Worms 3D

The gardener's friends return, but will gamers love them too?

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Oh those pesky worms. Always trying to kill each other, and ruining my garden in the process. The non-legged swine. Using Bazookas, Shotguns, Uzis and I swear I saw a sheep too. There's only one thing for it, I will create my own team of Worms then train them in lethal combat before sending them before me to eradicate these other worms who have so upset me of late. So here I am, in control of a team of Worms. I have seen Worm combat before, but that was long ago, they were smaller then, flatter too. But now technology allows me to view my worms in three dimensions. They also move in 3D. Indeed my team should be powerful and make short work of these accursed fellows. To arms my pink friends, to arms, and to the victor, the spoils!

And so it begins. The Worms have finally made it into 3D, something so many past 2D heroes have tried to do and failed at. Mario? So-so results if you ask me. Sonic? Ruined. Street Fighter? Disgusting. So what hope do the worms have? It would seem that a glimmer of hope is present. Nothing has been left behind in the conversion. Destructible terrain remains, which is probably the hardest thing to transfer into the third dimension, as does the Ninja Rope which any seasoned Worms player will attest to being essential for victorious battles. The old Worms weapons also re-appear for use in your annelidacide as well as a few new surprises for the adventurous and/or friendless players willing to go through the single player game. More on the single player stuff later, because let's face it, multiplayer is what Worms is all about.

Staying true to the previous Worms incarnations, you are able to create a team of amusingly-as-your-brain-can-muster named worms and assign them "amusing" voices and a flag and tombstones for when your little critters buy the farm. The match times and weapon availability can be tweaked as well as choosing a level in which to stage your wormy battles. Once chosen the chaos can begin. Pretty much everything is as it was before, but in 3D. But no, it's not. The beautiful simplicity is gone. Aiming and judging shots is not as intuitive as the 2D versions. Sure there is a first person aim to replace the side on view, but it just doesn't work as well as before. It makes everything more strained and therefore less fun, even with three of your chums trying to blow off your annelids. It's a shame because Worms was always a great time at parties or between bouts of more serious multiplayer marathons.

Single player doesn't fare any better but the addition of objective based gameplay is a welcome one and successful completion unlocks new weapons for multiplay. But it doesn't make up for the flawed move to the third space.

Everything is competently done, the worms and their environments are nicely rendered and the controls are responsive if not a little more complex than required. Music, as usual, is grating after more than one listen and the voices are as amusing as listening to a mate suck on helium then say rude words. I'll leave how amusing up to you.

While Worms 3D isn't a total disaster, it's not as glorious a move as it could have been. Team 17 have waited a lot longer than most developers to move their most cherished of franchises fully to the next generation and most people would have thought the wait worth it. And to a certain extent it was, it is Worms, in 3D, but at the same time not. This is only really for die-hard fans of the franchise or people really willing to persevere with it. For me it's just not the same as you have to dig pretty deep to get the most out of it, and for post-pub entertainment, that's a little too much hard work.

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By Brad Davey