Worms: Open Warfare

"I don't understand why someone wouldn't like this game."

Worms has been around for a while now and has made appearances on several systems. Now it makes its appearance on the DS and, in my opinion, does so fairly well. In all honesty I don't understand why someone wouldn't like this game.

To those of you that are unfamiliar with this series, let me shed a little light. This is a strategy game that pits teams of cartoony looking worms against each other. Your job is to destroy the other teams with weapons that are provided like shotguns, bazookas, and kamikaze suicide attacks. It's loads of fun and has a great strategy element to it. Also, it is a perfect multiplayer game. The worms are loaded with personality as they can be given custom accents and make comments throughout the battle. Imagine cartoony angry scots worms fighting with a cartoon land mine and you get the idea of this game's charm.

The DS version of the game utilizes both screens very well. The top screen is where you see your worms and battlegrounds while the bottom screen is used for selecting weapons with the stylus. The stylus can also be used to navigate your view on the top screen so you can aim a little better.The buttons are used to attack, jump and zoom in or out. Using the stylus and the buttons together works really well for me. You have a nice selection of weapons at your disposal and up to four other DS systems can link together playing off of one cart. It's a multiplayer dream of a strategy game and works very well on the DS.

The sounds and graphics are really what you would expect from a 2D Worms game. The game doesn't really look or sound any better than it did ten years ago. But since it never looked bad in the first place and since 2D has aged better than many 3D games, it all works rather well together. The only complaint I have with the DS version is you occasionally run into a few (very few) graphic glitches on the battle field. But really it isn't often enough to get too upset about. On the DS, the game looks and plays great. You can customize teams of worms by re-naming each worm and the whole team name to suit your personality. Multiplayer is a blast and I really like using the stylus to select my weapons. It's just plain fun.

The DS version of the game plays really well in my book. I have had a lot of fun with it already and probably will when I play with my friends. This game isn't terribly deep and it won't keep you immersed like an RPG. It's just a fun little multiplayer strategy game and it fills that role very well.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 08/14/06