Worms (series)

Worms is a series of video games in the turn-based military strategy genre. In these games, two or more players who control one or several characters face each other for a certain time, with the aim of eliminating the opponents' characters. Among its predecessors are Scorched Earth and Gorillas, although it seems inspired by Lemmings.

In this case, the characters are represented by worms ("Worms" means "worms", in English) on an island that floats on a large body of water with a cartoonish atmosphere, featuring bright and humorous cartoon animation and a diverse arsenal of fictional weapons.

Video game saga

The Worms saga consists of several games that can be categorized into several generations according to the game mode they are based on:

These games have been regularly distributed since the mid-1990s, and are available by generation for the following platforms:

The game was invented by Andy Davidson, who sold the rights to the then unknown company Team 17. The game was originally created for the Commodore Amiga computer. It was programmed in Blitz BASIC.

As of May 2014, 60 million copies of the Worms franchise games had been sold since its release in 1995. By December 2015, the 25th anniversary of Team17, a total of 70 million copies of the games of the franchise had been sold and downloaded for free.

Spinoffs

Several Worms spin-offs have also been published, including Worms Pinball (1999), Onlineworms (2001), Worms Blast (2002), Worms Golf (2004), and Worms Crazy Golf (2011).). Worms Breakout and Worms Breakout 2, fangames based on the popular arcade game Breakout, have been made available for download via the official Worms Armageddon website.

Gameplay

Each player controls a team of various worms. During the course of the game, players take turns selecting one of their worms. They then use the available tools and weapons to attack and kill the opponents' worms, thus winning the game. Worms can move across the terrain in a variety of ways, typically by walking and jumping, but also using particular tools such as the ninja rope, teleporter, or jet pack, to move into otherwise inaccessible areas. Each turn is limited in time to ensure players don't keep the game going by overthinking or moving. The time limit can be modified in some games in the Worms series.

In total there are 60 weapons and tools that can be made available each time a game is played (40 in 3D versions), and different selections of weapons and tools can be saved in a "schematic" for easy selection in future games. The most common weapons are the Bazooka, which is affected by wind, grenades that have a timer when thrown, the UZI, the shotgun, and Karate attacks. Other scheme tweaks allow for options such as the deployment of booster crates, from which additional weapons can be obtained, and sudden death where the game rushes to a conclusion after a time limit expires. Some settings provide for the inclusion of objects such as land mines and explosive barrels.

When used, most weapons cause explosions that deform the terrain, creating circular cavities. Playable terrain types include "island" (land floating on a body of water), or "cave" (cave with water at the bottom and terrain at the top and bottom of the screen that certain weapons like airstrike cannot. This type is not available in 3-D versions due to camera restrictions.) If a worm is hit with a weapon, the amount of damage dealt to the worm will be removed from the worm's initial amount of health. Damage dealt to the attacked worm(s) after either player's turn is displayed when all movement on the battlefield has ceased.

Worms die when one of the following occurs:

• When a worm falls into the water (either by falling off the island, through a hole in the bottom of it, or by the floating line rises above the worm during the sudden death).
• When the health of a worm is reduced to zero.

The random map generator provides an unlimited source of colorful terrains of various themes. Open island maps, like this one, allow players to use air strikes. Cavern maps have a nearly indestructible ceiling that cannot be passed easily.

Weapons and Tools

Weapons available in the game range from a standard timed grenade and homing missile to exploding sheep and the highly destructive banana bomb (possible reference to in-game weapons gorilla), both of which have appeared in every game of Worms so far. More recently, the Worms series has seen weapons like the iconic Holy Hand Grenade, the priceless Ming Vase, and the inflatable Scouser.

Some of the strange weapons in a particular game are based on current issues at the time of the game's release. The Mail Strike, for example, which consists of a flying mailbox that drops exploding envelopes, is a reference to the postal strikes of the time, while Mad Cow refers to the British BSE epidemic of the 1990s. The French nuclear test, introduced in Worms 2, was even updated to the Indian nuclear test at Worms Armageddon to keep with the times.

Other weapons are clearly inside jokes. The MB bomb, for example, which floats out of the sky and explodes on impact, is a cartoon caricature of Martyn Brown, Team17's studio head. Other such weapons include the Concrete Donkey, one of the most powerful weapons in the game, which is based on a lawn ornament in Andy Davidson's garden and an airstrike known in-game as Mike's Carpet Bomb. it was inspired by a shop near the Team17 headquarters called 'Mike's Carpets'.

