Worms is still great and still has its charm, but has lost its originality.
User Rating: 8 | Worms: Open Warfare 2 DS
The worms series is a classic PC franchise and is quite suited for the DS. It is a turn based war strategy game involving a battle between teams of worms. Disappointingly, there are only 4 worms per team, as opposed to the 8 that the PC games have. The worms charm hasn't been lost on its move to the DS and all the familiar weapons are here, be it the bazooka, grenade, homing missile as well as comedic weapons like the sheep. The graphics are quite good, although the worms look a bit small and without much detail, the terrain looks better than that, and the background features basic, but moving 3D. I would have preferred bigger detailed worms than the fancy backdrops. There are quick match, multi-player, campaign and puzzle modes. Puzzle mode seems quite clever at first but after a few levels you do start to feel its a bit pointless. For example you may be at the top of a hill and cannot move. You only have mines in your inventory. You drop a mine behind you and get blown down the hill, when you finally stop your slide, you then hit another mine that blows you onto a platform where the exit is. The majority of the puzzle section is like this where there is only 1 solution and not much thought needs to go into it and the missions can often be over in under a minute. The campaign mode requires a bit more skill and mainly focuses on the battle aspect, but it also makes you traverse the terrain using combinations of jet packs, ninja ropes and girders. Usually there will be an imbalance of worms like 3 vs 2 but each worm will start with differing health.
Laboratory mode adds the DS features to the mix. The 'blow' section involves you blowing your worm with a parachute around the terrain, dodging mines, and water in order to get to the exit. Again, not that much skill is needed but at least it offers something different. It's good that they are trying something new, but the fun in the Worms series lies in the team battles.
