Worms Armageddon
System: Dreamcast
Publisher: Microprose
Devloper: Team 17
Released: 1999
Genre: Action
Capabilities: VMU Compatible, Jump Pack Compatible

The Game

Worms Armageddon is the sequel to Worms and Worms 2. The game’s basically teams of worms beating the heck out of each other on a variety of terrains. This game is basically the same thing with more added modes of play and new weapons. Will this game seem like a brand new gaming experience, or just some rehashed sequel? Let’s get onto the review and find out.

Graphics

Well, I’m sure this is disappointing to everyone, but the third game in the series is still 2-D. In the old Worms titles you got FMV’s of the Worms doing some weird sketch like a suicide kamikaze or something before every battle, but there aren’t none in here which was a major disappointment to me. The only FMV’s in here are the one’s where they introduce the name of the developers at the beginning of the game. I gotta say though, this version has the slightly better graphics than the N64 and PSX versions, because the all the terrain looks picture perfect, and all the animations are beautiful. Like I said before all the game play graphics are in 2-D and most likely could’ve been easily pulled off on the Super Nintendo(In fact there’s also a GB Color version of the game which has graphics that look a lot like the one’s in here. The game does tend to skip somewhat, it’s only minor skipping, but it’s noticeable and happens a couple of times per round.

Sound

The game uses the same opening background music as used in Worms and Worms 2, but with some added lyrics later on. There’s only about 3 or 4 different tunes different game play, plus a special tune play during ‘sudden death.’ All these tunes can also be heard off an audio CD player. But most of the tunes sound pretty simple and aren’t anything special. The sound effects are well done, and everything sounds just the way it should, like explosions sound like explosions, gunfire sounds like gunfire, there’s also a nice little ‘Hallelujah’ said before the Holy Grenade goes off. But just like the music, most the effects in here are pretty simple, and nothing spectacular. The coolest part though about the sound is the Worms voices, although most of the samples are really simple, you can change different sets of voices, like if you pick the sports theme, the worms will stay stuff like, “He shoots, he misses!” and other hilarious stuff too!

Game play

If you haven’t of played any of the previous Worms games, it’s pretty simple, teams of up to 1-4 worms each battle on a different series of terrains, using various weapons to demolish each other with. The game controls are nice and easy to manage, since it’s turned based, just about everything is easy to use, most weapons just involve pointing a weapon in the direction you want it to go, and pressing A to fire it, or holding A to and letting go to adjust how powerful you want it to go. I problem I had with the original Worms was that the team life bars were shown on the top of the screen in big huge blocks that took up a lot of the screen, but now it’s replaced with 4 little boxes in the middle bottom of the screen. The game has a convenient box of weapons available by pressing one of the trigger buttons.

A major part of the Worms games are the weapons, and of course, there’s plenty of new one’s here. Some of the cool, new, weapons are the Banana Bomb, which is a series of Bananas packed together with each one letting off a powerful explosion. There’s also a homing pigeon, which is a lot like a homing missile, but you don’t have to adjust the power for it. You also have items to use in here like the Ninja Rope which helps you go over gaps of empty tenches, and the flamethrower which blasts you through the middle of a terrain. And that’s just the tip of the Iceberg folks, there’s many other weapons and items in the game, loads of them, during the course of a game more of the powerful weapons become available later on like the Holy Grenade, and the Air Strike attack. You can also grab items and weapons in crates that fall from the sky during the course of a game. There’s also weapon sets for you to choose from in a game like, Blast Zone which has the heavy explosive weapons in it like the Rocket Launcher, Holy Grenade, Air Strikes, and so on, another fun weapon set is the Animal Farm where you get Mad Cows, Homing Pigeons, and plenty of other wild items, there’s also a classic set for weapons only included in the original Worms. And there’s also plenty of other sets available too.

There’s plenty of game play modes. You can create your own team of worms for use in the game, and you can customize the team members tombstone, and specialty weapon, plus the game keeps track of the teams stats like games won, lost, or drawn and it’s number of kills and deaths. For people new at the Worms series, the quick start option just jumps you into a game automatically, with a random Worm team, terrain and weapon set selected for you so you can get familiar with the game. The next mode of play are the missions, which is basically a one player story mode of the game. There really isn’t nothing special about it, you can upload your team and send them through boot camp first, where they practice some target shooting with grenades and rocket launchers, then you go onto the missions where you must complete a certain objective like getting to a crate containing a weapon in a certain amount of time, or just defeat a team of Worms in a handicap match like 1 on 3, or 2 on 4. No cool FMV’s here, but just a little mission briefing. It might not be the greatest one player mode, but hey, it’s a great effort. And the final mode of play is the create game mode where you can pick up to 4 teams of worms, with each team having anywhere from 1 to 4 worms on it, and by picking a map terrain, weapon set, and customizing the options like HP for the Worms, turn time, round time, etc. The game is turned base so rounds do take forever to finish, but thankfully you can force a ‘Sudden Death’ where either the land terrain slowly sinks, or your worms lose hit points throughout the round. Just make sure you got a lot of time on your hands whenever you play.

Replay Value

The game can be played by up to 4 players, with each person controlling 1 team, or actually 16 players max, if each player controls 1 worm, with only 1 controller being used throughout the whole thing. I know it’s alternative and all, but it would’ve been a lot less a hassle if there was another option where different teams can be assigned to different controllers. The mission modes add some replay value to the game, but aren’t anything special, and aren’t even all that fun to play, plus games seem to last forever if there’s no time limit.

In Brief

+: A great multi player game with your friends, loads of new weapons and terrains!

-: Takes forever to play a round, the missions aren’t all that great as they’re cracked up to be, and the graphics and sound are really simple for a 128-bit system.

The Final Ratings Rundown

Graphics: 6.4
Sound: 7.6
Game play: 7.8
Replay Value: 7.1

Overall: 7.2

Rounded to fit GameFAQs score: 7

Final Analysis

Another great addition to the series. I suggest if you don’t own any of the Worms games, then get this game because it’s a great multi player game. Even though the graphics and sound are real simple, it’s the game design and engine which keep you hooked. But if you got either Worms or Worms 2 then I recommend not getting this version, because it’s practically the same game with some new weapons and a couple of other items.