Worms 3 [Mobile asynchronous turn based crossplatform multiplayer]

Mr_Grinch

Worms probably needs little introduction, but I'm going to waffle on for a bit anyway. But first I'll get the important bit out of the way and tell you about Worms 3:

• Cross-platform play. On Android? You can still throw a banana at a friend with an iPhone.
• No windows (phone or desktop) release yet, sorry guys, you're left out till you get a proper mobile OS.
• Multiplayer is asynchronous, sort of a bit like Frozen Synapse but not. You take a turn, it gets sent to your friend and they watch it and take their turn when they have time. Usually when sat in work on the toilet.
• There's some sort of single player content, I haven't done much of that yet.
• If you use your Facebook account you appear to be stuck with your real name as your username.
• There's some stuff to do with cards you can play before/after your turn, but I've not seen that used in the multiplayer matches I've been involved in.

That's it, other than that it's what you'd expect from any other Worms game.

People playing:
Worms Username/Forum Name

Kieran John/Mr_Grinch

So what is this Worms thing anyway?

Been living under a rock have we? If so you're probably aware of worms, but not Worms. These aren't your garden variety creatures, these are highly intelligent, armed to the teeth, tough as hell, always at war, comically voiced inverterbrates.

Building on a format I remember fondly originating from Gorilla.bas, and later even more fondly with an Amiga public domain name called Scorched Tanks, Worms took the world by storm. It was the brain child of Andy Davidson who wrote it for an Amiga programming competition (Blitz Basic I think). He took it from publisher to publisher and had absolutely no luck until good 'ole Team 17 helped him out.

The original worms was a simple premise, a team of four worms was scattered about a randomly generated landscape and had to do battle with another team of worms. They could move slowly left and right, jump and choose from a fairly large arsenal of deadly weapons. Most weapons were fired by holding down a button, the longer you held the button, the more force behind the attack. Weapons became more esoteric as the series went on.

From there it quickly became a multi-format sensation. I owned the Amiga version, then Worms: The Director's Cut (Amiga exclusive, sold poorly), then later the PC version when I was finally forced to convert. It also hit pretty much every single platform you can think of around at that time. PSX, Saturn, N64. To this day I actually still prefer the art style and physics of the first game, along with the weapons.

Anyway, following this came Worms 2, World Party and Armageddon, which were all pretty much the same and just built on each other adding fun little gimmicks and extra weapons. They were all awesome fun.

- As an aside I remember a story from an old Amiga interview with Andy where they asked about the concrete donkey. Turned out this was a real concrete donkey which his parents owned, he was convinced this was a real donkey his parents had covered in concrete and he spent his time chipping away at it's tail to see if there was any fur underneath. -

Then we get to the 3D years, which we won't dwell upon as they weren't received well, though I'll admit I remember them with some fondness, I had loads of fun with Worms 3D, and the one where you built a fortress was pretty neat too.

That brings us to the current era of worms games, embracing the return of the 'indie' title with XBLA and PSN the Worms games saw something of a resurgence as downloadable titles and have now found their home on mobile devices, where they're a perfect fit.

So, TLDR; Let's shoot each other in Worms 3.

Mr_Grinch

So this got one view, which I'm guessing means it's not going to be a popular op I'm giving it one quick little -bump- (sorry mods!) just to see if it gets any interest whilst there's some quiet in the e3 news.

Then I'll let it die.