Grenades, Shotguns, Bazookas, Airstrikes, Sheep, Grannies! It can only mean one thing. Worms.
99.9% of gamers will have played a Worms title at some point in their lives. Whether this is the original Amiga classic from the mid 90’s or one of the newer breed of wriggly titles released on console in the last few years, 99.9% of those 99.9% will have enjoyed what they have played, at least for a half hour or so. And lets be honest, if you’re one of those strange dudes who have never enjoyed good times with some hardcore worm-on-worm combat then you’ve really got something missing from your life.
That said, Worms isn’t what it once was. Maybe it’s been over complicated. Maybe it’s been taken to a place where it shouldn’t have been taken to. Or maybe we’ve fallen out of love with these slower paced games amid a flurry of action packed shooters, fast racers and realistic graphics.
Don’t get me wrong, these older style games still have a place but as we’ve touched upon with a couple of other releases recently, maybe XBOX Live Arcade is the place for them. That’s the place for our Worms to thrive and over the last few years, they have done. So why are we seeing this retail release of two XBLA games which many gamers will have already played? DLC, that’s why!
Packed onto one big dirty disk, we have, *deep breath*, Worms Revolution, Worms 2: Armageddon and 9 pieces of DLC to accompany both games; Worms Revolution Funfair Pack, Worms Revolution Mars Pack, Worms Revolution Medieval Tales Pack, Worms 2 Battle Pack, Worms 2 Forts Pack, Worms 2 Mayhem Pack, Worms 2 Puzzle Pack, Worms 2 Retro Pack, Worms 2 Time Attack Pack.....and breathe again!. Retailing at a penny under £25, you’d think this is a bit of a bargain considering the DLC for these alone comes in at 2860 MS points. That means the two games will cost you a princely sum of 49p. Of course, you may not want all the downloadable content but just think of the space you’ll be saving on your HDD by not having to purchase all the separate pieces from the marketplace and to be fair, the content is pretty decent.
Revolution is the newer of the two titles and features a fancy new game engine including, for the first time, some even fancier physics. This now means water is your friend and some seriously cool water based weapons are at your disposal. Water pistols, water balloons and water strikes all enable a new type of tactic to come into play in which instead of inflicting the most damage possible on your opponent, you can instead just flush them away and into oblivion! The new Worm ‘classes’ also help bring a little more thought to the game than was previously necessary. Do you equip your team full of stronger slower heavies, run around with the quick nimble but weak scouts or mix things up with a balanced team. The choice is yours and can be the difference between a resounding victory or ending up at the bottom of the ocean.
Revolution also sees the addition of some taxing puzzle and relaxing slower paced quest style levels instead of the usual deathmatch type of game. Both these game modes have DLC extensions which help to considerably lengthen the single player game.
And we also have Worms 2: Armageddon. It originally hit our screens 4 years ago and isn’t quite as polished as Revolution but is nevertheless still worth a little bit of your time. Obviously it plays as Worms always has done (and seriously, I’m sure I don’t need to tell you on here how Worms plays!), but put it alongside Revolution and it really does look like the uglier, saggier, older sister. ‘Forts’ mode is a worthy addition to the usual frolics you’ll have found in previous Worms titles, but if you’re buying this collection I can’t see you spending much time with 2:A when you have the superior Revolution to keep you busy.
Both games come with single player, versus modes and XBOX Live modes as standard. If you had picked these up on the arcade when they were first released, you would have found the online multiplayer modes busier than a busy thing and would have been your preferred port of call. Unfortunately due to the length of time these have been available (Worms 2: Armageddon appeared on the arcade back in 2009), the online games have suffered and are now very quiet. A public non-ranked match was near enough impossible to find and the ranked versions were only a little more populated. Not once did I see more than one ranked match open at any one time and for the most part a bit of a search was needed to find anything at all. Unless you have a few online friends who also have the game, you’ll be finding the single player and versus modes will now be your haven. That’s not a bad thing though.
If you have already purchased either game from the marketplace, it would probably make sense to just wait for the other one to pop up in a XBLA sale and then nab that and any content you wish to take. If however you’ve missed out on both games and have friends who have either game, then take yourself a little look at this collection.......just beware that bloody ninja rope. It’s still as frustrating as ever!
