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| The Entertainment Review |
| Genre: Strategy Developer: Team 17 Publisher: THQ |
The "Worms" franchise is one of the only series out there that has been around for more than a decade of success and is still charming
players with its same simple design that helped it become popular in the first place. The series has almost always been a two
dimensional game, except for a stint in the three dimensional world, which was short lived and returned back to the two dimensional
years. Over any console or handheld system that has been released, players will see a version of Worms there and that is how the
series has worked.
The Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS have seen a large push for the Worms series. With “Worms: Open Warfare 2” being one of the top
games on the Nintendo DS last year, with online capabilities, a level and team editor and more options than any player could ask for,
the game has proved that even with many years of experience, the game always has something new to offer with every new system.
With the release of “Worms: A Space Oddity” for the Nintendo Wii, the same core design can be seen, however, this time the worms
blast off into space, incorporating more than just wind to throw off calculations such as a stronger gravitational pull, a level editor, a few
mini-games and new motion controls for some of the items in the game.
This time around, the concept behind "Worms" has not been changed from its previous versions, why fix something that isn’t broken?
Players take to the battlefield with a minimum of two teams with four soldiers each. The two dimension world is full of drops and
supplies, a huge land mass to fight upon and many massive collisions and explosions. Each turn has players controlling each worm
in their squad, moving them into position and taking a shot at the opposition, trying to either blow them up or sink them in the water.
Players have a limited amount of time, sixty seconds, to navigate their squad members into position. It is a very quick game of strategy,
precise execution and speedy navigation. A missed shot counts as a turn; a walk off a ledge causing injury is a turn. Once a worm’s
health bar reaches zero, it is bye bye wormy. Whether players hurt themselves, enemies or allies, all is fair in love and war, and this is
one war game that players will love.
It is at this point that the game takes a unique turn on the Nintendo Wii, the control players have over the wide array of weaponry in the
game. Since the original game had players aiming their character and clicking a button of the mouse or hitting a button to shoot, but
that would just be a disappointment in the Wii. Every item in the game, from the UFO ships, missiles, grenades, teleporters and more
work with the motion sensors and IR controls in the Wii-Mote.
Though there are a lot of great things that have carried over to this game, and there are so many great additions, there are still a few
drawbacks to the newest version of the game. One such problem is the fact that there is no online multiplayer available. Even though
the game lends itself to an online multiplayer game, instead players can only play in a local multiplayer game. Another disappointment
is the landscape editor. Though it is extremely simple, and levels can be taken from the editor and played in multiplayer matches easily
and quickly, but is still lacking in content. Also, the menu interface for the game is a little off note because of small buttons that are
sometimes difficult to click with the sometimes awkward Wii-Mote.
As far as the core game play goes, “Worms: A Space Oddity” is an overall fun package. It can be considered as one of the first third-
party games to make use of all of the features that are available with the Nintendo Wii. What players will get with this game is a full
single-player story mode, six mini-games, an achievement system that allows players to unlock bonus content, the ability to change the
names of teams and worms, their victory dances and more.
Overall, “Worms: A Space Oddity” is a nice step forward for a series that has already made an impact on the gaming industry. Though
the most recent release of "Worms" on the DS was a little bit of a disappointment, some of the problems that it had were tweaked for
the Wii. The game offers a deeper experience, more functionality for the overall game and makes for an overall impressive package.
Also, the fact that the game took control of all the Wii has available for control mechanics, along with the vast amount of customization
that is available, the game is on the right road to perfecting the game. The one thing that needs to be added in order to reach the perfect
"Worms" game is online multiplayer capabilities. Hopefully, by the time “A Space Oddity 2” is released all the bugs will be fixed and
worms can fight against each other worldwide.
players with its same simple design that helped it become popular in the first place. The series has almost always been a two
dimensional game, except for a stint in the three dimensional world, which was short lived and returned back to the two dimensional
years. Over any console or handheld system that has been released, players will see a version of Worms there and that is how the
series has worked.
The Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS have seen a large push for the Worms series. With “Worms: Open Warfare 2” being one of the top
games on the Nintendo DS last year, with online capabilities, a level and team editor and more options than any player could ask for,
the game has proved that even with many years of experience, the game always has something new to offer with every new system.
With the release of “Worms: A Space Oddity” for the Nintendo Wii, the same core design can be seen, however, this time the worms
blast off into space, incorporating more than just wind to throw off calculations such as a stronger gravitational pull, a level editor, a few
mini-games and new motion controls for some of the items in the game.
This time around, the concept behind "Worms" has not been changed from its previous versions, why fix something that isn’t broken?
Players take to the battlefield with a minimum of two teams with four soldiers each. The two dimension world is full of drops and
supplies, a huge land mass to fight upon and many massive collisions and explosions. Each turn has players controlling each worm
in their squad, moving them into position and taking a shot at the opposition, trying to either blow them up or sink them in the water.
Players have a limited amount of time, sixty seconds, to navigate their squad members into position. It is a very quick game of strategy,
precise execution and speedy navigation. A missed shot counts as a turn; a walk off a ledge causing injury is a turn. Once a worm’s
health bar reaches zero, it is bye bye wormy. Whether players hurt themselves, enemies or allies, all is fair in love and war, and this is
one war game that players will love.
It is at this point that the game takes a unique turn on the Nintendo Wii, the control players have over the wide array of weaponry in the
game. Since the original game had players aiming their character and clicking a button of the mouse or hitting a button to shoot, but
that would just be a disappointment in the Wii. Every item in the game, from the UFO ships, missiles, grenades, teleporters and more
work with the motion sensors and IR controls in the Wii-Mote.
Though there are a lot of great things that have carried over to this game, and there are so many great additions, there are still a few
drawbacks to the newest version of the game. One such problem is the fact that there is no online multiplayer available. Even though
the game lends itself to an online multiplayer game, instead players can only play in a local multiplayer game. Another disappointment
is the landscape editor. Though it is extremely simple, and levels can be taken from the editor and played in multiplayer matches easily
and quickly, but is still lacking in content. Also, the menu interface for the game is a little off note because of small buttons that are
sometimes difficult to click with the sometimes awkward Wii-Mote.
As far as the core game play goes, “Worms: A Space Oddity” is an overall fun package. It can be considered as one of the first third-
party games to make use of all of the features that are available with the Nintendo Wii. What players will get with this game is a full
single-player story mode, six mini-games, an achievement system that allows players to unlock bonus content, the ability to change the
names of teams and worms, their victory dances and more.
Overall, “Worms: A Space Oddity” is a nice step forward for a series that has already made an impact on the gaming industry. Though
the most recent release of "Worms" on the DS was a little bit of a disappointment, some of the problems that it had were tweaked for
the Wii. The game offers a deeper experience, more functionality for the overall game and makes for an overall impressive package.
Also, the fact that the game took control of all the Wii has available for control mechanics, along with the vast amount of customization
that is available, the game is on the right road to perfecting the game. The one thing that needs to be added in order to reach the perfect
"Worms" game is online multiplayer capabilities. Hopefully, by the time “A Space Oddity 2” is released all the bugs will be fixed and
worms can fight against each other worldwide.
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