Video Game Review – Worms (PS3)

One of my video game franchises, Worms has finally come to the Playsation Network. Some of it’s previous console outings, particularly to hand-held systems have been hit-or-miss. So, does this installment in the franchise blow itself up, or does it get a triple-kill?

Company Credits

Title: Worms
Developers: Team17
System: Playstation 3 (Playstation Network)
Release Date: March 26th, 2009
Game Type: Turn-Based Strategy

Premise

Two-to-four teams of small invertebrates with attitudes (the titular worms) armed with enough weapons to make Rambo want to be somewhere very, very else decide to it’s time for all the other teams to die extremely horribly. Hilarity Ensues.

High Point

In all it’s incarnations, particularly since instant-replay and voice acting were added to the game series, the Worms games have never made me fail to laugh my ass off. Even when I’m losing. Especially when I’m losing. The game also translates very well to HD and to Wide Screen. After playing about 10+ matches, I really don’t know if I’ll be able to go back to playing the older version of this game in 4:3. It looks that good. Also, as yes I have not tried to use Voice Chat with this game. However, it is a breath of fresh air to be able to play Worms without having to deal with the racists, misogynists, homophobes, anti-semites that I had to deal with in Lobby Chat for Worms World Party, and it’s easier to find games that aren’t just roping.

Low Point

Rather than the 8 Worms Per Team maximum from the PC version installments in the series, all teams are capped at 4 Worms – which can cause problems with two-player games. Additionally, the number of weapons in the game is smaller than in the PC version, with super-weapons like the Concrete Donkey being absent, as well as some of the standard special weapons like the Mad Cow and the Old Lady. Further, the restrictions of what weapons you could drop while roping are rather arbitrary. In the PC version you could basically drop anything with a fuse (except for the Molotov Cocktail, which you could drop but didn’t have a fuse) – whereas in the PS3 version you can drop most grenades, except for the Holy Hand Grenade, but you can drop the Banana Bomb. Roping, at the moment, doesn’t seem to work quite as well as it did in the PC version as well.

* I got kicked once for being from the US. I saw another guy get kicked for being from Canada. A few Mexicans got kicked as well for their ethnicity. (In World Party your flag is assigned by your IP address).

The Scores

Originality: It’s a sequel to a long running game series that is basically Artillery with movement, and on acid. 3 out of 6

Story: Non-Existent. This version doesn’t even have anything like the hilarious cut-scenes from Worms 2. 2 out of 6.

Graphics: The graphics look very nice, and as mentioned before the game translates very well to HD. 4 out of 6

Sound: The sound is very well done, from the voices for the worms to the sound effects. Now, the PS3 firmware at present is set up to support custom soundtracks, if the software developers would write in support. It’d be nice if this game would support them (Wipeout HD and Burnout Paradise both support them) because the music selection is rather small. 4 out of 6.

Playability: This game is easy to pick up and you can come back to it over and over again. Even against bots no two games of Worms will be the same. Okay, maybe not against bots. 5 out of 6.

Immersion: It’s doesn’t suck you in quite as much as a Wipeout, or a Burnout, but I’d say it sucked me in about as much as Devil May Cry 4 did. 4 out of 6.

Overall: Overall, this is an excellent game off PSN for the system, and well worth the price of the game. 5 out of 6.

In total, Worms gets 27 out of 42.

4 replies on “Video Game Review – Worms (PS3)”

  1. The one they put out recently for the Wii was pretty good, “A Space Oddity” I think. It did have a plot/theme mode as well as a vs. mode, but no online play.

    I’ve liked the Worms games since back in the early PC days. I liked scorched earth, too, once upon a time. (If you haven’t tried the free Scorched 3D, you’re missing out).

  2. I have a minor retraction to make – apparently the PSN version does have the Concrete Donkey, but it doesn’t have any of the other super-weapons from the game, nor does it have the aforementioned Old Woman or Mad Cow weapons (or the Homing Pigeon.)

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