Kombo's Review Policy: Our reviews are written for you. Our goal is to write honest, to-the-point reviews that don't waste your time. This is why we've split our reviews into four sections: What the Game's About, What's Hot, What's Not and Final Word, so that you can easily find the information you want from our reviews.

What the Game's About
Worms is a classic PC game with a notorious history of blending strategy and British humor, which makes for some compelling multiplayer matches against a friend of an often ruthless AI. The basic idea is this: you have a 2D team of heavily armed worms that feel a desire to wipe the opposing worm teams off the face of the map. Worms: A Space Oddity is a new twist on the old concept. The game is blanketed in a space theme, as is the arsenal of zany weapons with extraterrestrial elements.

What's Hot
Because Space Oddity is a Wii game, motion controls are a major factor. We happily report that Space Oddity has some of the most enjoyable Wii motion controls out there that greatly enhance the gameplay. What would otherwise taste stale after over a decade of sequels, the implemented motion controls will keep you engaged each and every match. Homing missiles are tracked by pointing at the screen, dynamite is used by "plunging" the horizontal Wii-mote and standard missiles and grenades are "flicked." The diverse motions work astoundingly within the context of the gameplay.



The matches themselves are always a thought provoking affair where each move needs to be calculated before you fire a shot. The kicker is you would never assume that much effort in strategy would have to be placed in a game with cartoon worms. So the unassuming blend works extremely well. The diverse selection of weapons usually provides you with a weapon for every situation you find yourself stuck in. Multiplayer matches with friends are the best way to play; the tension will start to build as the pawns are put into place and the ridiculously large bazookas are loaded.

The new elements like black holes and environment effects give a new dimension to the Worms' world. They can really change the dynamic of a match in an instant. It's like the equivalent of shaking a chess board and expecting the players to continue as nothing happened. The "spoiler" element is fun and never aggravating, that is unless your worm is the one that gets harmed by something out of your control.



What's Not
All the focus of Space Oddity is on the controls, not providing tons of content to compliment the movements. As it stands, the randomly generated levels are not entirely different all the time. A "point-and-click" level editor would have worked so well with the Wii-mote so it is curious why it isn't existent.

The other odd exclusion was lack of an online system. The Worms series is known for having some outrageous online matches but Space Oddity goes without it. This critically wounds the lasting appeal for the title because you'll either have to play the computer or find some friends who are into Worms as well. In what seems as an attempt to make up for no online modes mini-games were added but it left us scratching out head. Just because the Wii has the stigma of being a mini-game dump doesn't mean every game needs to include some. As it stands, they don't fit the theme and are purely superfluous so they don't add any value and only serve the purpose of distracting from the main game.



Reading menus and text throughout the game is rather difficult. The color choices make you squint and the game as a whole is rather muddy visually. Being 2D, you would hope that the game would be crisp and sharp, but Space Oddity is rather dull looking, which is a shame because of some of the sharp concepts behind the gameplay.

Final Word
Space Oddity is worth a look for the fantastic implementation of motion controls. It is great to see they nailed the core control and gameplay mechanics but it was disappointing to see some basic things such as the visuals and worthless modes fell through the cracks.