Worms 4: Mayhem

Hey, I like worm, I like fishing with 'em, I like diggin 'em up in the backyard with my boys and I like watching people eat them on Fear Factor. I like them so much that I even arm them with enough firepower to level a small country. Which is exactly what you do in the latest Worms game, Worms 4: Mayhem by Team 17. Unlike those first worms games, the landscape is now 3D (kind of like Worms 3D) but the game is still the same. Four-on-four worm combat in fully destructable enviroments. The weapons are as goofy as always and the worm-speak, a messy garbled slag of gibberish is quite humorous. Sadly though there are some faults to this one too.

When you first boot it up, Worms 4 has some pleasant surprises. First off, I absolutely love the cel shading in this title, I think it's fabulous. Why, because due to the "Looney tunes"-esque feel of the game, a cartoon look fit perfectly. I mean we're talking about cute and innocent-looking worms (with hands) walking up to one another and lighting a stick of dynamite next to an opponenet and then running for the hills. The
explosions are fun to look at in a goofy way but fit the title like a glove. Even the worms themselves do very cartoonish things. They fly through the air and stick in the ground like a lawn dart. When you walk up to them they put their hands up as if to say "bring it on" and when you put the crosshairs on them they cower away and prepare for the double ought buck that is about to hit them. Very clean lines, nice shading and good
level design. You would think the way that this game looks that it would be for the kids; it is not. There is some adult humor in the game that
some parents wouldn't want their children to see (or read). I am not one of those parents and I did let my five-year old watch me the other night
for about a half an hour. He thought it was the funniest thing ever. Now I'm not a parent who doesn't curb what goes into his child's head, but
since he can't read all that great yet, I wasn't worried about the subtitiles. And, since he is huge Tom and Jerry fan, I couldn't see much difference in the shenanigans that were occuring in the game compared to his favorite cartoon. But I still encourage all of you parents to decide for yourself.

"No Bill, pull the pin on the grenade and then throw."

For how great the game looks, I was not as impressed with the sound. Watching the cutscenes, it seemed to me that the noises going to all of my speakers wasn't filtering the right way. The strange language came out fine, but then when a building blew up, the explosion seemed too tame. I guess you could say that it felt uneven. Yes, I checked my stereo setup and all was right with the world, which told me that somebody dropped the ball on the sound section of the game. The k-click of a trigger cocking was sharp but then the actual blast wasn't as full as I would have liked it. I don't understand; it's just not fair to those of us who have spent entirely too much on our stereo equipment.

Now while I said there is basic four-on-four combat I wasn't entirely truthful in the games overall play. You see, if you choose story mode, then you play through a series of missions based in the Worms world. One mission may have you going wormo a' wormo with another team, while others
may involve escaping a facility, or stealing equipment, blowing up supply lines or any other number of things. The point is, Team 17 is trying to
evolve their franchise, and make it more then just a combat/strategy game; they are pushing the envelope of worm limits. In those early games, it was tough to get your worm to use the grappling hook over a pit of land mines. But today's worm is more resilient, has less fear and has been raised on a steady diet of action movies and fried pork rinds. These little asexual buggers aren't afraid to sacrifice one of their own in order to complete a mission.

You can make your own team and go online and do battle. Yup, you heard me, my team of four worrms is called "Intestinal Discord" and my troops are: Heart, Ring, Blood and Tape. They're out there, come try and take me out. But I digress, the game really is best when played against other players of the human variety. Merely log on to Xbox Live and go out there trying to pick a fight, you won't wait long. And since it's turn-based combat, even those occasional blips of lag that may occur in other games aren't even a concern here.  I once said of the original Worms game, that it was the perfect beer-and-buddies game, since it requires some skill and strategy but is completely wrapped around a humorous concept. Well, the statement still rings true. My wife and I were playing last night and after she had launched an exploding sheep at one of my team, she turned to me and told me how much she missed playing these games. She was right, it is fun.

"Quit squiggling and stay still!"