In the past few weeks, Xbox Live Arcade has had a flood to make up for the relative drought of recent months. Two of the most complete and, well, retail-like game experiences hit, in the form of Worms and Alien Hominid HD. Today is all about Worms, since Alien Hominid is way too hard. (Translation: I am a pansy.)

Worms is a sort of “reboot” of the long-running annelid strategic combat simulation series. Recent games had taken place in three dimensions, and were not as well-received as the older, 2D ones. Even the recent 2D iterations were a little too crazy and random to really be called strategy games. The weapons were just a little too insane; when you have multiple weapons in your inventory that can tear apart a huge chunk of the playing field, a lot of the strategy is removed.

Worms for the Arcade scales things back a bit. Like the PSP and DS versions, this one goes back to basics. Most of the unbalanced weapons are gone, leaving behind many that require more skill to use. Here you’ll need to learn to toss a grenade accurately or how to use the bazooka in relation to the wind. Some of the easy weapons still remain, such as dynamite or the sheep and the banana bomb remains a crazy weapon you’ll only find as a pickup. The most missed weapons are the Holy Hand Grenade and the baseball bat, but perhaps they’ll appear in a downloadable content update. (Just don’t make them part of the normal inventory.)

The weapon selection really brings out how strategic Worms can be. I, being raised on Armageddon and World Party, never thought of Worms as anything more than a fun diversion. The insanity of the 3D games reinforced this. The new version is a sort of revelation to me. I’ve learned the subtle art of the ninja rope. I’ve learned how to place grenades so that the worm bounces into that cluster of mines after being hit with an explosion. It’s an awesome refocusing of the series, but be warned if you’re expecting Super Sheep, Holy Hand Grenades, and old ladies. (Again, the banana bomb remains as a pickup in most game schemes.) One annoying omission is the lack of fire erupting from the barrels when they explode. A cunning Worms World Party player could blow up a barrel and send a cascading fire flow of death down onto a worm in a valley, but not so in the Live Arcade edition. Bummer.

There are problems, however. The single player game is just a series of progressively more unfair challenges against computer players. It would be totally worthless if there wasn’t an achievement attached. Additionally, in true Worms tradition, the AI opponents can make utterly insane shots. They can bounce grenades off four things so they land perfectly next to one of your worms. They can make perfect use of the wind for bazooka shots. It’s frustrating. However, they usually aren’t all that smart. They leave themselves in large clusters or ignore nearby item pickups. They are also programmed to occasionally completely screw up and blow themselves up. You can beat them, but only through cunning exploitation of their weaknesses.

Multiplayer, like all Worms titles, is the real star here. Online or offline for four players, it’s a riot. Xbox Live play generally works pretty well. I had some trouble connecting to a game on occasion, but it usually worked OK. Gameplay is lag-free, I guess. (Not that it really matters.) Oddly, voice communications come through before you actually see what happened on a particular player’s turn. You’ll often hear someone exasperatedly exclaim “dammit,” and see their worm’s grenade land right next to them and send them into the sea. One annoying feature omission is the lack of guest play in Xbox Live games. I can’t have two people play on my console against others online.

A few random annoyances I haven’t woven into the proper text: The in-game font can be hard to read on non-HD televisions. It’s not as bad as Dead Rising, but it’s worth noting. For some reason, the number of custom teams you can create is capped at four. Really, guys, I have enough space on my hard drive. I swear. Control is not true analog. You can’t aim just a little bit or move the reticle slowly with the analog stick. It reaches a threshold and it suddenly begins moving full speed. Seriously, Team 17, it’s 2007. Come on.

Overall, though, I have to recommend Worms. It’s a sweet title, online multiplayer or offline, and it only costs 800 points, or $10. Avoid it if your friends won’t play it with you, or you can’t play online.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 12th, 2007 at 12:37 pm and is filed under games, reviews.