COLOGNE, Germany—Much of my youth was spent in front of a flashing DOS prompt with my friends, trying to CD my way into the Worms installation folder in an attempt to to blow up said friends with an erratic exploding sheep. Yes, my computer skills in those days weren't exactly what you'd call "l33t hax0r," but getting the thing to load was all part of the fun. While that aspect of the game sadly isn't part of the upcoming Worms WMD, the ludicrously silly multiplayer fun most certainly is.

First things first: You're probably wondering whether the world even needs a new Worms game. After all, since the original was launched way back in '95, there have been an astonishing 20 sequels across pretty much every major gaming platform, from PC to console to mobile. The series has gone from 2D to 3D and back to to 2D again, offering up mission-based games, online multiplayer, and even a social version in the form of the now-discontinued Worms for Facebook.

The trouble is, few of those games have managed to capture the magic of the originals. For many, the series peaked with the 1999 release of Worms Armageddon (the third in the series), a game that took the core elements of the original Worms and gave them a fresh lick of paint in the form of crisp cartoony visuals. It's that game that forms the basis of Worms WMD, an Xbox One and Windows 10 exclusive arriving in early 2016.











WMD's tweaks are more than skin deep with a couple of new additions that change up the gameplay. For starters there's a tank, which you can commandeer and drive around the level—much like how you manoeuvre a worm—and fire off a powerful barrage of rockets. The tank is delightfully powerful, firing off five shots in one turn. Its power is balanced out by the fact that, when you're in the tank, you're a rather easy target, and if the enemy manages to destroy it, you become part of the explosion—a fact I learned the hard way during a match.

Then there are the buildings, which you climb inside to shield yourself from enemy fire, or launch a sneaky attack, and, and, and...

OK, you got me: these tweaks don’t drastically change things up. But I like that they build upon the classic turn-based strategic combat that sees you manoeuvring your worms around the map, trying to hit the enemy with a well aimed bazooka shot (always taking account of the wind speed, naturally) or a cheeky stick of dynamite.

The physics system has been lifted from Worms Armageddon, which gives WMD an instantly familiar feel. Each weapon flies through the air just like you remember it, and worms are knocked sideways by explosions in the perfect Wormsy fashion.

Even if you haven't played Armageddon, WMD just feels right with rockets arching through the air and bombs bouncing along the ground. All those little Worms idiosyncrasies are there too: the misfired shots, the jumps that go inexplicably wrong, and those damn tiny pieces of almost-invisible land in the line of fire that cause you to blow yourself up with a rocket. The classic weapons are back, including favourites like the Holy Hand Grenade, the Banana Bomb, and of course, the wonderful Concrete Donkey, which obliterates everything in its path by punching a hole straight through to the bottom of the level.

Worms WMD doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it’s the most Worms-like of all the Worms games that I can remember—and that's a very good thing. I ended up getting totally sucked into a match, cursing my poor shots and blaming it all on bad luck. It's a testament to just how absorbing the game can be when played with a group of friends. Plus, it’s one of the few multiplayer games that you can play on the couch together with just one controller. For old school Worms fans, WMD is like coming home, only with more exploding sheep.