Quick Look: Worms Battlegrounds

More worms? Always (or generally?) a good a thing.

Whoever designed those button icons on the tutorial popups deserves to be fired.

Edit: Wait, is that narrator Katherine Parkinson? (or as most people know her, Jen from The IT Crowd.)

"YOU GOTTA HOLD IT DOWN BRO!" - Drew Scanlon, 2014

Always preferred Hogs of War personally. It has Rik Mayall voicing, like, everyone in it! Though I wouldn't be surprised if that game is in actuality a pile of steaming faeces, but the pre-teen me absolutely adored it.

Lemmings was a game for shut-ins?! Did you miss the brilliance of Lemmings death match on the SNES?

Is the narrator the lady from the IT Crowd?

Ah man I remember playing these games! I stopped playing them but damn they were still fun to play around with.

I almost bought a worms game as recently as the last Humble Bundle offering because I do actually love these games. The caveat is that included my favorite, Armageddon, because I no longer have a CD drive in my computer to run and the old version of the game has very spotty OS support beyond Windows XP, I believe. Also two of the more interesting Worms variants which actually seemed to do something different with the formula (one of the 3D ones which would have been fun for one or two plays, and the one which takes on more modern, class-based roles).

It was always a ton of fun going up against a large team of AI with a single worm and strategically eliminating them. Then there was Worms 2, the only game I know which allowed you to modify base stats for every weapon. Turning the joke "prod" weapon (it was just a nudge, used to poke someone off a ledge if they had landed on one/stupidly ended a turn near one) into something with the force to send a worm into the stratosphere was good for a whole lot of laughs.

A Worms game has always lived and died by the ninja rope physics for me. Anything but the crazy, short rope "vibrating" to increase velocity - which seemed like an engine imitation/exploit - tactics to launch over odd-shaped surfaces... well, it felt janky but it defined movement in a Worms game, to me.

Drew killing it from the background again.

I never got into worms, but was into some similar game. Just remember it used tanks instead, and you either couldn't move or the movement was very limited.

I believe so. She also provided narration for Worms: Clan Wars before it so there's precedent.

@aishan: yes.

I now really want some maltesers.

Is the woman VO the lady who plays gillie in Game of Thrones?

I got worms! That's what we're gonna call it, I Got Worms, we're gonna specialize in selling worm farms.

@ethanielrain: Scorched Earth.

Thank God for Drew!

Shame they removed the scouser worm soundbank, you know with the crew's new found knowledge from the podcast and everything :(

I think 25 USD for a fully featured and legit Worms game is cheap! Think about it, it could have been F2P mobile crap like the new RollerCoaster Tycoon game or Dungeon Keeper. It might be sad that I praise the game for not being manipulative crap that tricks me using nostalgia into a compromised game in order to pump me of microtransactions. I'm just glad they have respect for their fans and their own game and keep the core intact and legitimate. This looks great, I think I'll buy it just to reward their dedication!

I want Moss to narrate the next one.

No versus in a 50 minute quicklook? Versus mode is literally THE ONLY REASON people play worms. Brad was sitting right there so what the hell?

Call me easily satisfied, but that voice-over is just delightful.

Vatos Locos forever!

Worms are people too.

*walks in covered in dust and confused and starts yelling* VINNNNY?!?!? VINNNNNNNNY?!?!?! VINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNY?!!?

:(

I love Worms!

I lost my shit when Jeff said "you should be rolling with me not busting me holmes"

@yummylee: Matt Berry (Douglas Reynholm) narrated Worms Revolution, so it seems like Team17 have a thing going.

When are we getting a Scorched Earth revival?

"Do British people actually talk like that or are they playing it up for dumb Americans"

The fact that you even have to ask shows that it's working.

Hate to be a negative nancy, but they've got to stop releasing sequels to Worms that are just reskins of the same game. The Worms on XBLA on the 360 is a pretty definitive version and I'm pretty sure it was $10 when I bought it. Worms is it's versus mode, the singleplayer in recent titles seems pretty tacked on and basic; more of a tutorial than anything else. These new features added in each title do very little to change up the formula, they feel like excuses to justify sequels.

I love me some Worms as much as the next guy, but I hate how Team17 tend to get a pass from most people just because the original Worms game is good. They have done very little to change each game they've released and continue to shovel out another Worms at a crazy rate. The $25 price tag here seems bananas.

'Seems like it'll be the kind of game that will be good on a vita, don't think I would want to be tied to a couch whilst playing this' - Brad, missing the point of video games since *insert DOB here*

Drew knows what we're all shouting at the screen XD

@mysterysheep Team17 gets away with it largely because the older games have online communities that die off. If Xbox One / PS4 were backwards compatible, I feel like they wouldn't be as willing to just churn out another one this early.

That is definitely kinda ridiculous.

A Worms quick look with no multiplayer and a clueless Brad. They might be misrepresenting the game a bit here.

Yeah, no versus in a Worms quick look is really disappointing. That's kind of the reason that people play Worms in the first place.

@scampbell said:

Really? I'm about 20 minutes in, I'm just gonna skip the rest now.

I would agree with that.

@corvak: I totally get that, but in that case they should port the older versions. It's the fact that they give each new game a new title that bothers me so much. Each game should just be called Worms at this stage if they aren't adding anything that is radically different to the age-old formula. Just search for Worms on steam and you'll get what I mean, people would be set just buying one of the games on there.

i wish i had worms

Anime editor Brad Shoemaker needs to review more Hello Kitty games.

@thiago123: A "Scorched Earth Revival" already exists. It's called Scorched Earth 3d. It's free.

@EveryoneClamouringForAVersusQuickLook: I don't know -- in these 50 minutes, Jeff and Brad have pretty much proven that this version of Worms doesn't look to offer anything new from previous Worms games. You've seen one "versus" Worms match, you've seen 'em all.

I doubt that announcer/narrator lady is really English, she sounds super fake to me.

Heh was thinking "Ah this should be a fun QL, the good thing about worms is that the multiplayer is generally always fun".

But then....

.......

DMA Design aka Rockstar North developed Lemmings, correct about Psygnosis publishing it.

@dasakamov:

That's like saying you shouldn't do the multiplayer of a Call of Duty, because it is pretty much the same as every other Call of Duty.

No one is expecting anything fundamentally different from a Wurms game, as Jeff said: "It is a tried and true formula." so why change it.

She is.

Man, people love to complain. I'm an old-school Worms fan who spent innumerable hours playing Worms 2 and Armageddon online, and I thought this was a fun QL. I was happy to see how the series has changed with the new modes and mechanics, and seeing it played by people with different experience levels is interesting in its own right.

Thanks guys!

@aishan: I was thinking the same thing, why is Jen from the IT crown narrating a worms game?

I haven't played or seen Worms since the 90's. What are these moving around worms? That isn't Worms, man.

I preferred Scorched Earth.

I just came in here to say the same exact thing. Fuck yea Scorched Earth!