Grenade!

For fans of the Worms series of games on the PC and PS2, THQ's Worms: Open Warfare for the Nintendo DS goes somewhere along the lines of Worms: Armageddon but falls short of its highly regarded PC cousin.

However, for first timers, welcome to the mad cap world of Worms: Open Warfare. In this game, you take control of a group of worms to engage in turn-based warfare on another group(s) of worms in randomly generated battlefields. In order to win, you'll need to utilise the variety of weapons ranging from the all-time favourite bazooka to the absurd but destructive sheep bomb.

Worms: Open Warfare offers 4 different modes of play: Quick Game, Create Game, Challenges and Multiplayer. In Quick Game, the game immediately sets you up for a match with another group of computer-controlled worms.

The Create Game mode of play offers versatility whereby you get to select your team as well as the other opposing teams and the particular environment you want to play in. It is easy to setup a multiplayer player match where up to 4 people can take turns on the same Nintendo DS.

The Challenges mode gets you acquainted with the controls involved in playing Worms: Open Warfare and the Wireless mode offers up download play capabilities for other Nintendo DS owners in the same vicinity.

Gameplay wise, you control the actions of your "worm" using the directional pad and the A and B keys. The touch screen is relegated to weapons selection and for moving the camera around the map. First time players might notice that it is impossible to move about the menus in the touchscreen with the directional pad and a stylus would be necessary to play this game.

The weapons selection and graphics, even though falling short of its PC counterparts, are sufficient to provide good pick-me-up games. You may also find that the unpredictable but silly A.I helps as well.

Just try not to play this game in an airplane if you are the emotional type, because you'll find yourself referring to the weapons in the game verbally, example: "Damn grenade!"

Get your copy of Worms: Open Warfare at Play-Asia.com