Worms World Party Preview

Worms World Party, which will be released this March for the PC and Dreamcast, offers fans of previous Worms games and new players alike a strategy experience dedicated to online competition. The aggressive annelids have returned in this exceedingly playable and decidedly humorous next chapter of the Worms saga. Recent Worms titles have lacked new gameplay options, something that Team 17 has addressed with a bevy of new missions, training disciplines, and most importantly, a game dedicated to competition on the "Wormnet," where players can meet up for a heavy dose of trash talking and explosive invertebrate destruction.

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The way a game of Worms works has remained essentially unchanged since its previous versions. Teams of weapon-laden worms are spread out on a randomly generated or preset battlefield, which can take the form of either a nook-and-cranny-ridden cavern or an island. Each team then takes turns controlling one of its worms by using arrow-key movement and mouse-click weapon selection--the goal being the destruction of the opposing worm force. The nearly 60 weapons available to your worms are a veritable arsenal of death and tongue-in-cheek destruction. In addition to warfare staples such as grenades, handguns, napalm, and bazookas, your worms can summon more unorthodox weapons of mayhem. You can launch exploding sheep, sickness-inducing skunks, or burrowing mole bombs, as well as more oddball weapons such as the mighty mad cows, banana bombs, grumbling old ladies, and, in a tip of the hat to Monty Python, the holy hand grenades. Fans of Street Fighter will be pleased to know that the "dragon ball" and "fire punch" animations are back, complete with the trademark headband that Ryu wears. Despite the variety, the weapon set is not quite as impressive as that found in Worms Armageddon--it lacks some favorites such as the mail strike and stone donkey, but it's well rounded enough to still encourage a variety of tactics and stratagems.

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Employing these weapons involves using a relatively deep system where trajectory, distance, strength, timely movement, and making use of the destructible terrain are factors of effectiveness. Opening up a crater beneath a worm can turn it into a prime target for a follow-up grenade, and minimizing your own casualties while destroying enough of the terrain beneath a worm can send it into the water. Worms can't swim very well, so propelling one into the drink will eliminate it. If drowning isn't your cup of tea, using explosives and armaments to lower a worm's life down to nothing will also result in its defeat and self-inflicted explosion. Getting caught in the vengeful death throes of a worm can be painful in itself, so it's best to avoid close proximity to victims. If you destroy crates or oil barrels, flaming petrol might coat the ground, which can cause a combo attack and thus tons of damage. It may also induce a replay mode that handily pops up, letting you rejoice in your clever attack for a second time or forcing you to take your lumps in shame. Combat is thus focused on making decisive killings and rapid eliminations.