Tapping the memory banks, I recall a time that I sat in my parent’s basement chugging through game after game of a shareware title called Scorched Earth on an IBM 386 PS. Its simple gameplay yet extremely addictive “destroy before you get destroyed” style made it one of those unique little titles that you just couldn’t get enough of. Years and years later on the Dreamcast (for anyone who remembers how long it’s been since the IBM 386 PS was out … that’s how long I’m fast forwarding), I got hooked on a title which became popular with many of you reading this review called Worms … which had the same overall 2-D gameplay style as Scorched Earth but obviously with a lot more to show for it. Now, the Worms series has been reincarnated once more, only this time in a 3-D setting.

OK … let me go into the concept of the Worms game series for any of you who may not have really sat down and played it before. For starters, it has one of the silliest plots that I have ever heard of. Basically, you have a team of up to 6 worms (each with their own distinct little names that you want to name them if you build your own team, which I’ll get into shortly), and these worms fight against a team of other worms to try and see which side destroys the other first. Now, by destroy, I’m talking about a full arsenal of weapons here … some a little more realistic and others being just plain silly. In order to take out the opposing team, be prepared to use everything from bazookas, homing missiles, Holy Hand Grenades, air strikes, and Uzis to flaming ninja punches, baseball bats, and even a bounding sheep that self destructs. Also, just sliding along or jumping is a good way to get around, but you can also use more “conventional” methods like jetpacks or teleportation. As goofy as a lot of this may sound, each weapon and item has its own specific use, and each of these weapons or items plays a bigger role in developing a strategy to help ensure victory.

As you move through or play through the various stages, the environments themselves wind up playing just as big a strategic role as the weapons or items do. Along the way, whether in story mode, multiplayer mode, or a single match mode, the environments consist of things like cornfields, WWII beaches, golf courses, haunted houses, or pirate ships (just to name a few) and can be littered with lots of good hiding places or obstacles like mines and oil drums to help you plan a good attack on your enemy. Since each worm has a life meter which will deplete as they take damage, just hitting them with a shotgun isn’t going to do the trick in one shot. Instead, the environment plays into effect by being able to do something like this (provided you know where a mine is in this example) … use a ninja rope to lower yourself down to an enemy, then plant a dynamite stick to the left side of them and zip back up the rope so you don’t get caught in the blast. When the dynamite goes off, it blows the opposing worm to the right, which is where a mine was laying. The worm lands next to the mine, setting off the timer and causing the mine to blow up. The worm then takes the damage from the dynamite blast, possibly from falling (depending on how high they were when they hit the ground), and then from the mine explosion. Anyways, you get the idea.

In Worms 3-D, there are a few different ways that you can play, depending on what you are in the mood for (or how much time you have). For you beginners, there is a tutorial mode which helps to get the basics and concept down pat, and from there you can move to playing a single match mode which is you versus the computer in one stage, a multiplayer mode, which of course pits you against a friend (offline only), and of course, a story mode which allows you to play through various scenarios as you and your worm team invade the enemy (in an opening scene similar to the storming of the beach at Normandy). There is also a challenge mode which allows you to do things from target practice to piloting a parachute, but these are unlocked through completing stages in the story mode and the tutorial. In addition, the options found from the previous Worms installments are also present, so you have full ability to change the difficulty, upgrade and name your Worm team, select a stage for single player matches, select the kind of headstone that you want your dead worms to have, or even select various ammo and special weapons and also be able to set the amount that you can have of each one.

Personally, I thought that the transition from 2-D to 3-D was pretty good overall, and the folks over at Akklaim seemed to have covered their bases well, especially considering that the 3-D thing can be a hindrance when it’s all said and done for something that wasn’t originally in that kind of style. While playing, you can quickly switch between Worms by using the triangle button, and can rotate the camera by using the right analog stick. If you need to get a view of something that might be behind an obstacle or say up on a cliff above you, you can also use the R2 button to quickly get into an overhead shot of the terrain to help figure out how much power you might need on the weapon (holding X increases the firing power to allow for shorter or longer shots) or aiming versus wind speed and direction if you need to try to arc it over something in a breeze. In addition, there is also a handy little radar screen that is in the upper left hand corner to help you determine how close or how far away an enemy or a friendly worm may be at the time.

One of the neatest features that they added into this title (which worked great for the 3-D presentation) was the addition of a first person view mode to help in aiming and targeting an opponent. For example, looking across a body of water at an enemy worm is kind of tough to gauge how high you need to arc a weapon or how much left or right movement you may need to line it up just right. You can hit the R1 button to quickly get into a first person view with a targeting crosshair to help you angle your shots, thus helping to make your shots a little more accurate and help improve your chances of not wasting a turn.

