Reviewed: May 27, 2008
Reviewed by: Jeff Gedgaud

Publisher
THQ

Developer
Team 17

Released: March 10, 2008
Genre: Strategy
Players: 1-4

8
8
8
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8.0

Screenshots (Click Image for Gallery)

The worms are back now on the Wii system with plenty of Worm Warfare and a few extras like some story based battling that slowly but surely introduces you to the games finer points. Worms: A Space Oddity introduces the gang of fun loving worms to the motion control console system with a new and unique story.

The game includes a few different game types; a story mode, versus, some mini games, a quick game and a customization mode. The quick game is a quick start with random settings like the world, how many players and such for a quick entry to a single player game. The mini games are silly little short but somewhat fun games that are used in the story mode as well. A space whack a mole and flying a space ship are two and the games make up a little extra gameplay section but are not really that great.

The main story mode and the versus mode is where Worms for the Wii shines with the story being a drawn out but not boring introduction to the world of the worms through a space epic. Your ship of fellow worms is lost and you must explore the various planets to find your way back. Some of the games levels will be a simple fight against alien beings in the worms favorite traditional turn based fight. The other levels will be puzzle type games with varying difficulty such as finding parts of your ship that you need to pick up to return to your travels.

The rest of the puzzles are similar to the fights but you need to use the tools and weapons to defeat or solve the puzzle. A good example of this is the first puzzle you come across, you have one health point and your enemy has 300 but you get a few tools. You can shoot him for some damage but not enough to kill him, the real weapon is an explosive barrel and shovel. You need to figure out how to get the alien worm to the barrel or the barrel to the alien worm to kill him off.

The use of puzzles in a story mode is great and adds to the fun of playing Worms in a single player mode and there are plenty of levels of increasing difficulty to play through. It will take several hours to play all 36 levels of the single player story and you also have the tutorials for additional fun worm destruction.

The Versus mode is your traditional worm warfare where you can pick and choose battle types and worlds, features such as gravity and wind speed as well as how many you play against. You can use one controller and pass the controller along to the next player or play with multiple controllers which makes this a cost effective multiplayer game as you don’t need to purchase extra controllers just to play with friends.

Worms: A Space Oddity is a great game for playing against others and that is where this 2D shooter shines, you have enough weapons to keep things lively. The game excels at the turn based shooting and having to figure out the best way to defend and attack in your single turn against the others is fun and challenging.

The effects are also the usual high standard for a Worms’ game and the various weapons all work and look good even though there are a more limited number in this game. Using the simple animations like your worm victory dance and falling tail up with a sound effect and then jumping up and turning in midair is a real cute add on and just what you’ve come to expect from Worms.

The graphics may not be grand or even fantastic but they are the usual Worms but I do have one complaint about the screen control and being able to see everything. Moving the screen using the Wii remote and adjusting the screen size is a bit hit and miss and the one part that can make some of the gameplay difficult from a control and hardware standpoint.

To move the screen around you’re supposed to press the plus button and move the remote around but it doesn’t work smoothly and is hard to perform while holding other buttons to perform actions at the same time. The zooming in and out is also difficult and doesn’t work well in some situations but overall the graphics worked very well.

The games voices and sayings they use when things happen are fun but it does get annoying but you can adjust the voice and effects volume separately. They did a great job again with the audio and there were no technical problems at all.

The single player quick match and customizable matches are great but again for practice and for some fun when you have no one to play with but the game shines in the multiplayer. You can play with up to four people and like I said with one or several Wii remotes for fun against others.

The game does not have an online multiplayer which is a shame but the same Worms’ fun is here for up to four players. You can choose all kinds of modes and settings in the multiplayer for additional features and difficulties to make each game unique and more fun.

Worms is really all about playing against others but the additional story mode does add some fun to the gameplay and value of Worms. They have kept the same style and fun Worm Warfare in Worms: A Space Oddity so you can have the same fun blowing each other up with those exploding sheep.