2015/1/27: Dreamcast: Worms Armageddon, Xtreme Sports, Worms World Party

[VideoGameCritic]

Here's a new set of Dreamcast reviews for you to comment on.

Worms are re-reviews.  I thought I needed to emphasize the differences between them a little more.  Xtreme Sports is a brand new review.

[goldenband1]

Nice reviews! I've been looking forward to the Xtreme Sports one in particular. I can't argue with your criticisms, but I enjoy it myself -- and man, is it a beautiful game! If you spend some time playing similar games on PlayStation, N64, or Saturn, and then fire that one up, the difference is like night and day. The sense of depth/distance is remarkable. The real-time terraforming is pretty bizarre, though.

I've put close to 100 hours into Worms World Party with my wife over the years. We've gotten pretty used to the setup screens, but the thing that drives me batty about the game is the unnecessary loading times, especially in single-player mode which is just ridiculous -- you can't retry a scenario without essentially going through the whole setup again. It's beyond absurd.

But even so, WWP is a great game (in multiplayer, at least). While I'm sometimes surprised by your decisions to re-review certain titles, in this case I think it was absolutely worthwhile to take the time to highlight the differences, as it's certainly an improvement over Worms Armageddon.

[Astrosmasher1]

Hey Critic if you have gold on the one download the Worms game for free as they seem to have turned it into an RPG.  I was somewhat underwhelmed by it but you can change the worms into Scots so that part was pretty good.

[Verm1]

Little mistake in the World Party review: the WP review declares Titus published Armageddon in 2000, but the publisher info for Armageddon states Microprose 1999.

[QUOTE=videogamecritic]Worms are re-reviews.  I thought I needed to emphasize the differences between them a little more.[/QUOTE]

I can't remember the old reviews, but they still say basically the same thing to me.  But there never was a big difference between the two games on PC; the big sell of WP of PC (where I played them) was the additional multiplayer options (hence the 'WP' name), rather than any notable new content.

The Holy Hand Grenade was in Armageddon on PC; was it removed from the DC version? I ask as the WP review calls it a new weapon.

[ptdebate1]

I used to play the heck out of the Game Boy Color iteration with my friend from Tae-Kwon-Do class. Great game!

[JustLikeHeaven1]

The Worms games are some of the best local multiplayer party games ever made.  

Good reviews.  The interface for these games are clunky because they're poorly converted from the PC games.  Regardless, if you can get a few friends sitting around the couch to play, you'll have a headache from all of the laughter.  So many poorly aimed bazooka shots and misfired rope attempts...watching your friends is always fun because their turn is just one bad decision from ending up deadly to them.

Worms ranks right up there with Bomberman, Poy Poy, and a few others as best in class.  It's a shame that the series has gone to an almost strictly online only release model.  There were a couple of releases on the Wii that were pretty good though.  

[DaHeckIzDat1]

I've never played Worms, but it always seemed like a game I would enjoy. I remember playing a flash game called Territory Wars that had a similar concept and loved it.

[Rev1]

Worms is awesome but I only own Worms World Party for the Dreamcast. I honestly wasn't sure about the differences between the one I had and Armageddon. Glad I'm not really missing anything. Also, I guess I never really thought about it but you're right, the menu system is terrible. I often got lost trying to figure out where I needed to go, or exited and lost all my information. once I played a lot I learned all the quirks but it does drag down an otherwise excellent game. Either way, excellent series.

I was curious about your score for Xtreme Sports... Not really your score but the readers. I haven't heard much about it but it already has 4 reader review scores and has an A+. Is the game actually good or are people just rating it high because the critic gave it a D? I have never even heard of the game.

[Den1]

Did the announcer in "Xtreme Sports" say "You failed, man," or "You failed man"?  Because the latter would be even funnier.  It sounds like something the bad guy in "Magician Lord" would say to you between levels.  "You failed man.  Be dead down here."

[VicViper1]

[QUOTE=Rev]I was curious about your score for Xtreme Sports... Not really your score but the readers. I haven't heard much about it but it already has 4 reader review scores and has an A+. Is the game actually good or are people just rating it high because the critic gave it a D? I have never even heard of the game.[/QUOTE]


I had this game back in the day and was totally hooked. I gave it an A.

Honestly, I think it's at least good enough to deserve a B or B+, I had no issues with the controls, even with the hang glider, but I have to admit the learning-curve was slow at first, didn't really know how to do somersaults or flips outside of the snowboard portions in order to gain some boost, especially with the mountain bike ; I recall one race where you end up into a city with the bike, there were slopes before so you could do some tricks with your bike and gain some boost, and you HAVE to keep some of your boost for that part, otherwise it's near impossible to finish first, since there are no slopes/stairs to make you accelerate in the city.

EDIT : Also, fun fact => The game is called "Sega Extreme Sports" in Europe, because it was published by Sega in here, not Infogrames, which is weird since Infogrames is French, and was made by Innerloop Studios, who also made Project I.G.I, and I.G.I. 2 Covert Strike, which are nice stealth games. Sega Extreme Sports is also their only game on a console, all their other (four) games were made solely for PC.