REVIEW: Worms Armageddon 1999-2000, Nintendo 64
	By: Infogrames/ Team 17 Type: strategy Players: 1-4 Difficulty: Normal

N64 conversions of popular PC gaming faves are usually a reason for frowned brows. We've had our share of outdated, empty and soulless Doom upon Doom, and those pathetic point-and-click strategy building sim affairs are better off staying away from consoles altogether. But there's an exception to every rule, as Worms Armageddon surprisingly turns out to be tremendous fun.

The Worms series has been around for a fair number of years, even if it isn't quite as much of a gaming household name as some others. The concept is simple in theory, but complex in practise; you control a small groups of worms, armed with an arsenal of heavy artillery that could frighten Saddam Hussein, and maybe even Louis de Funès. Using a turn-based gameplay engine, it's your duty to wipe out enemy teams of similiarly gun-happy worms. And that, very roughly, is it. Only not really, there's more to consider. For starters, the selection of weapons at your disposal is absolutely -huge-. A wide array of different guns, bombs, rockets, and even surreal things such as exploding cows are present, and getting to grips with how each one works is a large task in itself. Better yet, apart from just offensive weaponry, there are also items in your inventory that allow for defensive or evasive tactics. Teleporting away, digging an escape tunnel into the ground or putting up protective walls are just a few examples of the non-weapons that you can also choose to employ. The amount of thought that went into the weapons system is indeed admirable. It will take time to become familiar with the whole lot of them, but once you do, you'll appreciate just how clever the entire thing is. This goes for the control system as well. Although not overly complex, it does have it's finer points that one needs to get to grips with. It'll seem dreadfully confusing at first in fact, but it works very well in the end and effectively squeezes the full commands of a mouse and keyboard into an N64 joypad with style.

 
(left) Earthworm Jim is lots less popular after showing up in Clayfighter... / For heaven's sake, man! Select your landscape! (right)

This is certainly not a game where you can just run in, guns blazing, and win by stubbornly overpowering your enemy. And, surprise of surprises, this is one of the very few "strategic" games out there that remains fresh, gripping and very entertaining. Yes, it is your grey matter that will decide how well you fare, and yes, you must out-think rather than overpower your enemies. But no, this doesn't amount to endless series of tedious mouse-clicks upon small icons, nor does it make for a game that drags along slowly, with mildly interesting things only happening once every few minutes. The gameplay -is- more static than that of conventional action games, however. This mainly becomes clear in the turn-based nature of the gameplay. All of your worms are positioned on different places on the playing field, and each turn gives you control of one of them. Thing is, after your worm has finished his move, your turn ends, and your worm remains inactive, but still vulnerable of course to enemy fire. And there are ever so many different techniques to consider. You might need to sacrifice one of your own worms to score a multiple kill with an especially destructive weapon. Or take the risk of using a weapon that's more difficult to aim, or perhaps even back away to attack a more vulnerable enemy worm. For once, a strategy game proves that a battle of wits can be fast and intense just as well.

That's a flamethrower, and certainly -not- what you first thought.

Now, to call this game graphically unimpressive is putting it very mildly. Not that there's anything wrong with completely 2D games, mind you (Yoshi's Island still looks state of the art to me, for instance), it's just that Worms is crafted in very bland, uneventful 2D. Colourful as though the playing fields may be, the only things moving on them are the tiny worm sprites and their even tinier bullets, with next to no graphically impressive special effects. This could very probably have been done on a Super NES without too many difficulties. For once, however, graphics really are completely irrelevant. Bland as though they may be, the visuals are enough to simulate an environment of cartoon worms committing acts of cartoony violence, and you end up forgetting about their minimalist nature altogether. And the presentation is saved by the tons of utterly hilarious voice samples. For each happening, your little worms belt out battle cries, shrieks of pain, or other silly comments. A brilliant touch is how you can select from different sets of voice samples for your team. There's proper English, a variety of silly Yank slang, and best of all, hilariously high-pitched French and German for the cosmopolitan player. Although the more obscene language from the PC versions has been filtered out, such squeaks as "planquez vous!" can still summon a flood of giggles. My only gripe is that there's no proper Japanese in there, just English with a heavily overdone Asian accent (regretful, as some shrieks of "itai!" would've worked a treat), but the screams, warbles and even sneezes that your little worms produce during battle add tons of personality and humour to the matches, and are quite frankly, a great touch. The nasty, silly blend of sadist humour that runs through the game deserves a mention as well. Nitro sheep attack, anyone?

Hooray, you can type obscene words as your worms' names!

A main gripe with the 1-player game is that CPU opponents blatantly cheat. Thier superhuman aiming abilities allow them to land perfectly aimed shots, even from strictly impossible distances, every single time. And at times, this -makes you want to scream-. It doesn't however, ruin the 1-player mode completely. There are ways to counter the CPU's dirty fighting, and you can always fight back extra dirty. Pleasingly, the solo mode offers a variety of different missions apart from the standard "kill everyhting dead" scenario. Searching out a heavily guarded item, or hunting down a solitary target, for instance. There are loads of challenging missions on offer which will provide you with a lot of playing to do. This is arguably the first and only Worms game where some genuine fun is to be had in the solo mode. But the crowning piece of Worms is, without a shadow of doubt, it's multiplayer frenzies.

It's almost like that bit in Castlevania...well, sort of.

After the time it takes to get to grips with every option in the game, Worms works like a dream with two or more players. The huge variety of different techniques you can employ and the delightful silliness of the game make for intense, surprising multiplayer bouts that never get boring. Kudos, also to the option to generate a random playing field for each match, which adds to the lifespan of the game tremendously. Your brainwork needs to be quick and sharp to make it through, and it makes for a very special kind of multiplayer gaming. Or you could just laugh your head off at the silly moments with your fellow players. Either way you'll have a whale of a time, even with one or two slightly frustrating moments such as when a worm just refuses to jump over a wall, or a teeny tiny mistake has disastrous results. And even that tends to be funny.

He should really lay off those extra-spice curries.

Granted, it's not for everyone. The more immature, violence-starved players will turn their noses up at this and run back to their Doom clones, the imbeciles. And even for some others, a complex game such as Worms doesn't have the same instant appeal as the Smash Brothers of this world. But, find a kindred soul or two who are prepared to take the time and effort to familiarise themselves with Worms, and you could be playing forever (remember the random playing field option). It's a fully acceptable thinking man's alternative to Mario Kart, with enough guns, jokes, speed and sheer fun to lift it above the humdrum of dull and slow strategy games. If intelligent planning mixed with very silly comical violence sounds like your kind of thing, then give Worms Armageddon a go. Chances are high that you'll completely fall in love with it. - Toasty 89%

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