App Review: Worms [Video]

There aren’t many video game franchises that can trace their paths all the way back to the Commodore Amiga like Worms can. Since its release in 1995, Worms has appeared on just about every platform imaginable including, finally, the Android platform.

At the core of Worms is an Artillery style turn based game, but rather than stationary tanks firing rockets and mortars, there are teams of worms flying around the randomly generated landscape on jet packs throwing banana bombs and explosive sheep. As your team can move around the map there is a great deal of strategy that can be used beyond just practicing with the weapons and judging power and wind. You’ll want to make sure that the area that your worms are in is well sheltered and away from regions where you can be knocked easily into the water or off the side of the screen and you can get around slowly by crawling around the map but there’s also tools such as blow torches to cut into the soil, girders to add additional objects to the terrain as well as hook shots and parachutes. The weapon selection is diverse and it creates for an equally diverse selection of tactics, meaning that some games can take a considerably long time if you and a friend are digging into the terrain and taking quick shots rather than running into the action.

Playing with a friend has always been the best way to play Worms, the AI goes between making bone head decisions to throwing a precision grenade at your feet at random and the terribly unfortunate thing here is that unlike the XBOX arcade version Worms is based on, multiplayer is available as hotseat play only so you’ll have to pass your phone around between turns. This is a real missed optionality as being able to play worms online from anywhere could alone have made this the greatest game in the series, but without even local wireless play, Worms is missing one of its best attributes. Even when creating a multiplayer game, the options presented to you are rather limited, there’s no selecting teams, team sizes, custom loadouts or health.

The controls in Worms are more critical to the action than your average turn based game as you’ll only have so many seconds to make your moves, this prevents traversing the entire map to strike the opposing team with a baseball bat, or whatever other weapon you should choose. There isn’t a great deal of a problem with the controls for a large portion of the game and they are generally intuitive but there are times when your trying to make some precise movements and you’ll end up loosing a turn or a worm because things didn’t work out quite the way they should. The ninja rope is perhaps one of the biggest troubles as disembarking from the rope or extending it mid swing is plagued by a troubling delay that makes the item almost unusable except for the most basic maneuvers. Other issues often arise when trying to pinch zoom or two finger swipe cross across the map as these actions are occasionally interpreted as moving your worm left or right.

On a HD screen Worms looks great, the action zooms out far enough so you can just make out the worms on the screen and also can zoom back in to show detail. The zooming is very helpful but there are often times when you’re being shown the action and the screen will zoom in on the active worm or the weapon that’s been fired, but won’t zoom out to show the larger picture of the damage that’s being caused, such as a worm being knocked off the screen by dynamite, the screen will be focused on the explosion rather than its result. This seems like a minor point, but it can be frustrating and unsatisfying when you’ve just landed that great shot and you don’t get to see it as you should. The sound design is of the usual Worms standard. Each level has its own music track and each team of worms can be customized to have their own selection of witty voices, giving the game a lot of character.

The lack of effective multiplayer in Worms is a real downer and the controls have a tendency to be frustrating, but this is an otherwise fully functional Worms game that’s quick to get in and out of if you have a few moments to spare but that can also really snatch away some hours from you if you’re not careful. If you’ve enjoyed the series before or you’re just looking for some bizarre and rather British style of humor then you do far worse than catching yourself Worms.

Due to the zoom level used in this video, HD is recommended.

When you’re ready, head over to the Android Market and download this game by clicking or scanning the QR Code below.

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