Worms Armageddon

• PAL release: 11th December 1999
• NA release: 23rd March 2000
• JP release: N/A
• Developer: Team17, Infogrames
• Publisher: Infogrames
• N64 Magazine Score: 85%

The PC version of Worms Armageddon is a game that Team17 have never been able to live up to. Many Worms games have come and gone since, yet Armageddon still lives on, with the last official major patch released in 2020, and a complete overhaul is being worked on (albeit very slowly). The PC version is easily the best version of the game, with better graphics, far more weapons, more levels, and a ton of additional support (both official and fan) over the years.

Yet, despite all that, my preference still lies with the N64 version. A lot of it is nostalgia – it’s probably my most played N64 game as a kid – but I think there’s another important reason: the controller, which I’ll explain in a bit.

Worms is a game of strategy with a bit of luck thrown in. There are teams of worms (usually four) across the map, and you take turns to move around and use one weapon to attack your opponents. The genius is that the weapons also blow up the landscape, so the space available to the worms gets smaller and smaller as the game’s going on, with worms falling into the water dying instantly.

The weapons are brilliantly made, some require precise aiming and taking into account the wind, some amusing, and others seemingly pointless but perfect for the right situations (like prod). These weapons aren’t just satisfying to use when you get them right, they’re also great when things go wrong.

Which brings me to the controller. The PC version has much better controls using a keyboard, being more accurate and having lots of shortcuts to access weapons quickly. When playing online, it’s certainly helpful. But, to me, Worms is best as a local multiplayer game, something that makes it a wonderful experience when you do mess up, and a controller is simply much easier to pass around than a keyboard and mouse.

Worms Armageddon lets you use one controller for four players (although you can use more if you want). While you can try mapping a controller to keyboard inputs for the PC version (despite many updates, it still doesn’t offer controller support), it’s not quite the same as the properly crafted controls for N64.

Outside of the brilliant multiplayer, which offers specially designed levels and randomly generated levels, there’s also a bunch of singleplayer missions and training modes, some of which are a ton of fun, such as the Ninja Rope training. The Ninja Rope is an immensely fun item (which doesn’t count as using a weapon) to get around levels, with lots of risky tricks you can try and perform. I had a ton of fun with the Ninja Rope training, taking it in turn to play it with friends.

Worms Armageddon is a great game, and the N64 version is still worth playing for its ease of multiplayer.

Fave

Worms Armageddon is just about the best version of the game to date, thanks to its brilliant solo missions. It could have done with a zoom option to make long-range aiming less haphazard, and we’d have preferred to see the original Vietnam backgrounds instead of the surreal cartoon landscapes on offer here, but, despite these niggles, it’s still a brilliant addition to the N64’s catalogue of classy four-player games.

Martin Kitts, N64 Magazine #36

Remake or remaster?

A lot of work has already been done for the PC version, but it still needs controller support. A remaster has also been released for home consoles.

Official Ways to get the game

The remaster is available on Switch, Xbox and PlayStation.

Europe

Japan

North America

N64 recommended strategy worms