Since Worms Armageddon, weapons that were intended to assist as utilities instead of damage dealers were classified as tools. This classification differs mainly in the fact that they do not drop in ordinary weapon crates, and instead appear in tool crates. Many tools were left in the wrong class for the sake of keyboard-shortcut conveniences. This was resolved in Worms 3D.

Some weapons were inspired by popular movies and TV shows, including the Holy Hand Grenade (Monty Python and the Holy Grail) and ninja rope (called the Bat Rope in early demos of the original game).

Audio

One of the defining characteristics of the Worms series is its light sound. Although the earliest Worms games used darker, more authentic field sounds for their background music, all games included a large number of high-pitched phrases yelled by the worms during the course of battle, such as "I'll get you!" #34;, "Revenge!", "Stupid!" and "Bombs Away!".

Worms & Reinforcements United and its sequels gave players the ability to choose from a variety of voice sets for each squad of worms. Many were based on regional accents, such as "The Raj" and "Angry Scots", while others, such as "Drill Sergeant", used stereotypes. Players can even record their own voice sets and use them instead.

Background and theme music from Worms 2, Worms Armageddon, Worms World Party and partly Worms 3D, was provided by Bjørn Lynne.

History

The game was originally created by Andy Davidson as an entry for a Blitz BASIC programming competition run by Amiga Format magazine, a scaled-down version of the programming language covered above. The game at this stage was called Total Wormage (possibly in reference to the arcade Total Carnage) and did not win the competition. Davidson submitted the game to various publishers without success. He then took the game to the European Computer Fair, where Team17 had a stand. Team17 made an offer on the spot to develop and publish the game. The first Worms game featured darker tones than the Worms games, with more realistic effects for weapons instead of cartoon effects and the ambient sound of a battlefield.

It was later made into a full commercial game, renamed Worms, initially available only for the Commodore Amiga computer. As the game was extremely popular, it was regularly released for other platforms including Windows and Macintosh-based computers, Atari Jaguar, Mega Drive, Dreamcast, Nintendo 64, Game Boy, Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance, GameCube, Nokia N-Gage, SNES, PlayStation and PlayStation 2, Sega Saturn, Pocket PC and Xbox.

During the development of Worms 2, Andy Davidson released Worms: The Director's Cut, a special edition produced exclusively for the Amiga. This was, in his eyes, the pinnacle of the series.

New Engine

The engine was completely redesigned with Microsoft's DirectX for Worms 2, dropping the darker tones of the first generation and adopting a more cartoonish look along the way, made possible by new technology. Worms 2 marked the first real step in the widespread Worm mania and characterized the direction the series would take thereafter. The second version of Worms is by far the most customizable of the Worms games with an extensive set of detailed tweaks and changes. Worms 2 also introduced the Internet game, which has become a staple of the series. Worms 2 saw the return and improvements to its predecessor's arsenal (for example, the Banana Bomb -> Super Banana Bomb), as well as the addition of new weapons and tools. The game's interface is very dated by today's standards, more resembling a generic Windows application than the colored screens in later versions.

Worms Armageddon was initially designed to be released as an expansion pack for Worms 2, but was released as a standalone game when it exceeded all expectations. Worms Armageddon included 33 in-depth missions in an extensive and elaborate campaign, along with training missions, a 'deathmatch' feature, some new graphics and sounds, and some new weapons and utilities. Much of the customization in Worms 2 was removed, as Team17 thought the interface would become cluttered and overwhelming.

Worms Armageddon also included a much more organized and functional Internet gaming service, known as "WormNET", which required registration and provided leagues and ranks. Problems with cheating led to the removal of the leagues, but their reintroduction is planned in a series of updates that have provided the game with more customization. Other more subtle changes to the game include new ninja rope physics, and the removal of a glitch from the game that allowed players to deal huge damage to another worm, aiming the mortar (a common weapon with high ammo) vertically on top of another player. The shell of the mortar would then return to the ground and create a small but incredibly powerful explosion. In Worms Armageddon, the mortar shell would fall slightly to either side of the target worm if the same miss was attempted. Also, the trapped boxes were removed because Team 17 considered them "unfair."

An official Worms Armageddon screensaver was included with a release that bundled the title with Addiction Pinball. The compilation, The Armageddon Collection, is now out of print.

Worms World Party was originally designed for the Dreamcast console to make use of its online capabilities, but was also released for PlayStation and PC with new missions, a mission editor, and some additional customization. This was also released later in 2005 for the N-Gage game cover. A new feature, the WormPot, was added in all versions of the game except for the Dreamcast release, where it was omitted. No new weapons, graphics or sounds.

