But your goal in this isn’t the destruction of other pink squiggly things, even though you can indeed send some to their early graves. No, instead you’ve got to merely follow the rules of golf, knocking your balls into a succession of holes in typically outlandish situations.
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| Not much chance of a hole in one here |
There are a couple of ways to play this, the first being a straightforward putt-’em-up where you just aim to get par or below in order to unlock the next hole on the course. The other is to go for skill shots and collect the liberally scattered coins on each level, plus the occasional crate too.
After every four or so holes, a special ‘challenge’ level is presented, in which the pin is (generally) removed and you have to hit targets within a certain time limit. There’s also a level that puts the pin back and asks you to chip it onto the green from various different places on the map.
As you chip away (chortle) at the levels, unlocking them one by one by hitting par or below, you’ll notice that they start getting ‘wackier’ as you progress, until you’ll be hitting the balls into cannons or smacking it off the heads of bats just to get near the pin.
To help you, you can unlock or purchase special items, like rocket boosters, for your ball, which can make the difference between clearing an obstacle or clipping the top and ending up right back where you started.
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| Each course theme brings its own unique hazards, like these pumpkins |
Each course - of which there are three in the vanilla package and one free bit of DLC - is themed like the levels were in the main Worms series, so you’ve got a ‘regular’ green course with sand bunkers, a ‘pirate’ one with gold forming the ‘sand’ and a ‘scary’ one with unearthly creatures attempting to prevent you from making par.
All of this is wrapped in a very neat, very Worms-y graphical package, and it’s perhaps a bit much to say the visuals were the most impressive thing about the game, but they’re certainly very crisp and easy on the eye. Just like Trevor and Natalie. (One for the old TMWRNJ fans there).
What lets this down most is that it gets very repetitive very quickly, and such is best not played for extended periods of time. Do so and you’ll burn out and rarely, if ever, return. Keep the love alive, people, let absence make the heart grow fonder and so on.
Dip in, enjoy it in bite sized portions, move on. It’s the only way to enjoy it properly, because if you, say, play it for a hours at a time for review purposes, you’ll end up getting more bored than you should be.
Hotseat multiplayer livens things up again, but it’s quite a slow experience and it’s strange how there’s no online multiplayer at all as well. Although, having said that, the prospect of waiting for unnamed individuals to take ages over their shots isn’t perhaps the most fun thing you could do of a Saturday night.
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| Hit the granny with the ball and she might bat it away with her stick, earning you an achievement |
But if you can get over the slow pace, and don’t spend too long on it, you’ll get your six quids-worth out of this. It’s cute and contains the same sort of charm as regular Worms does, and children will get a buzz out of the squeaky sounds and colourful graphics.
Also, if you treat it as more of a puzzle game, with individual challenges to get past rather than think of it as a golf game, the slow pace does seem more acceptable. At the end of the day, however, it’s a cheap, cheerful affair that you shouldn’t expect too much of.
WORMS CRAZY GOLF VERDICT
Also, if you treat it as more of a puzzle game, with individual challenges to get past rather than think of it as a golf game, the slow pace does seem more acceptable. At the end of the day, however, it’s a cheap, cheerful affair that you shouldn’t expect too much of.
