Worms A Space Oddity

You’ve probably played Worms before. If you’ve played any console or computer games over the last few years there’s a very good chance you’ve owned or played one of the titles in the series, because there have been roughly 50,000 different versions.

That’s an exaggeration, of course, but there are still many iterations of this well-known game and it leads us to question what the Wii version can bring to the party. Unfortunately the answer is ‘very little indeed’.

In case you’re not familiar with the concept, Worms is a 2D turn-based strategy game where players take control of a team of worms armed with a selection of high-powered and frequently ridiculous weaponry. The original game, and many of its sequels, were widely applauded for their sense of humour, variety and the fun that could be had when playing against other people.

Right away though we can spot problems with A Space Oddity. The weapons were one of Worms’ standout features, with silliness like a ‘holy hand grenade’ or ‘exploding sheep’, but there are only 17 weapons and items in total here, and the only really ridiculous one is the ‘robo sheep’. The classic bungee rope – used for navigating the pockmarked landscape – is gone, as is the banana bomb and Ming Vase.

This won’t mean much to anyone who actually hasn’t played a Worms game before, but of more general concern is the terrible control system which makes the entire game something of a struggle. Sit too far from the screen and the cursor sticks to the side of the screen, and navigating the levels is slow and laborious.

The graphics look rubbish too, which is quite an achievement as Worms cartoon style should work nicely even on a high resolution LCD TV. There’s the usual helping of crappy mini-games, too, shoehorned in to increase its value.

Verdict:
Inferior to the old Worms games, this Wii console conversion is a disappointing experience and far too expensive.