Thank you Team17 for giving us this game to review!

I have to admit, even though the series has been around since 1995. This is my second time playing a Worms game. And with such a long running series I shouldn't have been surprised with how much fun the tried and true gameplay is 15 years later. However, the cartoon graphics tricked me into not taking the game very seriously. As it turns out, there's a lot of strategy involved when killing worms.

The objective is simple. You must annihilate the other team of worms before they wipe you out.  To defeat the other worms you have to drain their hit points with weapons or knock them into the water to drown them.

With its over the top weapons and bright colorful graphics this game reminds me of the Looney Toons cartoons where Road Runner and Wile E Coyote try their zany attempts to blow each other up.  Even though there is violence, it’s very light hearted and not bloody or gory by any means.  The screams the worms make when a mine is placed on them still cracks me up like a kid watching Saturday cartoons.  (Yes I’m in my 30’s and I realize that there are cartoon channels and they’re not limited to Saturday mornings anymore).

The weapon selection varies on the campaign mission you are playing. The staples include bazookas, mines, dynamite, grenades, frag grenades, shot guns, ninja/grapple ropes, jet packs, parachutes, and teleporters.   Some of the weapons are carried over from the previous games but there are some new ones thrown in for good measure.  All in all there are over forty weapons to dabble with and try out.  Some of the more powerful weapons include the Holy Hand Grenade, Armageddon, Air Strike and Super Bunker Busters.  Exploding ferrets, sheep and buffalo add even more variety.

Many of the weapons are pretty straightforward to use.  For example, dropping a mine or a dynamite stick on a foe doesn't take much skill but the other weapons are a bit more complex.  When you're using the bazooka or throwing a grenade you have to consider the trajectory and the amount and direction of wind (which changes every turn).  The shotguns are easy since they have a line of sight but the uzis are hard to aim since the recoil is nasty.  Magnets are great for repelling or drawing near metal objects but they have a learning curve to figure out the controls needed to change the polarity.

The single player campaign has thirty missions with an additional five that can be unlocked by purchasing them in the store area.  For each level you complete you earn coins; the better you do in a level the more coins you can earn.  Besides the additional campaign levels you can purchase new hats for your worms to wear, new grave stones for when they die, and you can purchase the ability to use new weapons.  Most of the levels pit you against an opposing team of worms but an occasional time attack challenge is sprinkled in for variety.

Multiplayer is a blast and you can play privately and invite your steam friends or play on ranked servers.  I didn’t have any trouble finding anyone to play with.  Whenever I started a ranked server it had a person join within seconds.  There are various modes including Crazy Crates where you get air dropped random weapons of mass destruction.  Fort mode had you attacking the enemy's fort while defending your own.  There's a ninja rope race mode as well as a bazooka and grenade only option.   You can customize your backdrop, starting arsenal, forts and worm appearance.

There’s a lot of customization and the possibilities are endless.  You can create your own sound banks for your worm team and I have seen Portal 2, Duke Nukem, StarCraft and South Park sound banks available from the gaming community.  You can create your own maps and levels as well.

Joining multiplayer games via Steam is easy to do.  Like many Steam games there are thirteen achievements that you can earn.  I have earned achievements for killing six worms with one attack, winning a level only using grenades, using the Holy Hand Grenade and drowning 200 worms.  Another Steam perk is that it saves your progress on the Steam Cloud so your save follows you no matter what computer you use.

Although there have been many patches I have not experienced any problems running this game. Each turn typically has 30-45 seconds and when you use the weapons it subtracts from the time.  Occasionally I have seen the enemy team use a gun and not have the time subtracted so I had to wait for the timer to run down.  Other than that minor glitch, I have no complaints.

The voice acting is top notch with a wide variety of built in personalities including mobsters, gangsters, cranky veterans and Star Wars homage.  The weapons sound effects are fitting and the explosions are spot on.  While I remember the menu music I don't recall the background music so if its there, its forgettable.

The 2D graphics are extremely well done. The various themed back drops are colorful, funny and captivating.  Some of the themes include sports, construction, winter and a cheese planet.  The worms have various looks and expressions that make them likable.  The physics seem pretty accurate and the aim bots are deadly with their precision.  They occasionally mess up but don't count on it!

While the bright colorful backgrounds and funny voices lure my kids to my computer while I play the game, I would exercise caution before buying this game for a child.  It's obviously violent but in a cartoon fashion not much different than you would find on cartoon shows on TV.  Whenever there is an explosion you'll see a comic book "Boom!" or POW! and so on.  The gangster themed worms called Space Cadets use some slang and actually swear but they bleep it out.  I don't know why they bothered in the first place.

With that said, this is an extremely fun turn based strategy game that has tons of replay value.  After you beat the main single player campaign you can try your hand at the tougher War Zone missions.  Multiplayer is bound to bring endless hours of enjoyment and with an asking price of $20 this game is well worth the money.  I have seen it as low as $10 on sale; at that price it's a steal.