Worms Open Warfare 2
The same, only different.
The weapons selection is generous, with old favourites like the Exploding Sheep and Holy Hand Grenade joined by new items like the Buffalo of Lies (which charges across the level, blowing up everything it hits) and the Bunker Buster (an air strike variant which burrows straight down into the ground and explodes). The AI balance is better than it has been in recent years, with a nicely judged difficulty curve. CPU worms no longer lob wind-assisted bazooka shots with game-killing accuracy, and they'll even make the same sort of stupid mistakes as a human player, meaning last minute turnarounds are possible even when playing solo.
The game does still suffer from terrain frustrations, with the old floating pixels occasionally scuttling your best laid plans. I failed one puzzle level because a Bunker Buster, used to create a tunnel for me to drop down, left a solitary pixel at the bottom of the shaft. I couldn't get past it to the exit, and had to restart. Grrr. Equally, there are familiar moments where tiny invisible debris hanging in mid-air will block a well-aimed shot. It's been a bugbear since 1994, and while I understand that having unsupported chunks of scenery collapse under real-world physics would undermine the basic concept of Worms, surely it's possible to code something that checks for niggling tiny specks of detritus and automatically erase them after an explosion?
Online you can now take on friends and strangers alike in new modes such as Rope Race, an absolute hoot for fans of the ninja rope, which works surprisingly well on the PSP controls. Indeed, the online component of this package is impressive across the board. Playable across either a local ad hoc network, or the full interweb infrastructure, there's support for such multiplayer features as buddy lists, clans and multiple accounts on the same PSP while results are uploaded to a daily leaderboard, accessible through the PSP or on the internet. All commonplace on more established online platforms, but a real treat to see on a handheld. Sadly the PSP's diffuse online community doesn't seem to be getting into the spirit of things. I found frequent examples of hosts spitefully booting players, or dropping matches entirely, when things didn't go their way.
And the new features don't stop there. Success in the offline modes earns you points which can be traded in for new features - level themes, worm accessories and animations, weapons and sound packs. You can customise each worm on your teams individually with hats and other silliness, so they become more than just the same four character models with funny names. And you can even create your own levels, using a powerful and intuitive editor. Draw them freehand, and the game can "melt" your stark lines into something more suitable. Define the number of random objects, place your own landmines, dig and fill holes - it's incredibly easy to come up with fiendish challenges of your own, save them to the memory stick and then share them locally or online.
This surfeit of options sums up the whole Open Warfare 2 experience. There's so much gameplay crammed into this UMD, all of it undeniably part of the series heritage yet often refreshingly unique, that it's arguably the first truly essential Worms game since Worms 2. And, best of all, this explosion of new additions enhances the core appeal, rather than simply being mindless clutter thrown in to pad out a press relelase. Team 17 clearly took a long, hard look at what Worms fans would want from a handheld title in this age of wireless multiplayer, and went out of their way to deliver on that promise. From the fully-featured multiplayer to a host of carefully crafted single player modes, Worms hasn't been this fresh in years. Yay.