Worms: Open Warfare 2 Review

In an age where first-person shooters rule, where instant gratification is key, turn-based games are a little hard to get into and enjoy. Worms isn’t a typical turn-based game, though, because, once it is your turn, you basically have carte blanche. Within a time limit, you can rope to the top of a mountain and lay a stick of dynamite on someone’s head, burrow into the ground and hide, or lob a bazooka into a can of toxic waste that’ll knock enemy worms into the water. That also means you have to wait for the other team to wreak their havoc, but these turns go quickly enough.

Only four worms can be put on one team, though, which is disappointing. Four teams can play at once, so it doesn’t make sense that two teams can’t up the worm count to compensate. Better make those some special worms, then. Fortunately, your team is still fully customizable. There are many options available for skin color, voices, and gravestones, and you can directly draw the team flag. Since this is the DS, it also makes sense to be able to draw and store several custom-made maps. And if the default gameplay schemes don’t fit your needs, you can customize those, too. The developers were nice enough to include a ninja rope racing scheme already, but there’s plenty more for you to experiment with.

Classic weapons like the baseball bat, aqua sheep, and longbow didn’t make it in this time, but I doubt these are really going to be missed. Open Warfare still has a good selection, including notable favorites like the banana bomb and holy hand grenade. There are even a couple never-before-seen weapons. The buffalo of lies charges forward, exploding multiple times along the way before finally coming to its own end. The lightening strike can bring dead worms back to life and switch the allegiance of sentry guns (another new addition). All told, you won’t run out of options when it comes to disposing of enemy worms.

While Worms places a lot of emphasis on customization, many of these items aren’t available until you’ve paid for them in the shop. And money is one thing you can’t custom make. Money is earned by beating levels in the campaign mode. There are over 30 campaign levels, but it’s pretty easy to get through them. Though the computer players are usually good aims, they get confused whenever you take cover underground. A level that pits you as one worm against five is at first daunting, but then you realize all you have to do is dig your way to each one and pick them off. The good news: campaign mode is not the only single player venture. There is a puzzle mode that involves reaching the exit or taking out an enemy in creative ways. Unique to the DS version is a collection of touch and mic challenges, too. In one, you blow into the mic to direct a parachuting worm. In another, you draw lines in the level to help a worm to the exit. You’ll probably get tired of the gimmick soon, but it is nice to have these extra campaigns.

But, really, little of this matters. Worms is primarily a multiplayer game. It is always more fun to go up against a human opponent, so you can show off your sweet ninja rope skills or laugh at how your friend blew him/herself up. The game is better played with people who also own a copy, because the download option only allows for one other team to join. I should warn you, though, that local games suffer from a three-second delay between systems. For a turn-based game, lag doesn’t seem like it’d be that big of a deal… only it is. You hear things happening on your friends’ screens before the action shows up on yours, spoiling the element of surprise. Worse, you can no longer comment on how good/bad your friends are doing, and trash talk has always been a staple of the franchise. By the time you point out how much your friend sucks with the jet pack, he/she has already moved onto something else. It’s unfortunate and sad and gives the impression nobody really bothered to test the multiplayer mode before it shipped. To further this point, local and online matches periodically freeze and disconnect. Online, I can understand, but locally? Come on, guys. Seriously.

Oh. Right. Worms 2 is online. This is a fickle part of the game, though. I waited five minutes to connect with a friend who I knew was online and who only lived a couple blocks away, and it wouldn’t budge. Worms 2 isn’t even listed on Nintendo’s official Wi-Fi website, which makes you wonder what, exactly, is going on with this game. Is it supposed to be online? Still, when you can get the online to work, it’s better than playing locally, because you don’t notice that there is a lag.

What you will notice, and notice rather quickly, is that the DS isn’t well suited for a game of this nature. You need to be able to see a lot of the screen in order to line up shots, but the DS is just too small. By default, the top screen acts as an extension of your normal view. This isn’t very helpful when you’re trying to hit a worm off to the right or left, however (which is 90% of the time). The top screen can be switched to a map of the entire level, which at least shows you where everyone is, but it does nothing to help you aim. You aren’t at a complete loss, though. You can hold down the L button and move the view around, but it snaps back into place as soon as you start to move. Restrictive and claustrophobic, for sure.

Final Comments

I like the idea of a handheld Worms game. I just don’t like what happened to this one. It’s apparent a lot of time and energy was spent in making this a robust experience, what with the many modes outside of the campaign and all the customizable options that hearken to the franchise’s roots. Dropping a banana bomb on someone and scurrying away is amusing no matter where it’s done, but Worms on DS just doesn’t give these moments quite the justice they deserve. The screen is too small for this kind of gameplay, and the multiplayer has been completely botched. You may not like hearing this, but Worms: Open Warfare 2 is probably better played on a PSP.