N-Gage Review – Worms World Party

When Worms World Party first came out on the Original Generation N-Gage, it was a massive hit. Suddenly everyone on the N-Gage Arena (the online Multiplayer universe) was talking about the game and playing it online. It was a game that was fun, worked great online and generally showed people what N-Gage was all about.

Clearly the Original Worms World Party on N-Gage cast a large shadow for future N-Gage Games.

Fast Forward to now, there’s a new generation of N-Gage and after an initial cancel scare, Worms World Party has returned.

Though, the questions remain. Is this version better than the original ? Hows the Multiplayer ? Worth Buying ?

Well to know that you’ll have to read on for the review.

Gameplay and Game Modes :

Almost every gamer out there has checked out the Worms video game franchise atleast once. The franchise has seen several versions by developer Team 17. From the classic 2D, to a free-roaming 3D version. If you happen to be one of those who havent though, the rules of the game are simple.

You have a team of upto 8 worms, that will battle other teams (upto 3) using your vast variety of weapons. The game is basically turn based. When its your turn, you can move your worm into position to take a shot at your enemy team worms. Of cause if you’d rather play defensive, you can move  your worm into a better position, etc. You then select a weapon to fire at your enemy.After your turn, your enermy goes up and does the same.

(The Weapons from the Original Worms World Party on N-Gage)

The game has a huge variety of weapons. There arnt as many as the version on the Original N-Gage, but there’s still a lot. Everything from Karate chops, Bazookas, Grenades, Dynamite, Homing Missiles to silly things like exploding bananas, exploding sheep, etc. There are also a couple non-weapon choices like Teleportation, Drills, Girders that you can build, etc. There’s also the famous Ninja Rope which many pros in the game love to use.

Each weapon has its own advantages and disadvantages, and each take a different amount of health points from the enermy, depending on how you hit the enemy with it. For example, the bazooka is a great long range weapon that can take up to 45 health points away from your enemy. But use it close range, and the explosion might hurt your worm too, or cause very little damage.

Not to mention, there’s Wind, which effects how any air based weapons strike. If you fire your bazooka at your enemy on your left, and the winds blowing hard on the right, you might just see that missile head back right next to you. It’s all about aim, and firing/throwing power. The Wind-meter in the lower right side can also help loads.

The basic aim in Worms World Party is to be the last one standing. Its worth mentioning that there’s a time limit for all of this, so you wont have all day to plan your moves. After a certain time has passed, the game hits ‘Sudden Death’ mode in which all worms belonging to you as well as your enemies, are made down to 1 health point.

There arnt any “levels” as such, but there are randomly generated landscapes. These consist of 6 terrains: Snow, Space, Desert, Lava, Islands and Stone. They have no effect on gameplay at all though (Edit: The Space level has low gravity. Thanks for letting me know PowerBacon!), but its nice to have different places. Any explosions made by weapons damages the terrain too, which can be used as a tactical advantage for yourself, or against the enemy.

There’s also water in a couple terrains. Worms cant swim so if you happen to blast an enemy into the water, or karate punch him in, you’ll see the worm sink to it’s doom.

Occasionally, health or bonus crates will drop from the sky to help you out (if you get to the crate before your enemy). These can contain anything from health to weapons or ammo.

If you’re new to the game, there’s a help menu which should clue you in somewhat. We were disappointed to see that there’s no Tutorial for new-comers though. So if you’re new to the game, take some time to get familiar with the weapons and tools to fnd out which are most useful in which situation, etc before you even think of going online to check out the multiplayer.

When it comes to game modes, for single player there’s just basically a Quick Game mode and a Custom Game mode.

Quick Game does what the name suggests. It Iquickly puts you in a one-on-one game against an AI opponent with random settings and terrain.

Custom Game lets you set up a game. You can set everything from the number of worms, number of teams, the water level, terrain type, etc.

You can have upto 8 worms in your team and upto 3 other teams :

You can also customise rules such as initial health, time limits, total time, number of wins needed, etc.

You can also setup how much ammo each weapon has, and the number of available ‘super weapons’.

You can also edit the Schemes :

A nice feature is that you can name the worms in your team (along with your Team Name) if you wish. Check out Team ZOMGitsCj :

The Game Levels load very fast in both cases (even in Multiplayer) and you’ll barely have to stare at the Loading screen at all. Just incase you never noticed it before, here’s what it looks like :

While these two options are good fun for random bursts of play, its still a bummer that there are no ‘Challenges’ type of Story Mode like there was in the Original Worms World Party on N-Gage. Team 17 clearly focused this version on Multiplayer and hence missed out on a proper single player aspect of the game.

That being said, the AI on the single player modes is pretty smart, and a few rounds with it should pretty much completely prepare you for online play.

Orientation :

The game can be played in both portrait and landscape modes, according to which, the controls are changed for the phone.

Because of the type of game it felt more comfortable to play in landscape mode, though it feels fine in portrait.

