XBS Reviews: Worms

Filed in archive Reviews on March 10, 2007

Worms hit last Wednesday and I've played it every day since -- sure, I'm already a fan of the franchise, but I think that even the skeptical could find some fun in killing friends and strangers with exploding sheep and clusterbomb bananas. Online play with up to four players (that's sixteen worms, total) is a blast, and for once I think that voice chat actually adds something to the experience -- it's hard to take yourself too seriously when you're playing a game like Worms, and you're much more likely to hear laughter and good-spirited teasing than someone's best ann coulter impersonation.

Worms is far from flawless, though: network errors have smoothed out some as the week has gone by but are still frequent, the weapon selection is missing some expected fan-favorites, and the single-player mode is woefully lacking in customization options. It's also too bad that Worms was finished before the new 150MB Live Arcade size limit was introduced -- there's a reason that there are only three map palettes: it's hard enough to fit just the sound samples into that paltry 50MB. Still, these are all issues that could potentially ironed out with (free? maybe.) future downloads and patches.

We have to go to war with the worms we have, though, not the worms we want. And while Worms isn't perfect, there's easily $10 worth of fun to be had here. Download away.