There were a couple of areas with Worms 3-D that did come up a little short, and at times made me wish I could hop back into 2-D mode once again. For starters, the 3-D aspect does wind up causing some issues with trying to figure out distance and power needed to hit a target, even though the 1^st person mode helps out. Also, as we have seen with many 3-D games, there were some camera problems that came into play when trying to rotate it to get behind a worm that had its back up against something. It’s basically the same issue we’ve seen before … rotate the camera to the back, get a screen full of whatever the color of the object that the worm is in front of filling the screen. It’s not horrible but it is there and does cause some frustration now and then.

Secondly, the whole 3-D thing makes using some of the tools and weapons more difficult. In the older 2-D versions for example, there could be a lot of strategy in strategically placing an explosion to try and get a group of opposing worms trapped in one area which of course allowed you to do a lot more damage to more than one at a time. In addition, the 3-D element also made it a lot harder to figure out how to get around since there are so many ledges, obstacles, and areas that get in the way of a clear line of sight at times, and it also made it a heck of a lot harder to get around using the ninja rope which quickly became a staple combo setter for many 2-D veterans. Due to the stage setup, there were many times that I found myself simply dangling at the end of the rope and winding up back where I started versus moving where I wanted to go, only due to the fact that there was a beam or a crane or something like that in my way that I had trouble seeing even when moving the camera around.

Graphically, Worms 3-D turned out pretty well, and it retains the humor and comic element overall even with the weapons and killing that goes on in the game. The worms themselves have the same little bulbous heads and funny facial expressions that they’ve always had, and will do things like shaking a fist at an opponent or doing comic things when they die like eating grenades and exploding or just twirling around until they go so fast that they blow up. There are also some great cutscenes along the way as you finish up levels or tutorial stages, and they contain some really funny moments like a worm getting crushed by an inflatable statue, one getting a gift wrapped explosive device, or even an overweight grandma worm that sits on an unfortunate fighter and “gasses” him to death (bonus points for that one … bathroom humor always gets me laughing).

Overall, Worms 3-D turned out to be a fun and addictive title, even if the 2-D version worked out a little better overall (that is simply my opinion, not a fact). Still, whether you like 2-D or 3-D better, the overwhelming thing here is that the game retains elements that made it so enjoyable both then and now, and fans of the series should get a copy of it. If you haven’t had the opportunity to play Worms in the past, this one isn’t a bad way to get a good intro in to the game series, and who knows … you may wind up finding a 2-D copy somewhere so you can see how the whole thing got kicked off to begin with. If you haven’t tried Worms, at least rent it and check it out, but if you have, grab a copy. Good, clean, funny fun for the whole family.   

Gameplay: 7.8

Overall, the gameplay remains solid and Akklaim did a good job overall in porting a 2-D platform over to a 3-D atmosphere. While there were a couple of issues that couldn’t be overlooked, they were nothing that made me want to turn the game off or quit playing, nor did they take away the overall fun value of it. The game also will present a challenge to both new and old players, but there is an adjustable difficulty that allows you to set it a little lower or higher depending on your skill level.

Graphics: 7.9
Overall, the worlds looked really good and colorful. The worms themselves also looked good, and were well animated both in game and in the little movies that played in between stages. The levels had a nice design and layout to them, and game you some good options in playing through such areas as pirate ships, golf courses, and haunted islands.

Sound: 7.9
The sound to Worms also was pretty good. While the music wasn’t really anything that you would walk away humming, it did a good job in just providing some background noise while you played or contemplated your move. The voiceovers got a little repetitive at times, but to their credit most of them were pretty funny. You can also select various voices and languages for your worms to say when they are getting ready to attack or get hit, and you have a nice variety to choose from like regular, German, or even sillier things like gangsta or cyborg.

Difficulty: Medium
Even as the difficulty gets set on a lower level, there is definitely a challenge here in trying to survive while defeating your opponent. You will wind up finding out that most deaths for your team will occur because of something you did versus what the enemy did, but that is part of the fun and overall enjoyment of the game.

Concept: 8.0
While a lot of 2-D to 3-D transitions don’t go over very well, Akklaim did a good job in porting this one over to the PS2. There were some touchy spots, but overall I never had the urge to quit playing or turn it off due to them.

Multiplayer: 8.1

Ah … multiplayer Worms. Honestly, the multiplayer version of the game was really, really good … but I have to admit that I was really sorry to see that there was no option to play online. Even the Dreamcast had an online version of it, COME ON SONY!!!!

Overall: 7.9
While you just can’t top the original sometimes, I have to say that I really enjoyed getting to sit down and run through the Worms series once again. The 3-D element didn’t change the overall elements of the game that made it great, and in addition it was a smooth changeover in my opinion that went surprisingly well. If you have played Worms before, then you should feel confident picking this one up. If you haven’t, at least give it a rental and check it out. If you have kids, it’s probably the only game that I can say “death, guns, explosions, and warfare” about but still recommend it for younger gamers as well as adults.