Format: Nintendo DS | Developer: Two Tribes | Publisher: THQ | Genre: Strategy | Released: 29 June 2007

Worms is a bit of an industry Cinderella story. Originally developed by Andy Davidson in his spare time, he took it to Team17 at a games festival some years ago and said, "What do you think?", to which the reply was... well, you know. I've already written this introduction in the review of the PSP version. So I'll cut to the chase and just get to the meat of the review.

I'll get the ball rolling by pointing out that this is not the same game as the first Worms Open Warfare on the DS. That game was a terrible mess of a port, developed by a company who had no idea what they were doing. This time the job of porting the game to the DS has been given to TwoTribes, who have a great track record and an apparent love for the series, having themselves been responsible for porting Worms World Party to the Ngage, rather superbly I might add, some years prior.

Pirates! Ships on legs! Giant talking crabs! This game has but one of these exciting elements!

Again, as with its PSP counterpart, the game is exceptionally kind to new players, offering (but not forcing) a walkthrough for setting up a team as well as a stab at the first Tutorial. The gameplay itself is noticeably different from the first WOW because, as mentioned previously, it's been ported by a company who actually know what the Hell they're doing. The physics engine here appears to be based largely on Worms World Party and as such is a lot more forgiving and reliable than the PSP version's physics. Gravity and friction have also been adjusted for particular themes, with the only instance of annoyance being the gravity on the Space War theme being ridiculously low.

As well as the new weapons and the new Single Player challenges (and the obligatory Unlockable Items) TwoTribes have included a DS-exclusive "Laboratory" game, taking advantage of the touch screen and the microphone on the DS rather wonderfully. One mode has you stabbing the screen to cause explosions in an attempt to steer a worm into a teleporter, while another has you drawing terrain on the map to facilitate a similar outcome. It's all very well achieved, and it's clear that TwoTribes has spent a lot of careful time considering just how to make the DS version that little extra bit special.

The online mode is marred only by Nintendo's rather irritating game-specific Friend Code system, but is otherwise flawless. Finding someone to play against is a rather simple, quick affair, and there appears to be minimal lag with no noticeable delays between turns at all. Players can vote on the type of game they wish to play, as well as the scheme and the landscape they play on, so everybody is happy.

Graphically, the game can't hold a candle to the PSP version. However it does a fairly good job on its own. Worms doesn't need snazzy graphics to make it work, as the original iteration so aptly proved during the 3D boom, so a few jaggy edges here and there don't particularly bother me. The music is note-for-note identical to the PSP version and is thus beautiful, and the speechbanks are implemented perfectly - the Worms say the right things at the right times. When compared to the PSP version, the DS proves that fancy graphics don't make the game. The DS version seems a lot more cohesive and smooth than the PSP version, in fact it feels a lot closer to Worms Armageddon than to its PSP brother. Perhaps that's why it appealed to me more than the version produced in-house by Team17 themselves for Sony's handheld.

If you have both consoles and you're forced to choose only one version of the game, my advice would be to go with the DS version without hesitation. If you have a DS, then you have to get Worms Open Warfare 2. It really is as simple as that.

Epilogue!
I've decided to notch the game up an extra point. This may be the best handheld version of 2D Worms ever and as such it deserves its due.

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