Worms 2008: A Space Oddity

Worms, the turn based blast’em before they blast you game is a very simple and effective combination.

In the latest release Worms 2008: A Space Oddity, the manufacturers have kept all the funny weapons and the simple moves and polished them to make a totally brilliant game. Located in space (which is no surprise with all the TNT and explosives they use) the two warring underground dwelling wriggling critters continue their comedic attempts at wiping the other side out using any suitably creative and more imaginative means at their disposal.

If you’re playing by yourself, you can either launch right into a quick game, create a custom game to modify the options to your heart’s content, or alternatively blast right off into a full blown campaign mode. If you’re playing with a friend, you can take it in turns to knock your opponent into another orbit. Also for good measure you will be able to enjoy playing some mini-games which of course puts a humorous play to classic video games as only Worms could and should!

As you would expect, the campaign mode allows you to ease yourself into the swing of things. Gradually as the levels progress the opponents do too, their skills swiftly improve to be a very formidable threat and if you’re not cunning or indeed accurate with your shots, it’s very likely that you’ll be waving goodbye to your tail!

The game can be flipped into landscape mode which really helps with the aiming and overall feel of the game. Indeed, by flipping the view, you can get to observe the pretty good animation that will become more visible in the background. The graphics are superior to any predecessor title and the animation is a total cherry on top of this rather sweet cake.

Controls are crisp, sharp and simple. Left is left, right is right, aiming is 360 degrees and the power gauge is clear and doesn’t fill up too fast to cause you to misfire. The rather cute but effective jump and back-flip are achieved through pressing the number 7 or 9 respectively (unfortunately the screen may flip but the button’s don’t rotate position to accommodate – but this doesn’t detract from the game). Hitting the softkey will bring up your weapons list and by tapping 1 you will switch to roaming camera mode, which allows you to take a better view of the battlefield.

Sadly the selection of weapons is a little slimmed down from the fuller version which you may come to expect on other platforms. However, this doesn’t really detract from the game, as in all honesty you’ll probably find it hard to use all the weapons that you have to choose from anyway.

This game is far from easy, the AI will certainly keep you guessing throughout and is much improved than the previous renditions of Worms. No doubt this will be music to the ears to keen Worms players and also good news to those who always put off getting this title in favour of more tricky games.

The only real negative that I experienced with this game was rather intermittent sound. Unfortunately this left me a bit frustrated as the explosions and music and anything else could only really be appreciated visually rather than in both sound and vision.

Overall, this game is totally brilliant and a fantastic addition to your mobile games collection. If you like fast and furious (and sometimes friendly) fire then get this game now, it’s exactly what you and your friends have been looking for – you won’t regret it, ever!

Rating 96%

Positives

Great fun and challenging

Addictive and totally unpredictable

AI is clever

Controls are great and very effective

Can be played with your friends as well as by yourself

Negatives

Sound problems caused me to miss out on hearing the action as it unfolded on the screen

The buttons didn’t rotate with the landscape view.

Not quite as many weapons to pick from as in other versions but still plenty of damage wielding robo-sheep and bazookas!