Just when you thought the world was finally at peace again, someone had to go stockpile big weapons and impolitely point his finger. The wounds from war’s past have festered up again giving rise to one of the worlds most fiercely sought after asset since our planet was only seven days old…top soil?

Team17 have released a new wave of psychotic invertebrate reinforcements on to our consoles with the remake of Worms 2: Armageddon on Xbox Live Arcade. This version features all of the classic gameplay and weapons from the past, such as (my personal favourite) The Holy Hand Grenade, and a few new ones, like The Buffalo of Lies. Worms 2 also features a few new game modes like Rope Racing and Crazy Crates to up the ante a bit.

The game’s interface has been updated nicely and also includes the use of your Avatar to indicate your turn when playing with others. Your Avatar’s mood is also affected by the current outcome of your game, a nice touch. The graphics have been updated to look smooth on your HD TV and some sounds have been refurbished to give you a fuller experience while watching the plumes of fire and ash rise from the general area of your enemy.

If you are new to Worms, Team17 have included a nice help and tutorial system that runs on the first launch. If you are familiar to Worms, and handling WMD’s, you don’t need to go through it. I personally suck at playing Worms, but going through the tutorials did help me brush up a bit and also earned me some points for the Worm Store.

As you play the game you earn gold points for winning rounds. When you feel you have enough, you can take a trip to the in-game Worm Store to purchase new hats and gravestones to customise your team. You can also buy and unlock extra maps, missions and weapons in the game. A perfect way to get rid of that extra blood money you have.

Playing the single player campaign is awesome. It starts you off easy but also offers you some extra little puzzles to complete and advance to the next levels. They start off easy enough but also get harder as you progress. The AI is nice to play against if you are new to the game, but by simply setting it to Pro you are able to “Let loose the dogs of war” and get right into the thick of things.

The new game modes are a nice change in pace and challenge for when the usual excitement of “blowing stuff up” becomes too mundane. Rope Racing finds you racing against the clock and a friend to show everyone how Ninja you are with a rope. Crazy Crates is exactly that…Crate Drops come in after every turn, which can either contain nice surprises or can be a booby trap if you are standing too close to it when some ordinance goes off near by.

Playing with friends couldn’t be easier. You can play up to four players in a match although some game types are restricted to two players. If you don’t have any friends around you, you can wage war on Xbox Live against your online friends.

For those of you who like to collect them, the Achievements are great. Some are easy, but for the most part they are challenging, which will keep you playing and coming back for more every time.

All in all, Worms 2: Armageddon will keep you laughing for many hours with your friends as you battle it out. The only thing that would prevent me from playing this game is if my Xbox randomly decided not to start up one day.

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