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Yuck! It's those slippery, slimy, gooey, (chewy?) worms again! Not to worry kiddies, you won't need to ruin your new pair of Nikes stomping on them, they'll find deadly and hilarious ways to kill themselves all for your very own amusement! Worms: Armageddon is said to be the last chapter of Worms on the N64. Honestly I think I've only played one Worms game before this one and I didn't play it at length, and now I'm sorry that I didn't. W:A is a deceptively deep game that no strategy fan should overlook. For those who are not familiar with the Worms series, you lead a team of worms into battle against another team of worms in a battle to the death. As simple as that may sound, these battles are strategic in nature. The game plays as a turn-based strategy game with certain real time gameplay features. Basically each unit consists of up to five individual worms. That's really the only thing set in stone because the game is so customizable that it'd be impossible to tell you all the configurations and options....but it's my job to try. Firstly lets talks about the visuals. Worms is a 2D game and it's difficult to say that the graphics are good or bad, because of the nature of the game I don't really see where they could be improved. Worms is a visually simplistic game as it's more form than function. It's not a graphical tour de force nor is it necessarily pleasing to the eyes but as with most strategy games, graphics are not the focal point of the game. Each worm looks exactly alike and there is no discernible difference beside the name displayed above each little guy. That also means that there are no separate animations for individual worms, they all crawl and slide the same way. Hmm, you'd think they'd realize that they're all the same and not want to fight, maybe they should take a lesson from humans eh? The use of weapons is where the graphics and animations really kick in. Each and every weapon has it's own features and set of rules. For instance with a hand grenade you can set the amount of time it takes to explode as well as how much it bounces. Not only that but when you throw it you have to decide, by how long you hold the button, how much force you toss it with. If that's not enough, there is a wind factor to account for that can drastically change the direction of your throw. And all that is just with grenades. There are around 55 weapons and items that you can use that have their own properties and effects. One thing that most weapons have in common is the ability to destroy the landscape. Whether you hit or miss your target, some portion of the battlefield will more than likely be cratered or completely wiped out. It's quite cool and the destruction of terra firma adds to the strategy of the game as well, but I'll get to that later. In the end you won't really be disappointed by the graphics because they're not meant to impress you. The thing that makes a Worms game what it is, besides the gameplay, is the humor. Much of the humor in W:A comes from the sound department. When certain things happen or certain items are used the little fellas feel the need to shout their battle cry. For instance if you happen to hit yourself with your own grenade they'll yell "Stuuupid" or if you clock an opponent really good they'll say in a very military voice "Prepare for retaliatory actioooooon". The really cool thing about the voices is that there are all sorts of dialects and types. One of my favorites is the "Soulman" voices, get hit with a good shot and your worm will yell "Yoooowww" with a deep James Brown-ish voice. I could go on but I think you get the picture. The music is decidedly average, much like the graphics, it's nothing special but they do their job adequately. The standard military fare and generic tunes plays while you shoot and bomb your way to victory. It doesn't add anything to the game or take it away, pretty average stuff. The sound effects are pretty much dead on as much as they can be, I mean how do you know exactly what an exploding sheep sounds like? However the guns and explosions do a good job of making you feel like you've done something, very satisfying stuff. Of course where the game truly shines is the gameplay. Much of what I've told you already illustrates a lot of the gameplay features so I'll tell you something about the different options you can employ. When you're going to use a weapon you need to understand how it works. Let's take the bazooka for instance. In order to fire a weapon you press the Z button but in many cases such as the bazooka you'll need to hold the button in order to choose the amount of force behind your shot. In many instances this can be a huge factor in when and where your projectile will lands. Some weapons though, only need a straight shot and luck to hit it's mark. You'll have to experiment for yourself to see what a great job they did with the weapons. During each turn you can do a number of things. You can walk around the level as much as you like but if you take damage in anyway, be it from a fall or from a land mine then the turn is over. Also if you use a weapon regardless of whether or not it hits the target, your turn is over. You can only move one worm a turn and after that the other player goes. Keep in mind that when you kill someone the worm will blow himself up, damaging whatever or whoever may be near him so you've got to be careful when you go for the fatal blow. There are many ways for worms to get around a level. You can only walk up certain angles, after that you'll need a jet pack, a ninja rope, a drill, a torch, a teleporter or some other device to move around the level. The downside of using some of these items is that they can use up a turn so you should walk as much as possible. That's really all there is to "playing" the rest of it is dependent upon the weapons you have and the level you're playing on. Now onto the stuff you can change and edit! You can create your own team of worms to conquer the world, which is necessary before you can do the training missions or the single player missions. You can do everything from name your worms to choosing what tombstone they leave behind. One cool thing about team creation is picking you special weapon of choice. The weapon you pick is different from the regular weapons that are available in that it's a specialty of sorts for your team. They're all different so choose wisely, if not you can always go back and edit the team. The training missions can be very difficult at first if you've never played a Worms game before. Learning how to use a grenade was murder (literally of course) and the initial courses in how to use them are some of the most difficult tasks to learn because the game uses a pretty cool physics engine. You have to account for everything you see on screen and some things that you can't see, like wind. once you complete the training you can go on to the real missions where you're given all sorts of situations an predicaments to get out of using you troops and skills with weaponry, many missions consist of killing the enemy while others are based in espionage. For instance trying to recover a crate of weapons before the enemy gets to it or destroys it or just using one worm to infiltrate a "base" and kill their commander. No mission is alike because the equipment you have can change, worm number and placement can change, and the objectives change. Now that's a CHANGE of pace (aren't I a riot?). How could I forget? You're not just on the battlefield against other worms. There are all sorts of hazards and traps waiting for your inch high troopers. Land mines are randomly strewn about, crates of ammo are dropped off, nuclear testing, earthquakes, and floods OH MY! Also, aside from the training levels and the missions, every time you play worms the level is RANDOMLY generated! So that means that you'll never see the same level twice and THAT means that there will always be some new strategy you'll have to use to weed out the opposition. The number of customizable features of the game is staggering. They're broken up into two categories, gameplay options and time options. In gameplay options you can choose things like how much ammo is available, if your worm can jump or not, fall damage, random start positions, starting health, etc. Pretty much anything can be changed to you and your friends liking. Under the time options you decide how much time is allotted to different actions. Such as how much time you have to finish your turn, how long a match will last, just anything to do with time. All this plus the random level generator means that no two games of worms that you play will EVER be the same. Outstanding. Plain and simple, this is one of the best multi-player games on the N64. Not just from the randomness of levels and options but from a gameplay standpoint. When you're playing the computer it's fairly accurate with shots and tosses but with a human player who's just as inaccurate as you it can turn into a real war of attrition. You throw a grenade and miss, he throws a grenade and misses, you fire the bazooka and knock him into the ocean, you know, the usual. The custom teams really come into play here too because of the specialty weapons that each team has. They can really make a difference in a losing effort. There's just something about destroying your buddy and hearing his lost worm say "I'll get you for thiiiiiiiis!" is just so satisfying. Overall Worms: Armageddon is an addicting and fun game. It's hard to put the game itself down in any way because it does exactly what it tries to do, be an entertaining and fun turn based strategy game. That's all there is to it. It's a great multi-player game and single-player game. I wish I'd played more games in the series so I could tell you whether or not it's the best of the bunch. What I can tell you is that W:A is a great game that's been overlooked by many gamers and reviewers...I'm glad I had a chance to play it. Overall: 8.5 Additional Media:
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