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This was when I stumbled into Videogame Creation Crime #3263: 'Having menus with pictures for buttons that require you to hover over each and every one to discover their function'. I negotiated through and took in the menus as fast as I could, as the licensed track "Shake Your Coconuts" from popular young person's beat combo Junior Senior playing in the background was doing its damnedest to aurally violate my eardrums.
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I'll have to admit that at first I was concerned we needn't dwell on the incredible failure of 3D updates of classics in the past, but at least the original developers were behind this one. Each level (both randomly generated and pre-designed) has a themed appearance, but is presented in an almost cel-shaded light, very close to the second generation Worms titles in style, and they are - for the first time - completely destructible 3D landscapes. The simple worm models manage to convey an impressive amount of character through facial expressions alone, with cartoon awe, delight, fear and cockiness brilliantly realized along with those trademark high-pitched vocals. It's not the most technically impressive title you'll ever see, certainly, but it's perfect for the franchise. In fact, it's immediately clear once you've got the tutorial out of the way that the entire game is still fundamentally intact apart from the addition of a few new weapons (the gas grenades and nuclear attacks, for example), and this is probably to the relief of teary-eyed nostalgia and to the disgust of dismissive remake cynics. It really does house one of the finest multiplayer experiences we've had to date, and one that remains largely unchanged. The 'playful' bickering that often ensues may result in hospital treatment, but at least you can laugh about it afterwards. The majority of the Worms charm comes from being able to crowd round one computer or console with your chums and devise the cruelest, most callous way of offing your mate's earth-dwellers. The loser is the first to have all of his worms blown away. Mass destruction ensues as each team takes its turn to knock shades out of the other, with both worms and the scenery suffering. One member of a team picks a weapon from an occasionally bizarre arsenal ranging from bazookas, shotguns and Uzis to bananas, bouncing sheep and grannies.
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Two teams of worms are placed in random locations across a completely destructible level suspended above water. some other things I can't remember right now. The premise is deceptively simple, recalling golden oldies like Scorched Tanks and. Worms 3D is designed to retain the style and feel of its 2D predecessors, with the return of such favorite armaments as banana bombs, "Holy Hand Grenades," and exploding sheep, as well as deceptively simple-looking gameplay that seldom fails to surprise.
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Other additions include a deeper training mode and improved AI opponents for engaging solo play. Battlefield landscapes are randomly generated and, of course, fully deformable. It also creates yet another variable for which to account when firing off any of the game's numerous, unpredictable weapons. The added dimension allows players to view the action first-person, from above in "blimp" perspective or from behind their invertebrate warriors. Team 17's quirky, turn-based war game goes 3D in this release for home computers and 128-bit generation consoles.
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