Worms World Party

Worms World Party
Developer(s)	Team17 Two Tribes B.V., Paragon 5, Codeglue (N-Gage)
Publisher(s)	Titus Software THQ Wireless (N-Gage)
Series	Worms (series)
Platform(s)	Dreamcast, Game Boy Advance, N-Gage (both 1st & 2nd generation), PlayStation, Windows Mobile, Windows
Release	March 16, 2001
Genre(s)	Artillery game, Strategy game
Mode(s)	Single player, Multiplayer

Worms World Party is an artillery game, which is a type of Turn-based strategy game. It was developed by Team17 as the seventh game in the Worms series, and was released in 2001. It was the last 2D Worms game before the series' three year stint in 3D, starting with Worms 3D.

There is a plan to make Worms Armageddon and Worms World Party cross compatible when Worms Armageddon reaches version 4.0. Since the development of new WA patches is quite slow it can take quite a long time until that cross compatibility ever happens.

Gameplay

Worms World Party screenshot illustrating several worms and some landscape deformed by explosions.

Like its predecessors, Worms World Party is a side-scrolling video game involving controlling a team of worms and using a collection of weaponry to eliminate the opposing team(s). The worms can walk and jump around and use tools such as the ninja rope and parachute to move to otherwise unreachable locations.

The worms have an arsenal of dozens of weapons, ranging from longbows to bazookas and from fireball to Holy Hand Grenades. You can get special weapons to like Armaggedon (meteor shower) or a stone donkey (smashes through ground until it reaches the ocean). Some of these weapons are present in the worms' initial arsenal while others can be collected from randomly appearing crates during the game. For some weapons, such as grenades, holding the launching key longer shoots them further. The landscape can be deformed with any weapon, forcing the players to adapt to changing environments. Also, in addition to the nature-made obstacles, the maps may contain land mines which explode when a worm comes close to one, and barrels which explode when shot, spreading out some burning napalm. These often lead to fancy combinations where, for example, a worm is first hit with a grenade and is then thrown against a mine which sets off another worm, which hits a third worm who slips into the water.

The image illustrates a match between three teams of worms in a pirate-themed map. Over their heads the worms have their names and hit points. The color of the text indicates the team the worm belongs to. Each team can be customized by the player's will, including the language the worms speak and the headstone that is left when a worm dies. The worms can also be drowned, in which case no headstone is left. In the bottom of the screen the remaining time and the wind speed are shown. When the time runs out, the water level starts to raise on each turn, drowning the worms at the lowest points of the map (this is called Sudden Death). The wind speed affects some weapons. Failing to account for it may turn a missile back into the worm who launched it.

The player can play against the computer, or can play against people on the same computer or over the Internet or local area network (TCP/IP and IPX supported).

The player can set up many options and make maps you can play on prior to battle to tailor the experience. There are also single-player and multiplayer missions available to help refine the player's skills with the various weapons and utilities.

Online gaming

The online gaming community in both Worms Armageddon and Worms World Party revolutionized the game, with users creating their own game types and rules and playing by them. Many different games were created, and this led to the mass creation of maps, clans, and even leagues which all had their own websites.

The majority of the games invented are based around usage of the ninja rope, a device which the worm can use to latch onto, and then swing from, landscape.

Shopper

Shopper is a gametype in which you must collect one crate before attacking (cba), attack from the rope (afr), and then, depending on rules specified, either kill the leading player or attack everyone but the last player (ktl & abl respectively).

Shopper first appeared in the late 1990s and has since become one of the most popular online game modes in Worms World Party. The main rules to Shopper are CBA , AFR, KTL/ABL. CBA stands for Crate before Attack, this means the player must collect a weapon crate before attacking the enemy. AFR stands for Attack from Rope, this means the player must launch the weapon of choice while swinging from a Ninja Rope, however some weapons such as the Shotgun, Flamethrower and Firepunch are exempt from this rule. KTL/ABL stands for Kill the Leader/All but Last, meaning the person who is winning the game is the target (or anyone but the player in last place). Anyone can be attacked as long as the leader suffers damage, even slightly. The leader on his turn, will target the player in second place.

If a player breaks one or more of these rules then that player is the "Cow". The other players (on the ingame chat) should say "Cow" to notify a break in the rules. the "Cow" will have to skip their next turn in accordance to the rules. if the "Cow" does not skip, then other players may KTC (Kill the Cow) in which all players attack the "Cow" to remove him or her from the game.

"Knocking" refers to when a player will push another worm without the use of a weapon. This technique involves letting go of the Ninja Rope so that the players worm falls into another worm causing the latter worm to be pushed, usually off an edge or into an obstacle. The players worm will also slide along with the pushed worm, in which if they go off the edge of the terrain, the knocking worm may use a parachute so as not to fall along with the knocked worm. This technique is not an attack.

RopeRace

RopeRace is based upon a maze-like map containing a start and a finish. The rules for this game are, must place your worms at the start, no rope knocking (knocking other worms (yours or your opponent's) and first to the finish wins. Another version of this is TimeTrial RopeRace, in which you have infinite time to complete the level. Once all worms have had a single turn, whoever made it to the finish in the least amount of time wins.

Reception

Metacritic finds that Worms World Party has received generally favorable reviews and gave the game PC version a rating of 75 out of 100. The main complaint in the individual reviews is that Worms World Party could have been just an expansion pack to Worms Armageddon. Another meta-review site, GameRankings, gives the game a virtually identical score, 75.44%. This score is, however, significantly lower than what the predecessor, Worms Armageddon got - 87.83%.

External links

• Official game website