Ludography
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Worms Armageddon cover

2000 · Port · Infogrames · Artillery · Strategy

Worms Armageddon

Port

A Game Boy Color port of the Standalone Expansion to Worms 2 of the same name.

Released
19 January 2000
Platforms
DreamcastGame Boy ColorNintendo 64Nintendo SwitchPlayStation
Genres
ArtilleryStrategyTurn-based strategy
Developers
Infogrames
Publishers
Infogrames
Modes
Single-player
Perspective
Side view
Themes
ComedyWarfare
Age ratings
ESRB E

About

Worms Armageddon is a 1999 turn-based strategy video game developed and published by Team17 as part of the Worms series. It was originally released for the Microsoft Windows operating system, and was later ported to the PlayStation, Dreamcast, Nintendo 64, and Game Boy Color. In the game, the player controls a team of up to eight earthworms tasked with defeating an opposing team using a wide range of weapons at their disposal. The game takes place on a destructible and customizable two-dimensional board and is characterized by cartoonish graphics and a unique brand of humour.

The third installment in the series, Worms Armageddon was originally developed as an expansion pack to Worms 2 (1997) and initially titled Wormageddon before it was released as a standalone game. As a result the game is very similar to Worms 2 but has a new single-player mode and adds a number of pieces of new content as well as being released on a wider variety of platforms. Worms Armageddon was acclaimed by critics, who praised the refined gameplay and stylized graphics, and it has been featured in a number of "greatest games of all time" lists. Worms Armageddon on PC is still updated periodically, most recently in 2020. The game was succeeded by Worms World Party (2001), which added further content without drastic change and which was the last 2D-based Worms game before the series moved to 3D.

Keywords

  • humor

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

Gameplay in Worms Armageddon is turn-based, with each team moving in a randomly-determined sequence across two-dimensional terrain. During a single turn, a team can only move one of their worms (unless an item that allows the team to select their worm is used). Worms can walk and jump, as well as (when the proper items are available) swing by rope, parachute, teleport, and bungee. The objective of a traditional match is to defeat all opposing teams by killing their worms, although in the campaign some missions have other objectives such as collecting a specific crate.

Each worm begins the round with a specific amount of health, which is predefined by the chosen game options or by scripting in campaign levels. When hit with a weapon, the worm will lose health depending upon the power of the weapon and the directness of the hit. A worm can be killed either by exploding after having its health reduced to zero or by being knocked into the water around and below the level.

Development

Worms Armageddon was originally intended to be an expansion pack to Worms 2, but it was eventually developed as a standalone game. It was intended to be the last game of the Worms franchise, but Worms creator Andy Davidson felt that it needed more content before being released, leading to the development of Worms World Party. It was also going to be released under the name Wormageddon, but Team17 changed the name to Worms Armageddon because of close similarities to the name of the game Carmageddon. It was released initially for PCs in 1999 in Europe and North America, published by Hasbro Interactive under the MicroProse brand.

The game was eventually ported to Dreamcast and PlayStation in December 1999, Game Boy Color in January 2000, and Nintendo 64 in March 2000. The Nintendo 64 version is one of the first Nintendo 64 games to feature a terrain editor and generator. A Macintosh version was being developed by MacSoft, but it has since been cancelled. Worms Armageddon was produced by Martyn Brown and composed by Bjørn Lynne, Karl Morton was the game's lead programmer, and Dan Cartwright was the game's lead artist.

Reception

The game received favorable reviews on all platforms, with the gameplay being praised across all versions.

Whilst writing that veterans of Worms 2 would find the game to be similar, Greg Kasavin of GameSpot praised the game for being easy to play and control, as well as its humor, graphics, physics, WormNet and deep customization. He also likened the single-player missions to Lemmings in that the missions often required the player to precisely utilize a limited supply of weapons and tools to accomplish the objective. Among his only criticisms are that the AI-controlled worms do not utilize their full arsenals and that the player would wish that there were more weapons, more diverse graphics and sound, and more content. e.

Legacy

Worms Armageddon has been placed on several lists of the greatest games of all time. Digital Spy ranked Worms Armageddon at No. 18 on their list of the top 20 Nintendo 64 games of all time. In 2014, GamesRadar+ ranked the game at No.

13 on their list of the top 50 PlayStation games of all time. In 2015, they also ranked it at No. 68 on their list of the top 100 video games of all time. In 2014, Slant Magazine ranked the game at No.

Releases by platformdates and regions as published

PlatformReleasedRegions
Game Boy Color19 January 2000North America

Editions and related releases

Included in
Worms Armageddon: Anniversary Edition
Part of
Worms Armageddon

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Collections11 collections

Description adapted from its source, CC BY-SA 4.0.