When I was in college, I played Worms when I should have been writing term papers or studying for exams. The sound effects (super cute little Worm voices) and game play was fantastic. The idea behind the Worms strategy game is that there are two teams of worms, and one (yours) is supposed to defeat the computer’s worms by killing them with a variety of weapon packs before time runs out. With the various types of weapons and the numerous worms onscreen, it is a game where you have to choose the right weapons to kill the other worms with minimal damage to your team.
The Worms game for the iPod Touch/iPhone is fun, but the thing that makes it best on the PC is the large screen and ability to really pinpoint your desired targets with the click of a mouse. It’s rather difficult to do this on the iPod or iPhone, unfortunately, and the controls are also a tad confusing to use at first. Once you are somewhat familiar with the controls, it’s a bit easier to actually win the game, but it’s definitely an acquired skill. I found that I had wanted to zoom into the actual worm position more often than not, so if there’s anything I’d recommend that the Team17 do for a version revision is to give more visibility and close-ups of the worm in action. After all, they are super cute little critters.
All in all, though, the game stays true to its roots — kill the enemy worms — but I’d say that until Team17 ramps up its efforts to really give you more control of an individual worm, which I think can be accomplished with greater zoom, the iPhone is not the best platform for it. We can only hope that we’ll see bigger and better in the future. But if you still love the game and don’t mind the little handicap, go for it — it’s just like good old days.
Update: Team 17 informs me that these points are being discussed and addressed on their Facebook page.
