WARNING: Readers who support the rights of worms or have a creepy infatuation with them are advised not to read on. What will be said in this review may distress or otherwise anger you! You have been warned…

I remember when the original Worms game came out - I was very sceptical of the objective of the game at first. The thought of continuously blowing up worms regardless of whether or not they were part of your army never really excited me. Mind you, these were my thoughts before I started playing! I have never found something so mentally rewarding as when I blow up a worm in the most comical and maniacal way possible, so it warmed my heart when I found out that Team17 had developed Worms Armageddon, a game that allows you to go all-out crazy on those cute, loveable annelids. At least we now know why God created worms!

Ah, the satisfying sound of an enemy worm humorously screaming "Oh No!" when a short-fused stick of dynamite, placed right in front of them, blows up in their face, sending them flying across screen and into their watery grave - and there are so many ways to kill an enemy worm in Worms Armageddon. With more than sixty highly lethal and entertaining weapons to juggle with while you're on the battlefield, most of the time you're spoilt for choice. As for the battlefields themselves, there are more than 30 pre-created levels and an added feature that allows you to create your own battlefield, giving you an unlimited amount of levels to play on. This, along with the huge arsenal of weapons provided, makes for gameplay that is like no other and you will find yourself immersed for hours on some occasions. [Ah fond memories - my first experience of the original Worms on PC was a nine hour all-night session with my friend Tom, fuelled by whisky and accompanied by Lightning Seeds' Jollification. >Sighs wistfully< Now those were fun and carefree days! Nostalgic Ed].

Worms Armageddon's battles are turn-based, so like a game of chess, you have to perform moves that either protect your worm army or give your worms an advantage over the enemy. As you play, you begin to realise that there are so many things to consider during battle - wind direction, wind speed, the strength of the weapon, whether you or your worm-mate will be safe if you blow something up; Worms Armageddon is a true strategy game that really gets great minds (like mine!) thinking all the time. Obviously, if you're planning to blow up a nearby enemy worm with dynamite, you have to take into consideration your surroundings, such as whether any of your worms are nearby, or if you can escape the area without receiving any damage yourself.

At first, understanding how to play Worms Armageddon may seem confusing, but as you play you quickly get the hang of it - the control system is intuitive and very easy to handle. You move your worm left or right on the battlefield using the left/right keys on the keyboard and you can also make your worm jump by pressing the Backspace or Return key. Jumping is used in various battle situations and the jumping style varies depending on how many times or how long you press the key. There are two ways to select your weapons. The first and easiest way is by right-clicking with your mouse to bring up a small screen that shows all the weapons you have available to use, then you left-click your selected weapon. The second and quicker way is by pressing the F-keys on your keyboard. This doesn't bring up the weapon screen, instead allowing you to select a weapon quickly without having to touch your mouse (with a time-limited turn, every second counts!) Some weapons require you to aim first before executing, so the up and down keys on your keyboard are used to aim your weapon. There are other weapons that don't require you to aim, simply requiring the selection of your target with a mouse click. To execute your chosen weapon, you press the space bar. Though not entirely beneficial, for some weapons you can set fuse times by pressing on numbers one to five of the keyboard, or change the weapon's bounce strength by pressing on the dash and equals key. You'll get it, sooner or later.

Any Worms veteran (like me) already knows the sheer amount of weapons that can be unleashed during battles in Worms Armageddon, so you should understand how damaging and simply out-of-this-world they can be. The weapon set varies from realistic to totally incomprehensible. For instance, one way to defeat an enemy worm is by shooting them with a normal handgun. Another way is to go all-out postal on your opponent and flip out a flamethrower to toast them, or better yet, summon a giant stone donkey statue (yes… a donkey statue) to inexplicably fall from the sky and repeatedly smash them on the noggin until they're nothing more than tiny pieces of dust. There are loads of bizarre weapons in Worms Armageddon and throwing a Holy-Hand Grenade or activating an Old-Woman bomb is sure to raise a smile! I have come up to the conclusion that the guys from Team17 were either high or drunk when they came up with these weapons ideas. For that, I salute you Team17!

