** PD/Shareware review / 240 words **
Battle Zone
82%
Freeware, All Ataris (Falcon using STOS fix)
Entertainment

This Worms clone for ST-based computers was created by Andrew Gower, the Doom clone, Destruction Imminent, reviewed in AC#3.

Andrew claimed to be inspired to create his own 'Worms' game, after seeing the original in action on a friends Amiga, and had this game ready to run in a couple of weeks.

As a result, this has the look of a budget version of the genre, compared with its glossy commercial brethren, but magically has all the elements that made Worms so addictive in the first place. A full range of weapons and gameplay are included, the game is authentic and plays smoothly, allowing different combinations of (fiendishly difficult) computer versus human players, and for those anti-social gameplaying elements of society, the chance to blast your friends out of their chair with a well-aimed kamikaze strike when you take your turn!

The ST graphics lose little in translation and some original sampled utterances play when your worm commits a particularly notable faux-pas.

A nice feature is the open-endedness of parts of the game. You can user-define team names, and get deep satisfaction wiping out Bill Gates and the Microsofties. The artistically inclined can include their own custom-drawn graphics in Degas format as background graphics.

A resoundingly successful conversion of a classic game to the ST and it's free!

** Italics on **
Chris Holland
** Italics off **