Game Reviews

Death Worm

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| Death Worm
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Death Worm
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| Death Worm

For a creature whose most impressive accomplishment is to wriggle for a surprisingly long time after being cut in half by bored children, the humble worm has quite a violent history in gaming.

From our smartphone favourite Worms 2: Armageddon all the way back to Earthworm Jim, it's like game producers are fighting the passive earthworm's battles for it.

Death Worm follows this noble tradition, allowing you to take control of a mutant monster worm intent on eating everything in its path, from soldiers and tanks all the way up to helicopters.

The worm has turned

The game area is divided into two sections: the worm's natural underground habitat and the topside monster worm banquet area, which is filled with civilians, cars, helicopters, and juicy soldiers.

Using a particularly responsive on-screen analogue stick, you control the worm's direction. It shoots from the ground and arcs through the air, automatically chowing down on anything that gets in his way.

You can also spit out occasional fireballs to do a bit of extra damage to those hard-to-reach targets.

As time advances the army adopts increasing deadly weapons, including burrowing bombs that raid the underground.

Fortunately, you've also been levelling up in the interim, allowing you to upgrade various attributes from the size and speed of the worm to the effect of your own power-ups.

By the end of a standard game, the worm is faster, larger, and more vicious than ever, which means starting a new game afterwards is quite a comedown.

Teaching an old worm new tricks

The game is divided into three modes: Campaign, Survival, and Mini-games.

Campaign sees you munching your way through humans with new challenges and levelling up every few minutes. It's not too varied, and the games can last a fair old while, so it's not ideal for dipping into.

Survival is the same, but without the safety cushion of the Campaign mode's replenishing heath bar, and its naturally shorter lifespan makes it a more compelling challenge.

Mini-games break up the standard formula completely. There's one where you have to knock helicopters out of the sky using only other objects, and another where you have to keep the worm traveling underground for as long as possible, using a simple tap to move up and release to go down mechanic.

These are the best for quick sessions, and its encouraging to see that each mode has extra boxes with “Coming Soon!” written in them. You get the feeling that this will be the worm that keeps giving.

Wriggle me this

Presentation-wise, this is definitely one game to show off your Android handset with. The animations are fluid, and the graphics are detailed despite their scale.

You can even zoom in and out to compensate for the size of your handset's screen, should you feel so inclined. The sound, too, is well done, with explosions, screams, and chomping all adding to the satisfaction of a well pulled off combo snack.

All of which makes Death Worm a compelling package.

While a lack of variety may limit Death Worm's appeal, the game's immediacy, good looks, and well implemented controls make it easy to recommend nonetheless.

Death Worm

Instantly satisfying, accessible and engaging, this is one worm you'll want infesting your Android phone, despite its questionable longevity
Score
Alan Martin
Alan Martin
Having left the metropolitan paradise of Derby for the barren wasteland of London, Alan now produces flash games by day and reviews Android ones by night. It's safe to say he's really putting that English Literature degree to good use