But since some phones, like the N82 do not officially support Landscape mode in some N-gage games, it  might force you to play in portrait in such cases.

Controls :

Controls for Worms World Party are pretty much what you’d expect. You move the worms and aim with the Dpad, and you Fire and Jump with Gaming Button A and B respectively.

The annoying thing though, is that because this generation of N-Gage restricts games to just 2 buttons, Worms World Party has had to make some alterations to keep it working. To scroll or select weapons now, you have to press the right selection key, then select your choice.

This isnt very annoying, but it is a whole lot more keypresses than the Original N-Gage version where you just had to hold down the 0 key to Scroll and the 4 key to choose weapons. This isnt the developers fault though, they’re made the best of the limited key choices Nokia has given this generation of N-Gage.

Apart from this, the game controls almost exactly like the Original N-Gage version, which is definitely a good thing.

Graphics :

The graphics in the game are crisp cartoony 2D, which stays very true to the Worms formula.

One small niggle though, is that the small font used on some in-game menus might be hard to read for some. Even harder, if your phone has a small-ish screen.

Music and Sounds :

Curiously Worms World Party has no in-game music at all, while it does thankfully have sound effects. I suppose this was to bring the total game size down to just 8mb, but I really do which they did include the game sounds, as it was a fun addition in the original game.

That being said its no deal-breaker at all. The sound effects are all there, and stay true to the original. There is a slight lag in the sound effects that occur sometimes, but you’ll have having way too much fun playing the game to actually notice it. Atleast I did !

Multiplayer and the N-Gage Arena :

Ah this is the part of Worms World Party that shines.

(The Steps to get online in the Original Worms World Party on N-Gage)

While offline Multiplayer is limited to just passing your handset around (No Bluetooth Multiplayer at all), the online multiplayer on the N-Gage Arena is just as much fun as it was back on the Original N-Gage.

Multiplayer online is basically the same as single player offline. You can have upto 4 worms on your team, and battle upto 3 other players online.

The beauty of this is that you might be playing against people on the other side of the world, all realtime on the N-Gage Arena.

Once you’re online you can enter the Multiplayer Lobby, View your Player Stats or view the overall Ranking.

If you log into the Lobby, you’ll be able to enter two modes of play. Ranked mode or Freestyle Mode.

If you choose to go into Ranked Mode, this is where you can compete with people for points to get to the top of the Worms World Party N-Gage Arena Leaderboard.

You are directly taken to a room. If its empty you’ll have to wait for atleast one other person to join the room. Like I mentioned before, you can have upto 3 other players against you online.

While you’re in the room you can view the number of players in the room or chat with them in the room chatroom. Once you’re done you can ‘Set ready’ to signal you’re ready to start playing the game. Once everyone has set ready, the game can begin.

Like I said before, gameplay online is mosty identical to single player, so we wont go into detail again there.

Now if you choose Freestyle, this is the mode where you can just play for fun without worrying about your rank on the leaderboards being effect if you lose (or win). You can find a game (which is the same as how it is in ranked mode) or create a game for yourself.

Apart from that, you can view the number of players in the lobby, or check out the Lobby Chat.

Apart from that, the way you start a game is the same as Ranked mode. Same for the Online Experience.

One thing worth noting though is that unlike the original N-Gage version, you cannot create password protected rooms in multiplayer here. This was a useful feature if you just wanted to have a one-on-one game with a friend without anyone else joining in, so I’m puzzled as to why its not included in this version. You can still change the room name though.

I cant say how glad I am to see a proper Multiplayer Game appear on N-Gage after so long. The game is really fun to play online. Nothing like exploding the heck out of your buddies online !

Of course there’s your unlockable NGP (N-Gage Points) as usual.

Kinda feels like the developers were a little lazy with this part of the game though, as its almost too easy to unlock all of them.

Conclusion :

Rating:

While Worms World Party on N-Gage certainly lives up to its name, its small niggles in controls and music prevents it from being as ‘perfect’ as the version on the Original N-Gage.

That being said, this version of Worms World Party on N-Gage is a great game ! The graphics are bright and crisp, gameplay is as fun as ever. This all combined with the Multiplayer makes the game hard to put down. The game is fun, and this is what N-Gage is all about.

Team 17 stuck with the formula they used on Worms World Party on the Original N-Gage, and that’s the reason why this game comes highly recommended by us here at ZOMGitsCj. While part of me wishes they just ported the old game over entirely, this version of Worms World Party is definitely worth checking out.

You can find out more about the game over on its Official Game page or if you need tips or help with the game, head on over to the Official Worms World Party N-gage forum.

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Author Description

Clinton Jeff

Clinton is currently based in New Delhi, India and is executive editor for UnleashThePhones. He is responsible for all editorial decisions, and covers all forms of Mobile things. Cj is addicted to caffeine, social media, and technology. Always up for a good conversation, you can reach him through the contact form, his website, ClintonJeff.com, on Google Plus or on Facebook or Twitter below: Follow @clintonjeff

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