Many, many years ago (far too many if I’m honest) I had worms. Not those worms, but the game, Worms, on the SNES; and I loved it! Thirteen years later and after various new editions and versions for different consoles, Worms has finally hit the AppStore. Not only has it hit it but it has been number 1 in the top 25 Apps for a number of days. Needless to say I was excited when I saw it had been released and quickly purchased the app. So, after a few days of playing and testing, does it live up to the hype? Does it warrant being the number 1 app? Read on to find out!
The first challenge that Team 17 had to overcome with the iPhone/iPod version of Worms was the control method – the devices clearly lack any physical controls. Other games have utilised semi-transparent controls overlaid on the game screen; Worms, however, uses a couple of on-screen buttons, two ‘areas’ (left and right) and the worms themselves. This isn’t instantly obvious and I had to actually read the help guide to discover what to do. Once these have been read though it is actually fairly simple to control. To move your worm left press the left hand side of the screen, ditto for moving right; to jump tap the worm, to back-flip simply double-tap the worm; pinch/pull to zoom in/out; use 2-finger sliding to pan across the map; tap the crosshairs once to select and then aim by moving it with your finger; tap the ammo box on the bottom left to choose your weapon and then the target on the bottom right is for firing. That’s all there is really!
Now, onto the actual review. The game itself is relatively unchanged – you have a team of worms with which you try to kill off the other team(s) of worms one turn at a time. The choice of weapon is impressive ranging from bazookas, grenades and airstrikes to exploding sheep, banana bombs and kamikaze worms; during play you need to know what each weapon icon represents as there is no text to explain. You can, however, go to the help screen and get information on each of the weapons but this can be quite time consuming – a simple text description once your weapon is picked could clear up a lot of confusion. Also, on the subject of weapon selection, once a weapon is selected, the only thing you have to confirm your choice is the item the worm is holding – now neither the worms or the iPhone screen are particularly large and, at most, you have about 6 pixels worth of graphic to see what your worm is armed with! If you go back to the ammo selection then the current selection is not highlighted – a simple highlight would, again, clear this up.
Controlling the worms can, at times, be slightly tricky and/or frustrating; there is a certain art to the 2-finger scroll but it doesn’t take long to get the hang of it. Occasionally the double-taps (back-flip) aren’t registered and instead your worm will do a forward jump – this is usually OK though unless you are stood on a cliff edge and the resulting action propels your worm to his demise…
Despite the UI ‘issues’ the game is fun to play with cute (if you can call a worm with a bazooka cute) graphics and brilliant little sound clips – my all time favourite of ‘leave me alone’ has made it in there too! The background music is just that – music in the background that adds to the atmosphere of the game but certainly doesn’t get in the way of the action. The animation is very well executed especially when you consider the size of the worms and the animated text is a nice touch to the overall look and feel of the game. You can customise your own teams (the team’s name and 4 worms’ names, voices (English, French etc as well as Scouser, Angry Scot, Stiff Upper Lip and more!) and use these teams in the challenges or in the multiplayer mode. Multiplayer mode, at the moment, is limited to passing the device to the next person for their turn although Team 17 are working on adding ‘3.0 features’ in particular multiplayer over bluetooth. They are also looking into the touch sensitivity and performance issues on some older devices.
There are a six different ‘themes’ for the levels ranging from cold, snowy landscapes to the red hot depths of hell. The levels themselves are also made up of random landscapes which adds even more variety. In the single player practise mode and in multiplayer mode you get to customise your own levels – choosing both the background and the type of landscape.
If you ever enjoyed worms you will enjoy the iPhone version. If you have never played it before then at £2.99 ($4.99 USD) it is a veritable bargain that is bound to please. While the UI issues may be annoying at times it is worth noting that Team 17 are not one-hit wonders; they have been around for a long time in the gaming industry and so updates will certainly be on their way! Members of Team 17 have already stated in their Facebook group that improvements to zoom are already in the next update as well as hints at some extra options to boost game speed on the older devices (such as switching off animated backgrounds).
UPDATE: v1.01 has been released to the AppStore – see here for full information.
