Worms: A Space Oddity (Wii)

I like Worms. I always have done, ever since it was called Total Wormage, back in the days of Amiga coverdisks.

This version of Worms is a lot closer to a "pure" Worms experience than any of the 3D versions, but it still falls a long way short of previous 2D versions... and I won't even mention that they've remove the internet multiplayer option, which kills off a massive section of the potential market.

Firing weapons isn't a case of just pressing a button any more - you have to act out the motion, and the Wii remote allows the game to recognise what you're doing.
Sounds fine, except you can't just pick up the game and play; you have to understand how to increase the power (lift the Wii remote), and do a "dummy throw" to map out the trajectory... particularly counter-intuitive when you're firing a bazooka!
What's worse is that the damage meted out by some of the other weapons (the space equivalents of the fire-punch/prod, and the dynamite; everything has been given a jazzed-up name) is completely dependent upon how well you perform the action. For example, you want to hit an opponent worm into the water - so you have to act out an uppercut... but it gets misinterpreted by the game, and gives the worm a gentle prod which doesn't kill them. Similarly with the dynamite, you have to mimic pressing down on a TNT plunger - the harder/faster you move, the bigger the explosion.

Once you get the hang of it all, you can live with it; it sometimes takes a bit of thinking, and you'll often find that new players run out of time regularly as they try to figure out how to do things.

Single player mode has you working through a "story" where your worms have to defeat (if I recall correctly) 8 battles on each of 6 planets, perfecting various techniques enforced by weapon or terrain limitations. A couple of these are fun challenges, but most just feel like a chore.
Once you defeat each planet, you'll unlock a mini-game - completely unrelated to anything else in the game (apart from having a spaceship or a worm appear) and are pretty mind-numbing.

For me, one of the worst omissions - and one that should have been easily spotted and fixed in testing - is the naming of your worms and team.
In the "good old days" you were able to generate a random team name, and random worm names. This option no longer exists. Your team name will always be the name of your first worm - even though the computer teams have their own team name and individual worm names. For example, you want a team called "EleMentals", with worms called "Earth", "Air", "Fire", "Water"... except you can't. Your team will be called "Earth". Gah!

What else can I say? The old favourite worms voices are there, along with a few new (utterly incomprehensible) ones.
The packaging is nice, and the disc is shiny. To be "average" means that something does the same as the rest of its peers; judging Worms: A Space Oddity against its peers (previous incarnations of Worms) it becomes clear that this is a substandard release; way below par, and decidedly below average.
If this is in the bargain bin (which it probably will be soon), then it would be worth buying - but I wouldn't feel comfortable recommending it to anyone at the full price.

Team17 - do everybody a favour, and go back to the days when you were a company that actually cared about the products that you released; there was a period in the 90's when you could do no wrong - everything you released would be snapped up. Nowadays, I think that it would be a miracle if you released a game that was actually worth buying.

Worms has always been a laugh so when I saw that there was a version out for the Wii I bought it straight away.

It's 'classic' 2D Worms, not the 3D version that was available at one point. It's a fairly stripped down and simple version of the game, with about a dozen different weapons, and a limited number of Worms in play at any time.

The most disappointing thing was the way that the Wii controller is used. I was expecting the chucking routine to be like the Golf game in Wii sports- the harder you flick your wrist, the further your missile goes. Instead the angle of your remote when you press the B button sets the strength then you flick the remote round a certain way as you let go of the button to release. It takes a fair bit of getting used to and I would've preferred the golf technique.

There's a single player challenge series where you can play against the computer in progressively harder situations. As well as straight battle style games there are also speed-based games and strategy challenges (which remind me more of Lemmings than Worms) which will keep it a bit more interesting for longer.

It's not a ground-breaking game but it's good classic Worms fun and a welcome addition to my Wii collection.

I bought this game along with the newest one.
I have loved the games worms back to there early days on old windows 95!

This is the worst of them all.
If you are a fan of worms buy the other one for wii Worms Battle Island.

This one has complicated controls and the designers have not thought about the wii controller at all!
Dom yourselves a favour and steer clear or you can buy my copy! only played it once and i already want rid of it