Re: WORMS ARMAGEDDON (All Weapons Unlocked!) (Portable)
Angie Troia
The player controls a team of up to eight Worms in combat against opposing teams. It is an enhanced re-release of Worms 2 from 1997, with new weapons, missions, and a new "front-end" interface which looks more like a game menu than a launcher program. Worms Armageddon is one of the most successful games in the series (if not the most successful), with the greatest current player population in the Worms series and most fan support for it, the most recent update being released in 2020 despite being more than two decades old, and several attempts to bank off its success with later games such as Worms 2: Armageddon being named after it, and Worms W.M.D which was claimed to "channel the spirit of Worms Armageddon."
The game includes a wide variety of weapons, including melee, projectile, and explosive weapons, as well as Air Strike-based attacks. Some are based on real-life arms, such as the Bazooka, Grenade, and Shotgun. Others are more fanciful and cartoon-like, such as the Sheep, which serves as a mobile explosive, or the Skunk, which releases poisonous gas.
In a normal match, all teams begin with the same weapons, based on the chosen weapon set. Some weapons may not become available until a certain number of turns pass. Depending on game options, additional weapons may randomly fall onto the terrain in airdropped and teleported Crates.
In addition to normal weapons, each team (during team creation) chooses a special weapon which becomes available to them after a certain number of turns. The special weapons are more powerful than regular weapons and often offer special abilities. The most powerful weapons are superweapons. Superweapons rarely fall in Weapon Crates. Superweapons are often based on cartoon-like themes (such as the French Sheep Strike) and are usually devastating in power.
The only weapons in the GBC version are the Bazooka, Grenade, Banana Bomb, Battle Axe, Shotgun, Fire Punch, Dynamite, Sheep, Air Strike, Blow Torch, Baseball Bat, Teleport, Armageddon, and the Jet Pack. The Air Strike, Banana Bomb, and Armageddon work differently as well. The Air Strike has a plane fly by three times, dropping a single bomb each time, the Banana Bomb instead causes a few explosions as opposed to producing clusters, and the Armageddon works more like the Indian Nuclear Test.
Local multiplayer allows the player to select which teams participate in the battle (including number of Worms and handicaps), which options and weapons are used, and the level to be played upon. The matches can use any combination of human and computer teams, provided at least one team is human. Additionally, multiple Worm teams can form an alliance for the match by selecting the same team color - they will still operate separately in movement rotation but share weapons and score. If multiple human players are using the same computer, the game functions in a hot-seat mode.
Worms Armageddon includes a very high level of customization - in multiplayer games or skirmishes, the player can create custom Game Styles with preferred game-play options and weapon sets. Regular options include starting health, whether the Worms can move, how long a turn lasts, and Sudden Death options. Weapons settings include what weapons the teams start with, which weapons will fall in Crates and how often, and how powerful individual weapons are.
Experts can drop weapons (usually Dynamite or exploding Sheep) whilst swinging through the air... simply press RETURN, to drop the current weapon. Be careful, this is only advisable with certain weapons! If the ability to drop Sheep from great heights wasn't enough, you can also swing, let go, fire the rope again whilst in mid-air, swing and repeat, covering huge distances quickly! Be warned this is a very tricky technique and really works well in spacious caverns.
Worms Armageddon is a 1999 turn-based strategy video game developed and published by Team17. It was originally released for the Microsoft Windows operating system, and was later ported to the PlayStation, Dreamcast, Nintendo 64, and Game Boy Color. Worms Armageddon is the third installment in the Worms series. In the game, the player controls a team of up to eight earthworms tasked with defeating an opposing team using a wide range of weapons at their disposal. The game takes place on a destructible and customizable two-dimensional board and is characterized by cartoonish graphics and a unique brand of humour.
