Worms is a series that has existed since the glory days of the SNES and Sega Genesis. Back then it was practically the king of multiplayer warfare. It is a game that, no doubt about it, many gamers 18 and older have played at least once. Although, it seems like the fact that you practically have to be over 18 to remember Worms’ glory days seems to be the rub, at least that’s my opinion as to why Team 17 made Worms Ultimate Mayhem.
What made Worms great, popular, and the inspiration of games such as GunBound, are its oturn-based battles, destructible environments, and overall humur. With moves such as the fire punch and Shoryuken, it’s obvious that Worms is a very tongue-in-cheek war game. What Ultimate Mayhem revealed to me though, is that, just maybe, one of Worms strongest features is the fact that it’s entirely 2D. I will say this right now: Worms Ultimate Mayhem is, by no means, a bad game; it just does not live up to it’s legacy. If you’re buying this game in order to relive childhood memories, then you’ll be making a mistake.
In the transition to 3D, much of what made Worms fun, and in a way, playable, was mostly lost.
First, the good: The environments are nice, though the graphics aren’t amazing. The bright colors are an excellent way to give the eyes a break from the brown and bloom military games that are now popular and it may even motivate you to play Ultimate Mayhem, every once in a while, when you tire of Call of Duty. Ultimate Mayhem is also full of the trademark humor and personality of the Worms series. The fire punch is still there and every turn a caption that may, or may not, elicit at least a chuckle will pop up informing you of who’s turn it is.
Ultimate Mayhem’s best feature though, is it’s customization options. You can customize your team’s outfits and team (I gave my team berets and eye-patches and named them the Snakes). In an added twist you can even customize your team’s signature weapon. As you play Ultimate Mayhem, doing story missions, campaign missions, etc., you’ll unlock coins you can use to purchase more customization choices. All of this adds an incentive to playing, if you truly like Ultimate Mayhem. The only issue with the unlockables is that there are a large amount of unlockables you may never get, unless you purchase Team 17’s previous games. Having loyalty based unlockables isn’t a bad thing, it’s the sheer amount of items you can only get by buying specific games that is annoying.
It’s important to note that Worms Ultimate Mayhem isn’t entirely a new game. In fact, it’s just a combination of Worms 3D and Worms 4. The characters have a low poly-count, and the overall graphics have barely been improved in the XBLA port, the worms’ shadows are noticeably pixelated. The controls also feel inaccurate and in a game like Worms, accuracy can be very important, especially in the third dimension. Add to that the fact that you can’t speed up the gameplay or skip enemy turns (which can be important in single player) and you’ll find yourself constantly watching a long sequence of actions, such as: movement, weapon choice, aim, fire, explosion, worm goes flying in the air, lands, goes ouch, stands up, then a second or two later, the damage total shows up above them, if they die they’ll say “uh-oh”, “oh no”, or some other quote, then they’ll explode, a grave marker will appear, then the funny caption announcing the next worms turn appears, then it’s your turn. This isn’t annoying at first, but after a while it can become extremely irritating.
