Worms Crazy Golf – Review (PSN, Steam)
When it comes to worms games, i have to admit they do have a special place in my heart. I remember back in the day when i played the original incarnation on the late great commodore Amiga, marvelling at the simplicity but well designed game. It still gives me goosebumps now.
In the past Team 17 also had hits such as Alien Breed and Super Frog but it wasn’t until 1995 when the Yorkshire based studio finally had a major success with pink worms as protagonists, delivering with games with comedy and attitude.
-
Likes
- Very addictive
- Great value for money
- Very easy to play
-
Dislikes
- No online play
- Magnets can frustrate
I think what sold me on the original game was its amazing sense of humour and fun coupled with its simple but very addictive game play. If someone doesn’t find the concept of Abba bombing or shooting the living daylights out of “the beatles” while unshamlessly taunting them fun, well they must have had a sense of humour lobotomy!!
So, with 18 incarnations of the franchise including pinball, Arkanoid type games and Ultimate Mayhem as reviewed by Gazzara under its belt would this new quiver in the Team 17 bow live up to my past memories of the game and make me fall for worms all over again?
I needn’t have worried!!
The game will instantly win you over with its simplicity. In essence its a game of golf, get the ball in the hole in the minimum amount of shots to unlock the next hole but unlike Tiger Woods (other golf games are available), you are a pink worm using different types of balls to avoid various traps and obstacles. Yes, there are the normal bunkers, rough, fairways and sand traps but you also get your fair share of green keepers (that explode and turn into bunkers when hit and shout bye bye then Kamikaze), teleportors, cannons, black magnets that repel and red magnets that attract the ball and exploding sheep , yes sheep which turn into chops with wing when hit, so Tiger has got it easy.
The controls for getting the ball into the holes are pretty simple. Aim the red x target in the direction you wish to fire the ball using the right stick and hold down X, up to the required power on a sliding bar and only release it in the green otherwise you will hit a penalty shot! Once you have sent the ball onwards you can add spin to the ball by rotating the left analogue stick. This will allow you to back spin the ball if you have slightly over shot the hole and top spin if you slightly under cook it. Changing clubs is easy as well, press the square button on the controller for the choice of driver, iron, wedge or putter, or let the game choose for you as it automatically picks the most appropriate club.
Getting the ball into the hole is pretty straight forward and by the 4th or 5th hole i had got my 1st hole in one using cannons! Within the first hour i had amused 10 out of the 20 trophies such as ” feel the power” “in a spin” “tweet tweet” and “fluke or skill”.
What makes this game stand out is its extra collectibles on the courses. Its the coins to collect and the crates to hit. These are placed in all manner of devilish places. The coins are used to buy game up grades, ie, different outfits, balls and clubs. There are 5 different types of each club all with differing power, control and accuracy, 13 different balls from standard to eye balls, 17 different hats including a sheep and 16 different speech banks. The hats and the balls have to be unlocked during the games , the others you buy using coins collected.
The speech banks are the accents your worm talks in ranging from English, Italian, through cad , Angry Scott, Scouser all the way to cyber worm, my personal favourite being cad!!
Once you have completed a hole you get a score which includes time taken, coins collected crates hit to give you an overall skill score.
The collection of the extra items is what makes this game so addictive. It’s all well and good being under par but there is something nagging at the back of your mind about the coins or crates you missed and this also give the game more longevity. Also knowing that the more you play through the more pimped out your pink fella gets and the more equipment you can use including jet packs that make the ball bounce higher or stop watches to slow time.
There are 3 courses in the game : Brittania, Pirate cavern and graveyard all consisting of 18 holes of worm wackyness and also a downloadable Carnival course with more DLC to come. With the standard courses you have to unlock all of Britannia holes to progress to the next course but the Carnival Course you can tee off straight off away.
In single player career mode you start on Britannia and work you way through hole by hole. After the 4th hole you have a challenge to accept, the 1st being a skill shot. After the 8th hole you get a time attack challenge. This goes on throughout the game.
There is also a challenge mode in single player which links in with the challenges as you progress through the coarses. These are broken down into 5 categories.
These are as follows :- Skill shot ( destroying a sequence of targets against the clock, each one being more tricky), Time attack (clearing the challenge of all the target asap), Chip-In ( chip in off the green to gain time and to keep going as long as possible, with the tee location changing each shot), Target ( Land the ball in the coloured zone to gain as many points as possible but with a limited amount of balls) and finally Keep ups ( Strike the ball and make it travel as far as possible using spin).
There are online leader boards for all the challenges together with a trophy room to display all your awards for completing all the courses and the skill challenges.
There is an off line multiplayer game called “Hot Seat Multiplayer” which allows up to 4 people to player using 1 controller. You either choose the course you require or use quick play which selects from a random 1 hole of a course for you to play.
Overall, i love this game, you can play it as a normal game of golf but if you do you really miss the point. This is worms crazy golf and it is the addictiveness of getting everything you can get out of each hole that works. If you want a standard golf game then go for Mr Woods or normal crazy golf like “Everybody’s Golf” but if you want something that really does put the word crazy into crazy golf then Worms Crazy Golf is your go to guy, or in this case, Worm!!!