Gameplay is turn-based, with each team moving in sequence, which is determined randomly, across two-dimensional terrain. During a single turn, a team can only move one of their worms (unless an item that allows the team to select their worm is used). Worms can walk and jump, as well as (when the proper items are available) swing by rope, parachute, teleport, and bungee. The objective of a traditional match is to defeat all opposing teams by killing their worms, although in the campaign some missions have other objectives such as collecting a specific crate.[5]
The game includes a wide variety of weapons, including melee, projectile, and explosive weapons, as well as airstrike-based attacks. Some are based on real-life arms, such as the shotgun, bazooka, and hand grenade; others are rather fanciful and cartoonish, such as the sheep, which serves as a mobile explosive, and the skunk, which releases poisonous gas. In a normal match, all teams begin with the same weapons, based on the chosen weapon set. Some weapons may not become available until a certain number of turns pass. Depending on the game options, additional weapons may randomly fall onto the terrain in airdropped and teleported crates. In addition to normal weapons, during team creation, each team chooses a special weapon which becomes available to them after a certain number of turns. The special weapons are more powerful than regular weapons and often offer special abilities; super weapons will rarely fall in weapon crates. These weapons are often based on cartoonish themes, such as the French Sheep Strike, and usually devastating in power.[5] In homage to the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail, one of the game weapons is a Holy Hand Grenade, with a sound-effect reminiscent of the Hallelujah chorus from Handel's Messiah.[7]
The game offers players the ability to create their own custom teams. Each team has its own name and includes eight individually named worms. The player can also change the team's special weapon, grave marker, flag, victory fanfare, and voice set. In addition to numerous defaults available, the game offers the ability to import custom voices.[5]
Worms Armageddon was originally intended to be an expansion pack to Worms 2, but it was eventually developed as a standalone game. It was intended to be the last game of the Worms franchise, but Worms creator Andy Davidson felt that it needed more content before being released, leading to the development of Worms World Party.[7] It was also going to be released under the name Wormageddon, but Team17 changed the name to Worms Armageddon because of close similarities to the name of the game Carmageddon.[8] It was released initially for PCs in 1999 in Europe and North America, published by Hasbro Interactive under the MicroProse brand.[9] The game was eventually ported to Dreamcast and PlayStation in December 1999, Game Boy Color in January 2000, and Nintendo 64 in March 2000. The Nintendo 64 version is one of the first Nintendo 64 games to feature a terrain editor and generator.[10] A Macintosh version was being developed by MacSoft, but it has since been cancelled.[citation needed] Worms Armageddon was produced by Martyn Brown and composed by Bjørn Lynne, Karl Morton was the game's lead programmer, and Dan Cartwright was the game's lead artist.[citation needed]
Despite its age, Worms Armageddon still receives periodic updates, mainly from two programmers known as Deadcode and CyberShadow, recruited by Team17.[13] These updates address bugs and compatibility issues, and also add new features to the game, such as support for a greater number of worms in a match and support for arbitrarily-sized colour levels. The latest update was on 16 July 2020.[14]
The Dreamcast version's reception was positive. Johnny Liu of GameRevolution praised the version for its "addictive" gameplay, its loads of personality, and not having to save money to buy multiple controllers for multiplayer, but criticized the version for the lack of Internet support, reduced customizations compared to the PC version, and the lack of a multiple-controller option.[33] On the contrary, Ben Stahl of GameSpot praised the multiple controller ports as well as multiplayer for being fast-paced and turned into a "barrage of havoc", but criticized the single-player for the AI-controlled worms' nearly perfect accuracy and the length of time that it takes for such worms to complete their turns. He also pointed out that the worms' high-pitched voices are "only mildly cute" and can potentially be annoying, but praised the soundtracks for lending in realism to an otherwise unrealistic experience and the background music for helping players stay on task.[35] Joel Durham Jr. of AllGame gave it four stars out of five, saying, "With fabulous gameplay and a stunning amount of options, Worms: Armageddon [sic] is sure to please. The sheer amount of effort that went into this title is commendable in its own right. Every development house could learn something by taking a few pages from Team 17's [sic] book."[55] Cam Shea of Hyper gave it 79%, saying, "if this is the kind of no frills PC port we can expect for the Dreamcast, don't toss out your N64 just yet. You may just need it if you want to play the best version of Worms Armageddon on the block."[56]
The Game Boy Color port slightly favorable reviews. Concluding that the port is an "abridged edition of the overall game", Craig Harris of IGN criticized the version's great lack of the PC version's features (e.g. weapons) and personality and pointed out its "quirky" graphics. The reviewer felt that the game's front end was "extremely thrown together". He concluded that it was still fun to play.[40] Hudak of The Electric Playground gave it seven out of ten, similarly criticized the lack of weapons, and also criticized the lack of soundbites and complete lack of voices and what he perceived to be "microscopic" worms that are tough for the eye to see. He did, however, praise the terrain and physics engine for being well translated from the other versions of the game.[59] Jason White of AllGame gave it three stars out of five, saying that it "has so much going for it in the fun department that the odd controls and sometimes hard to navigate terrain will be easily forgotten. Go out and give this one a try. It's well worth the time."[60]
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