birds? Sod that, this is a far better experience in every conceivable way, and a lot funnier too.
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VERDICT
Visual: 8/10
Audio: 8/10 Gameplay: 10/10 Longevity: 9/10 OVERALL: 9/10 |