Upcoming - Worms: A Space Oddity

The worms franchise has had huge success. Worms is a 2D turn based (yet fast paced) battle to the death, of worms. Little worms have been wriggling around our screens carrying bazookas since 1995 when the original Worms came out. The newest installment, A Space Oddity (a pun on 2001: A Space Odyssey) comes out March 28th (pushed back from a March 10th release). So what will this generation of worm blasting fun hord for the Wii? Lets have a look.

Worms: A Space Oddity is designed specifically for the Wii, and won’t be a port. I take that as a good sign. On top of that the controls “have been specifically designed” for the Wii. Another good sign. Apparently attacks will be gesture based and force sensitive. Sound really good. One question I have to ask though: will aim and such depend on force, because that could be tricky. Assuming that THQ does this right, this could be some wormy happiness.

I’m looking forward to another title that really integrates the Wiimote the way that Wii Sports does. Far too few games have really taken advantage of the possibilities. Worms: A Space Oddity looks like a serious game for the Wii. It could be a very strong title and I wouldn’t be surprised with A+ reviews.

Multiplayer, is of course a big focus on a battle game like Worms, although in the past single player has been fun as well. No news yet about how integrated multiplayer will be or whether you can play online, or to what extent. I expect there will be some online support, but how much could make or break the title.

The space setting has a lot of possibilities, as Super Mario Galaxy has shown. But Worms: A Space Oddity is — in the tradition of Worms games — going to be 2D. But just because gameplay is 2D doesn’t mean that 3D graphics and appearance aren’t going to play a big role (see Super Smash Bros. Brawl).

Third party developers have had a notoriously hard time gaining traction on the Wii, but that is party their own fault, since many have been spewing worthless junk at us. Worms is a fairly big franchise, and A Scape Oddity is definitely a serious game. It would be a huge plus for the Wii if some third party made it big. It would encourage other developers to jump in and get some big budget titles out. A lack of third part support, on the other hand, could ruin the Wii the same way it ruined the GameCube.

All in all, I have high hopes. For me, Worms: A Space Oddity is a must get and I hope, for the sake of the Wii’s future, that it is both an A+ title and a huge sales success.