Worms

Title           Worms
Publisher       Team 17/Ocean (1995)
Game Type       Combat Sim
Players         1-4
HD Installable  Yes
Compatability   All Amigas
Demo            aminet: game/demo/Worms1.dms & Worms2.dms
Game data/utils fixes and hacks - aminet: game/patch/WormsShell.lha
                levels and sound-effects - hundreds on aminet
Submission      Dennis Smith <dmss100@hotmail.com>

Review
Well-hyped and well-received by almost all of the Amiga press, Worms is at
first glance a slightly complicated 'Tank' clone, but after a few games you
realise that it's actually a very complicated 'Tank' clone, and a very
playable one indeed. For those who don't know, Tank was one of the earliest
graphic games on 8-bit computers, which featured one tank, a big mountain,
and another tank. The two tanks would take it in turns to fire a simple
projectile over the mountain in an attempt to hit the other tank - but to
do this, one had to enter firing angle and power and let the laws of
physics do the rest. To complicate matters, wind would blow one way or
another to affect the trajectory of the missile. The word 'Artillery'
started to be used to describe the genre, after another example of the
game.

Numerous games have been released which base themselves on this formula,
but adding further and further bells and whistles to keep the punters from
getting too bored. Missed shots now made dents in the landscape (allowing
persistent tanks to blow their way through the mountain instead of going
over the top. So some people caused the landscape to fall in on holes and
fill them up. And then came the ability to drive the tanks back and forth
along flat areas, then came the extra weapons, and shields, and the whole
thing got very complicated indeed. Perhaps the biggest threat to the tanks'
peaceful blasting was the introduction of a huge flying fire penguin in the
all-time freeware classic 'Cow Wars II' (aminet: game/shoot/cowwars11.lha)
that swallowed all projectiles that it intercepted with an evil laugh (these
unwilling missiles being styrofoam, glass or real cows). The best modern
'Tank' games for the Amiga are those based on the daddy of them all, the PC
game 'Scorched Earth' - 'Scorched Tanks' (aminet: game/misc/scorched.lha)
and Charr[ed Earth] (aminet: game/shoot/Charr100.lha; see review) spring
instantly to mind. But I digress...

In Worms, you control - a troop of four worms (funnily enough), this
multiplicity of units being the first unusual departure from the sub-genre.
Furthermore, these worms can hop and wriggle about the landscape, and this
is the second major departure from the 'Tank' theme. These two features
alone make such a difference to the game that experienced 'Tank' players
will have to stop and rethink their strategies. Movement is, however,
limited by the random placement of mines which can bounce dangerously about
the randomly generated landscapes if caught by the shockwave of an
explosion.

The worms have a fearsome arsenal of weaponry at their disposal, from
bazookas and grenades to shotguns, dynamite and black-belts in certain
forbidden martial arts.  To assist their movement about the level are
bat-rope-esque 'ninja ropes', teleports, pneumatic drills and blowtorches.
Hiding in the landscape is frowned on and referred to as the 'dark side' of
worming.  All the worms start off with an energy level which is depleted by
the various means of attack, but are killed outright if they are knocked
into the water at the bottom of the screen or off the sides of the level.
To add to all this nonsense, weapons crates are parachuted on to the level
at random, containing super-weapons to really cause mayhem, such as the
minigun, the banana-bomb and the now-legendary exploding sheep.

The random level generator creates innumerable landscapes to keep you
playing, the computer opponents provide various degrees of skilled
antagonism (though they can pull off unbelievable pixel perfect shots one
moment and blow themselves up the next) but if you're to get any real
longevity from this game, it's against human opponents. As a one-player
game it's OK but won't hold your attention for very long. Against some
mates, you'll while away hour after hour of exhilarating blasting action
and laugh loads. Soon you'll forget the realy frustrating black-on-black
copy-protection booklet and the very limited 8 colour palette which makes
up the landscapes (which is easy enough on the well-dithered professionally
drawn levels; not so on the general public's custom levels). A lot of people
have said that after overdosing on Worms in this way you'll suddenly go
right off it, and, true though it may be, you'll have one hell of a good
time getting there. But if you've got an AGA computer and don't have a Worms
game then STOP right there and have a look at 'Worms: the Director's Cut'
instead...

Alphabetical list.