Let's blow up some worms--Worms Armageddon

Author's Rating:

Pros: Extremely fun multi-player mode, nice sound effects.

Cons: Poor single-player mode, annoying music.

Author's Review
Let's face it; consoles, especially the Nintendo 64, are not known for great strategy games. Yeah, there are some great ones, but they are usually mind-boggling complex and/or single-player only. That's why it's so refreshing to see a simplistic turn-based strategy game like Worms Armageddon come home to the three major consoles. Since each version's graphics are the same, I recommend the N64 version over the Dreamcast and PlayStation. Yeah, it doesn't have as many worm voices, but the lack of load times more than make up for it.

The concept of Worms Armageddon is this: You command a group of worms trying to annihilate up to 3 different enemy worm groups, which is done in a turn based fashion. However, even when it's not your turn, you'll still be glued to the screen to see what happens to your team, if anything. In 3 and 4 player modes with 4 worms, it's not at all uncommon to lose all of your Worms in 2 entire turns.

One thing I want to make clear is Worms Armageddon is a multi-player game. Actually, if you just have one buddy, it's still fun to play with him and two computers. Just please, please don't play alone. Worms has what could be the single most frustrating single-player experience in gaming history. Not only do the computer players hit you with every shot no matter how difficult it is, but they seem to almost always beat you no matter how far you think you're ahead. And I don't even want to mention the tedious single-player missions.

Worms has a vast assortment of weapons at your disposal. You'll probably be overwhelmed when you first bring up the menu and see nearly 50 weapons you can use, but don't fret, most of them are useless. The ones you will use a lot are the bazooka, shotgun, cluster bombs, dynamite, hand grenades, and a special weapon of your choice (I recommend the Holy Hand Grenade! Yep, this game has a reference to Monty Python and The Holy Grail). You can even pick from extremely useful non-weapons, which include a rope for swinging from place to place and teleporters for teleporting to a different area. Weapons that you throw use a special method of control. You see, you hold the Z trigger button and a little red line comes out. When the red line has reached a certain length, you throw it. Whatever the length of the red line was will determine how far the grenade, bazooka, or whatever you're using, will go. This is really the only part of that game that will take some time to master.

The graphics in Worms are slightly above average. The scenery is nice and the worms are well animated, but the game just isn't what I would call eye candy. Oh well, at least there's no slow-down.

The sound effects are also good. The worms' voices (which, by the way, you get to customize) are very funny and clear. The explosions and everything else sounds nice too. The limited elevator music tracks do get annoying though.

When I stop and think about it, Worms is probably on the top 3 most enjoyable multi-player console games out there. It's just too bad that like so many strong multi-player games, the single-player mode is so weak. On any account, it's a fun, hilarious game that I would recommend to anyone who ever plays games with friends or family members.