The extensive customization of the 2D series, coupled with good support for online play, has led to its enduring popularity. A variety of "schemes" Unusual schemes have been developed by the WormNET community that are often played instead of the official schemes created by Team17. Some schemes have "rules" agreed by the players but not imposed by the game itself.

3D Series

In 2003, Worms 3D was released for PlayStation 2, Nintendo GameCube, Macintosh, Windows and Xbox. This was the first game in the series to bring the characters into a three-dimensional environment. It features a 'poxel' engine, described as a hybrid of polygons and voxels (the 3D analogues of pixels). This allows for pseudo-realistic terrain deformation in the style of 2D games, where the terrain was represented by a bitmap. Worms 4 Mayhem introduced larger maps with a height map instead of pixels for the ground, in an effort to eliminate excessive worm drowning in Worms 3D.

The second 3D game in the series was Worms Forts: Under Siege, for PlayStation 2, Xbox and PC. It was released in November 2004, and features the biggest departure from traditional gameplay the series has seen thus far. Player worms are capable of building forts, and the objective of the game has changed from simply killing enemy worms, as players can now win a game by destroying the opponent's fortress. Due to the change in strategy, this game could be seen more as a spin-off, although some aspects such as customizable costumes were carried over to Worms 4: Mayhem.

Worms 4: Mayhem was released in 2005. It was a revamp of the original Worms 3D engine, with smoother terrain deformation and improved graphics, resulting in a more polished feel closer to second generation games. Worms. The gameplay is pretty much the same as Worms 3D, but new game modes and weapons have been introduced and the user interface has been improved and simplified. New features include the ability to select custom outfits for teams and the ability to create custom weapons.

Worms Ultimate Mayhem was released in 2011. It was a revamp of the original Worms 3D engine and Worms 4: Mayhem, and was released on Microsoft Windows, Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network.

New 2D era

Worms: Open Warfare for PlayStation Portable and Nintendo DS, is specifically designed for portable systems and was released in March 2006. The game is considered a remake of the first Worms game, with improved graphics but no new weapons. The game has received mixed reviews.

Worms: Open Warfare 2 for PSP and DS is the sequel to Worms: Open Warfare. It was released on August 31, 2007 in Europe, and was released in the US later on September 6, 2007.

Worms was developed by Team17 for release on Xbox Live Arcade. Worms was released on March 7, 2007. It was released on PSN on March 26, 2009 in the US and April 2009 in the UK.

Worms: A Space Oddity was developed by Team17 exclusively for the Nintendo Wii system, using a heavily modified version of the Worms: Open Warfare 2 engine. The game was released in March 2008, with a science fiction theme.

Worms 2: Armageddon was developed by Team17 for Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network. The game is heavily inspired by the success of Worms Armageddon, and tries to mimic the game's physics and various other aspects, such as the variety of weapons available. Various new weapons are also available, such as a gas bomb that fills underground tunnels with poisonous gas.

Worms: Reloaded was developed and published by Team17 for PC. It was released on August 26, 2010. It is an extended port version of the game Worms 2: Armageddon that was released for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, so it has reverted to the original 2D format, unlike the last three games. of pc.

Worms: Battle Islands was developed by Team17 and published by THQ and was released on the Wii and PlayStation Portable.

Worms Revolution was released in 2012. It was released on Windows, Xbox Live Arcade, and PlayStation Network. It was made as a 2.5D game, allowing players to play in a 3D world viewed from a 2D perspective.

Worms Clan Wars was released in 2013 as a PC exclusive.

Worms Battlegrounds was released in 2014 for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

Worms W.M.D was released in 2016 for Linux, MacOS, PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One. It was later released for Nintendo Switch.

Games cancelled

In 2003, the company canceled Worms Battle Rally, a karting game that allowed fragging opponents.

Aspect of Worms

The games in the Worms series had an almost realistic look of the worms on the cover, though in-game, it's hard to pinpoint the details due to screen resolution limitations. The look changed for Worms 2, which brought a more cartoonish look to the worms on the cover. Later Worms games retain this appearance with few changes. Worms Forts: Under Siege was the first game in the series to feature team outfits.

Awards

• "Most original game" - GEAP Awards
• "Best game" - BBC's Live & Kicking
• "Most original game" - ECTS Awards
• "Best game" - Micromania Awards
• "Best strategy title" - PSX Developers
• "Strategy game of the year" - EGM
• "Best strategy game" - Trophee d'or
• "Multiplayer game of the year" - GMBH