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Worms Blast (PS2)

Worms Blast (PS2)

Written by Charlie Sinhaseni on 11/26/2002 for PS2  
More On: Worms Blast (PS2)
Here’s an idea, let’s take an addictive game, remove all of the addictive elements and inject some simplistic puzzles. Crop it up a little bit, spruce up the graphics just a tad bit and BOOM! We’ve got ourselves a new franchise, Worms Blast and it’s a blast all right, a blast right to the bargain bin.

Don’t come here expecting some furious turn-based action because you’re not going to get it. Instead you’ll get a game that has been reduced to what can best be described as a Puzzle Bobble/ Bust-A-Move clone that’s just not much fun to play. You’ll fire different colored rockets in an effort to (you guessed it) destroy like colored blocks. Green rockets will destroy green blocks and red rockets will destroy red bubbl- err I mean blocks. The twist? Your characters move around on boats so that you can move horizontally on two planes as opposed to being stuck in the center. This means that you’ll be able to manually move around to get a better angle on those pesky blocks/bubbles/jewels/animal heads/whatever.

Gameplay is just as you would expect it to be, addictive if you want it to be and bland if you want it to be. It truly is in the eye of the beholder. If you’re like my girlfriend and you have the attention span of a cat then you’ll no doubt be entertained by the meddlesome and repetitive gameplay. If you’ve grown tired of the same cut-and-dry gameplay that has populated similar spin-offs since day one then I suggest you stay as far away from this one as possible. It’s just not fun, really who wants to destroy little colored blocks with a rocket launcher? There are tons of games out there that have a far better grasp of the idea than Worm’s Blast does, Puzzle Fighter and Bust-a-Move 2 come to mind. Here’s a novel concept, how about we use those weapons to blow the hell out of our opponents? Oh wait, that’s already been done before.

The game gets a little better in the multiplayer mode thanks to the weapons that can be picked up. This is the only time where you’ll actually be able to beat the hell out of your opponents, albeit in limited fashion. Periodically the split-screen will open up and mold into one screen. In this time you can rain hell upon your opponents but for some reason, it’s just not as fun. Where’s the sheep? Where are the banana grenades and most importantly, where’s the all-mighty prod? There’s a deathmatch mode but really, how fun is combat between two worms? Oh yea, a little bit of four-player action would have been nice too but then again, I doubt that would be able to break up the monotony.

Everything looks just as you would imagine it to look, colorful yet bland. The backgrounds are pretty well done and contain a sort of cartoony/hand-drawn appeal. The worms are pretty standard fare and feature no distinguishing elements. You’ll be able to select from a handful of characters but I doubt you’d be able to tell the difference. There’s your usual worms, a penguin and a hamburgler-looking thing, all of which are basically the same. There are some nice water effects going on underneath your boat but since it’s not the main focus of the game, you’ll hardly ever notice it’s there.

The audio has usually been a pretty entertaining aspect of the Worms games but this time around, it’s pretty bland and forgettable. The music is of the generic happy go lucky “hey this must be a puzzle game” variety. The sound is what you’d expect from a worms game, but dampened to the 10th power.

Worms Blast might appeal to those who are looking to get the most out of their worms games but that’s about it. Puzzle games have a very niche audience so those who just absolutely need another puzzle game just might want to check this out. Be forewarned though, it’s not nearly as addictive as the other games and it fails to have that “just one more game” quality that most of them retain. It’s a snoozefest in nearly every respect.
It’s worms with most of the fundamental elements removed. What you have is a stripped down puzzle game that may appeal to the niche audience but in all honesty, isn’t too much fun to play.

Rating: 5.3 Mediocre

* The product in this article was sent to us by the developer/company.


About Author

Gaming has been a part of my life for as long as I could remember. I can still recall many a lost nights spent playing Gyromite with that stupid robot contraption for the old NES. While I'm not as old as the rest of the crew around these parts, I still have a solid understanding of the heritage and the history of the video gaming industry.

It's funny, when I see other people reference games like Doom as "old-school" I almost begin to cringe. I bet that half of these supposed "old-school" gamers don't even remember classic games like Rise of the Triad and Commander Keen. How about Halloween Harry? Does anyone even remember the term "shareware" anymore? If you want to know "old-school" just talk to John. He'll tell you all about his favorite Atari game, Custer's Revenge.

It's okay though, ignorance is bliss and what the kids don't know won't hurt them. I'll just simply smile and nod the next time someone tells me that the best entry in the Final Fantasy franchise was Final Fantasy VII.

When I'm not playing games I'm usually busy sleeping through classes at a boring college in Southern Oregon. My current hobbies are: writing songs for punk rock bands that never quite make it, and teasing Bart about... well just teasing Bart in general. I swear the material writes itself when you're around this guy. He gives new meaning to the term "moving punching bag."

As for games, I enjoy all types except those long-winded turn-based strategy games. I send those games to my good pal Tyler, I hear he has a thing for those games that none of us actually have the time to play.

When I'm not busy plowing through a massive pile of video games I spend all of my time trying to keep my cute little girl fed. She eats a ton but damn she's so hot. Does anyone understand the Asian girl weight principal? Like they'll clean out your fridge yet still weigh less than 110 pounds.

Currently I'm playing: THUG, True Crime, Prince of Persia, Project Gotham 2 and Beyond Good & Evil. View Profile