14 DAY TRIAL // 
Man is the most fearsome creature of all. He crushes bugs, he wipes out forests and uses the nuclear bomb. But can he kill the Worms? I guess they'll do it themselves, because they've got fire power and a pretty bad temper. Are we still talking about worms? Those gentle little pink creatures, that fishes grow so fond of. The bait, the yucky things? Yes, it's a raging war out there and only one worm army can win it.
Story Why is this Warfare and why is it open? And first of all, does it take prisoners? Genocide has spread among the little pink creatures and there's no end to it. We need a peacemaker, but we get a jawbreaker. It's the holocaust of worms! Save yourselves!
Concept Environments in Worms games have never been much of a masterpiece or varied, for that matter. You'll have the chance to kill and murder on a map that looks like hell (literally), on ice and snow, or in a forest. I always loved the standard names that the worms got in each game of this series. I killed Napoleon, Bush, Zidane or Queen Elizabeth during this heart-worming adventure. If this is your first Worms game ever, shame on you! Do you know why? Because there are a lot of weapons I'll have to tell you about. I, for one love to be that sadistic little player that uses the blowtorch, not only to go through walls, but also to fry some of my frankfurter-lookalike friends.
Check out the cool name of this weapon: banana bomb. It's basically, a grenade that once thrown blows up about half of the scenery, worms included. Another one of my personal favorites is the Sheep bomb, or the super Sheep, an extraordinary explosive device whose primary part is ...a sheep. It will go "baa, baa" and run all over the place as it explodes. The poor worms will have to face a true war out there, stepping on mines and falling into the water, not to mention all the traps set by the other worms. The predefined teams have psychedelic names like: The Marines, Champions or Doctors. The worms will have pretty normal names if you compare them to the last games of the series: Stallion, Albert, Leonardo, Dutch or Dylan. However, both the team and the worms can be modified, as you can set their names and characteristics.
Don't worry about the mines I mentioned earlier, because they are pretty random. At times they explode, sometimes they don't. You'd better pray that they deactivate when you enter their range. Bored of default settings? There is a maximum of 4 teams ready to battle at any time and they may be AI or human opponents. You can create your own game and edit weapon placement, the number of weapons, the ammo delay, turn time or number of rounds. Although it's not much of a consolation, after the battle is over you'll get to see who was the "worm of the round", "the longest survivor", "the best shot" or "the most useless". These titles will bring you nothing more than giggles and a statistic that's useful only for bragging in front of your gamer friends.
Gameplay The gameplay is pretty straight-forward and it won't be difficult to master the controls. Use the directional pad to move your worms around, just in time to pick health up as if falls from the sky. All sorts of crates will be dropped from high above and they will contain health or deadly weapons. You might already know this, but each worm has one minute per turn, but you can change that from the options menu, although I think that one minute is just about right. The analog button has its use in this shooting affair as it is the tool used to scroll around the landscape, allowing the player to see the opponents. If you'd like to check out things from a closer perspective, you can use the L or R buttons to zoom around.
Bring the weapons menu up with the circle and select one of the dozens of deadly weapons and tools. Climb, parachute, drill or burn the surrounding environment in order to reach the enemy and smash him. The game is also packed with a couple of funny little movies to watch. They all involve worms, violence, dead worms and more violence. This game didn't really need a tutorial, but it has been implemented anyway, and what a tutorial it is! It has steps you must take in order to advance to the next level of teaching. Feel the wind blowing through your hair? Wait, worms don't have hair. However, the wind will mess around with the trajectories of their big guns so you'd better aim properly in order not to hit your beloved comrade. Luckily there's an indicator that shows the direction and speed of the wind.
Video I never thought I would say this, but worms are cute. They are funny, with all the childish graphics and the pretty backgrounds. You can see their cute little heads with speech bubbles next to them, thinking about pizza, hamburgers or football (worms must be men). If you're really good and you've reached a genocidal level, you'll witness a replay of your acts after you've finished the turn. I must mention the hilarious way of dying that the little guys have: they commit suicide by detonating themselves and they leave a cross or tombstone behind. The colors are bright and 2D doesn't seem to want to die, even after all these joyful 3D years.
Sound I am one of those people that ruined the balloons at your party. You know, they are filled with Helium and if you inhale some, you'll start talking like Mickey Mouse. This is also the case of the worms as they seem to have had all the Helium in the world. Team 17 sure has a way with voices, considering that both Lemmings and Worms star characters with squeaky voices. We expected Worms to deliver good sounds for the explosions and weapons and we sure got it. Ka-boom-s are all there, the explosions are very well done and you'll hear those "locked target" sounds when you'll use missiles or rockets.
Multiplayer Worms was always famous for its multiplayer system that involved two, three or four players using the same keyboard, joystick or mouse. They must take turns while playing and it's going to get pretty crowded in front of one little screen. There is also the online multiplay and you'll be able to host (again) up to four players. The fun thing is that, when you'll hit your friend's team with a banana bomb, you'll get to see his reaction live. That's the advantage of four players using the same console, a disadvantage sometimes for the ones that don't know how to lose (or bruise).
Conclusion In a world where 3D games are the kings of the jungle, the worms have crawled to the surface ready to have a 2D adventure. And they did...have a blast, while Team 17 gathered them all in a cute, funny and violent production. Wide eyes and crazy speech lines conquered our hearts and Worms will never cease to be a hit, no matter its age.
