Plot-wise, the single player adventure is a little weak. Suffice to say, you go on a “field trip” of sorts in order to do a little recon on your opposing Worm force and take them out. Thankfully, this is done in a variety of ways, not just your normal turn based killing sprees. There are sections where you must destroy sections of their bases, or even item collection as you evade their attacks. When selecting and using weapons or utilities (items used to get you around the stage faster), control is fairly intuitive, with charged attacks and balance for wind resistance, etc. However, when it comes down to the actual platforming elements, things start to fall a little flat. The jumps aren’t very responsive, and if you’re too close to a rock or something else directly in front of you while you jump, you’ll end up jumping BACKWARDS rather than forwards.

The multiplayer game offers up the main meat of the gameplay, where teams compete in several variations of the “deathmatch” theme. Again, it’s a turn-based game, so things tend to take a while. Sure, each player has a time limit on what they do, so things can keep moving, but once you complete a move, you have to wait for the animations of your opponent’s health point loss, death, or any other various animations that you can’t skip until control reverts to the next player. Quick games don’t seem that quick here.

Still, there is a good bit of fun to be had. If you ignore the platforming headaches, there’s some serious action, and trying to find the coolest ways of picking off your enemy’s teammates is where most of the fun lies for this game, and the series as a whole, I’d wager. There’s a mode where you can create your own team of worms by selecting different hairstyles (worms have hair?), gloves (worms have HANDS?) and voice-styles (worms can ta…oh, you get the idea), as well as the ability to create your own weapon of mess destruction. There’s also a small gameplay editor that beefs up competition a good deal as well, where you can set your own rules for a match.

All in all, it’s a fun little game at a budget price that certainly fulfills any worm war fantasies you may have. The control could use some cleaning up in the platforming areas, and the camera can be a bit slow to control, but after all is said and done, it’s worth what you pay for it.

One Gamer’s Opinion:

DYNASTY KINGS, DEVIL WARRIORS

Here you take control of one of five initially selectable warriors (with five more unlockable after completing the game with each character), each with their own unique weapon set and moves. Then you unleash them into the fray of battle, cutting down any and every foe in your path. Battle is essentially glorified button mashing, as you wail on the controller linking up simple combos and multiple kills. You can switch the hits between you normal strikes and special moves, but there’s really not a whole lot of variety there with the move sets or animations, though admittedly, they do all at least LOOK cool. As you fight, you build up your Fury meter, which at the press of a button once it’s full, you can unleash a multi-hit attack to do some serious damage.

Characters have a range of weapons, with many having combinations of historic and futuristic weapons. You’ll see a female warrior with two shotguns, for example. You’ll often see weird combinations of axes and lasers, weird spinning discs on yo-yo tracks and more, all to complete the “out there” feel of each character. And while each character has their own storyline, told through 2D and 3dD cut-scenes (the 2D anime scenes are generally specific to whatever area you’re conquering with whatever character at that time, which is nice) they are certainly “out there” – some characters just defy strangeness, like the assassin Venus, who instead of killing her metrosexual target, instead falls in love with him and fights by his side, with soft filters on the lens and roses blooming around the edge of your screen. Yeah, it’s wacky.

And while there’s certainly a variety of stories and characters to play through with, the actual gameplay as a whole is pretty damn monotonous. Move forward, fight all, move again, and fight more. Lather, rinse, repeat. If there were more variety in the moves it may not seem like such a repetitive game. As it stands though, it’s just a diversion for DYNASTY WARRIORS fans to slog through until the next chapter in the series.

One Gamer’s Opinion:

QUICKSHOTS OF THE WEEK

One Gamer’s Opinion:

The next title, however, doesn’t fare nearly as well. LA RUSH, out now for PS2 and Xbox takes the open environments of the MIDNIGHT CLUB series and attempts to mesh them with the RUSH series from arcades. What we get is an odd mix of sloppy story and even sloppier controls. Sure, the city is large and free-roaming, with plenty of race options between normal dashes for cash, “stunt” races where you collect tokens for more time, or the odd race against damage of your retrieved stolen cars, but where are the ramps, hills and secret paths that made SAN FRANSICO RUSH such a hit back in the day? That, coupled with the floating controls for every car, craptastic voice acting and unnecessary WEST COAST CUSTOMS “Pimp My Ride” tie-ins make this one simply a renter. You’d be better of getting last week’s MIDWAY ARCADE TREASURES 3 for the classic versions of RUSH than this one.

One Gamer’s Opinion:

Well, that rounds out the week once again, dear readers. On deck for next week we have BLITZ: THE LEAGUE (which Jack Thompson mistakenly thinks the NFL wants to distance themselves from, not knowing that EA has the exclusive rights to the NFL and all it’s licenses) and DOOM 3: RESURRECTION OF EVIL, the expansion to the awesome (and scary as shit) DOOM 3. Plus, whatever else I happen to get my grubby little paws on. Until then, friends…Game On!

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