When it comes to your range of weapons, you have a few standard weapons that are always available and the rest you only have a limited number of, so you have to make them count. Standard weapons include the Bazooka and the Grenade - the Bazooka (and some other weapons) is one where the game's accurate physics engine must be taken into account, as the wind speed and direction affects how it flies - there is rarely anything more satisfying than firing a bazooka into the air, watching it stop, turn and then fly back the way it came, arcing down as it's blown by the wind to hit an opponent's worm that they thought was unreachable! Grenades aren't affected by the wind much, but you do have to take into account the fact that they bounce - which is where the fuse comes in… again, setting a shorter fuse and judging a throw so that it explodes the very moment it hits an enemy worm, rather than bouncing onwards and exploding when it settles, is incredibly gratifying!

Worms Armageddon gives you single and multiplayer modes. Single player consists of Basic Training, Deathmatch, Missions and Quick Matches. Basic training is an essential part of the game, as it teaches you how to control your worm during battles. The training ranges from teaching you how to throw differently timed grenades to teaching you how to effectively use a ninja rope - this wonderful gadget allows you to swing, leap, raise and lower yourself around the environment, and again it's always so satisfying (and hilarious) when you swing halfway across the level, drop a stick of dynamite, then swing out of range just in time, watching your friend's face as the worm they thought was safe gets blown to kingdom come! [Tom and I had so much fun with the ninja rope! The realistic rope swinging physics are second to none and make it truly wonderful to use! Ed].

Deathmatch game mode is a true test of your skill; you can either choose a preset team or create your own. Here your aim is to gain the highest rank in Worms Armageddon, which is Elite. To get this you have to compete in different matches for every match you win, your rank rises - but if you lose, your rank drops. It's hard work and the Elite rank really proves that you have truly mastered the gameplay. The Missions mode puts your worms into story-like battle scenarios, where your aim in each mission is to get hold of a secret weapon, protect a certain worm, or just simply defeat all enemy worms within a set time. However, the missions are not as easy as they sound and your worms are often put in disadvantageous positions at the start of the missions. There are 33 missions overall, and believe me, they will keep you busy for quite a while!

For a game that's initially meant to give players a comical side to the… ahem… struggle that worms face every day of their short-lived lives, half of the time you will be rolling on the floor, laughing at the fact that the friend you are playing against just blew up his entire worm army with an amusingly badly judged throw of a Holy-Hand Grenade. [Oh yes, Tom and I got the biggest laughs from our own cock ups… hysteria is guaranteed, especially if you're hammered!! Sorry, I'll shut up now! Ed]. The multiplayer plays a big part in the overall greatness of Worms Armageddon - with up to six people able to play in a single match, you get the added enjoyment of being able to defeat your friend(s) in the most explosive or cheapest ways possible (I enjoy poking my friend's worms off a cliff and into water). If you're not laughing at the fact that your friend just did something stupid, you're laughing at the equally stupid names that your friends have given to their army of worms (for some reason, I just keep splitting my sides every time I blow up a worm called, I. C. Weiner)… Ow, my ribs! You also have free online gameplay included, called WormNET, so you can blow up worm armies from around the world.

The graphics can only be described as being simply crisp. Everything from your worm moving around to being blown up is animated beautifully, and every level that you play on is wonderfully themed and uniquely designed to give a distinct feel and atmosphere, plus the fact that you can create your own themed levels, so the Worms world is your oyster. The music adds the perfect atmosphere that is required in battles it isn't clichéd, or comical, it's there to make you understand that Worms Armageddon is still a serious war strategy game. No, really! The variation of sound effects is just phenomenal - you can give your team specific voice styles ranging from stereotypical British voices to futuristic (and slightly bizarre) Robotic voices, each voice style having more than twenty in-game phrases, so you can hear your worms shout "Oh No!" in twenty different voices! There is also an added feature that allows you to use any of your own saved sound files for your worms, so when your worm wins, or is defeated, your selected sound file will be played. I love hearing my worms scream, "Ah Crap!" when they die!

Worms Armageddon is the fusion of intelligent strategy gameplay, with added comedy provided by the cute worms that you get to destroy in so many ways with so many wacky weapons. It keeps you engrossed for hours at a time and the fun doesn't stop by yourself - indeed, it steps up a good few notches with friends, as the multiplayer adds greatly to the experience and once your friends get in on the fun you can literally play for hours without stopping (believe me, I have!) Whenever I play Worms Armageddon I always feel that it could not have worked better with any other type of living creature - there is just something so appealing about destroying a worm in the most inhumane way possible!

Reviewed by Nathaniel Folayan for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).