Worms 3D | DJcube

Join the party as battle ensues across multitudes of bizarre and incredible worlds!

EU release: 31st October 2003
NA release: 11th March 2004
JP release: N/A
Developer: Team17
Publisher: Sega (EU), Acclaim (NA)
NGC Magazine Score: 90%
Mods Used: Widescreen Hack

This game is exactly what it says on the tin: it’s Worms, but in 3D. Almost everything you’d expect is included from the crazy weapons down to the destructible environments. Making the engine needed to handle this was quite a big task, yet the vast amount of work probably wasn’t fully appreciated due to how simple other aspects of the game are. The 3D Worms games got a mixed reception, mainly due to how elements of the series worked with an extra dimension.

During your turn, you get a much more traditional third person camera. The L button zooms to show the whole map while R enters first-person, which is required for aiming and firing weapons. They did pretty much as good a job as they good translating the movement in 3D, but it does mean that it’s a lot more difficult. When you aimed in 2D, you could see all your surroundings and you had fewer factors to worry about, but in 3D, the first person view can obscure where you’re trying to target (especially as most weapons move in an arc) and there’s a lot more room for error.

But the classic Worms fun is still here, and its still hugely enjoyable (particularly against others, where you all have the same issues). It’s quite a wonder as to how well they did translate as much as possible into 3D. There’s still some stuff missing, mind you, as tunnelling isn’t really a thing (a big tactic in the 2D ones) and plenty of weapons are simply less effective as people can move around them (or the holes they make), but there’s still a ton of neat stuff.

There’s a short campaign and a handful of pre-made maps to play on. You can also generate endless levels using a generator, although they don’t come across as quite as natural as the 2D ones in Worms Armageddon. There’s still a ton of options and you can change things like themes, height, amount of land, space between land to create some interesting layouts (and keep note of them with its ID to use again). It would have been nice to have more pre-made levels, but this is a really good conversion of Worms into 3D.

Great

Our only gripe is that it’s very easy to traverse the levels using the worms’ super-powered jumping ability. So rather than test your skill with long-range weapons, you can simply hop all the way over to an opponent and get him from point-blank range. In previous games, getting all the way across a level called for expert use of ninja ropes and parachutes, and was worth the easy kill you got at the end. Now it’s easier to get a cheesy win.
Martin Kitts, NGC Magazine #87

Remake or remaster?

The campaign and levels from this were included in Worms Ultimate Mayhem, so that just needs a port to modern platforms.

Official Ways to get the game

There is no official way to get Worms 3D, but most of it is available in Worms Ultimate Mayhem on Steam