Do you like worms? Those soft, slimy, squishy thingy that lurks around the earth and muds? Some people hate them but not me, no siree. I love worms, but only those that uses bazookas or throws banana bombs. Yeap I’m talking about that Worms whom we all know and love …. I guess?

For those who aren’t familiar with the series, Worms is about, well worms battling against each other with gazillions of weapons ranging from everyday types such as bazooka, grenades and machine guns to totally mind blowing Super Sheep, Concrete Donkey and Super Banana Bomb. To be more precise, the original Worms only had the Sheep and Banana Bomb. The upgraded version of those weapons were only included from Worms 2 onwards.

Worms first came out in 1994 for the Amiga home system and I was lucky enough to have play it (once) at my friend’s house. I can pretty much remember how it looked like; tiny small worms shooting each other, something similar to the picture above. Of course back in 1994, you can’t expect much from the graphics but hell, the gameplay was great.

1998 saw the evolution of Worms with Team17 releasing Worms 2 for the PC. It was truly an evolution; graphics were enhanced tremendously, more weapons, a lot of voice acting and fantastic gameplay surpassing the original Worms. Of all the Worms game I have played, Worms 2 is still my favourite Worms game of all times and I’m still playing it now. I just feel that the balance in this game is just perfect. Not too much, not too little.

Team17 released Worms3D in 2003 for various platforms including the PC and that is when the series took a different approach, for the better or for the worse (depending on the player). Weapons and comical worms are still intact with the exception of 3D graphics. Players can now roam the terrain in full 3D while blasting other worms. The concept sounded cool but in my opinion, it’s just not the same. It was a lot harder aim or perform cool tricks from the previous Worms. I played it for a few weeks before calling it quits. Worms in 3D suffers the same fate as Sonic in 3D; it just can’t be done.

Worms 4 Mayhem was released in 2005 with added tweaks and stuff but I wouldn’t comment on it since I never played it before, but I’m glad that Team17 are coming to their senses by going back to the good ol’ 2D. Recently we have seen the release of Worms for the Xbox Live Arcade as well as Worms Open Warfare for the NDSL and PSP. To date I haven’t gotten the chance to try out any of the newer ones but looking at screenshots, the Xbox Live Arcade version looks very similar to Worms 2 and Worms Armageddon. Great looking sprites coupled with the comical worms.

Worms is still one of the great franchises ever created. Even after a decade since its debut, you can never get bored with it. Its easy to pick up and great to play among friends, regardless if they are hardcore gamers or just casual ones. But don’t let its “easy” look fool you. Worms can turn from a casual game into a pure strategy action war. As you play, you will slowly learn how to manipulate the various weapons or use the wind as well as the terrain to your advantage. The combination of both easy and strategic gameplay is what makes Worms so great.

If you haven’t venture into the world of Worms yet, it’s not too late. Team17 has recently release Worms : Open Warfare 2 for both NDS and PSP. which you can purchase here from Playasia. If you own a Xbox360, you would want to consider getting Worms from Live Arcade for just 800 points. As a fan of Worms, it would be best to start from Worms 2 (1998). If you see an old copy lying around your game store, picked that up. This is one hell of a game

Picture Source : Gamespot, Gamespy

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