I got my copy of DS W:OW2 today!

I ordered it Friday from a seller who apparently already had it in stock on the 30th, and that was no joke. It made it to Japan in less than 5 days. As they say, the early bird gets... well, you know. :)

I've been playing all evening and I've tested a lot of stuff, and I think I can give my first impressions. In a few words, the game rocks! I'll probably be testing Wi-Fi later tonight after I feel confident enough, but I'm sure that's going to be great too.

This game is pretty much exactly what I wanted, but I'll still list a few positives and negatives for everyone here who hasn't gotten their hands on it yet.

+ The control is perfect. You don't even need to use the stylus this time around to manage everything with good speed. And roping? No worries!
+ While not completely identical to the PC versions, weapons behave in ways that should satisfy any long-time Worms fan.
+ The graphic design is among the best in the entire series. Great job, Team17.
+ The level editor is awesome. I had a level in World Party that was just the words Worm Death in kanji (for those with Japanese fonts, 蚯蚓の死), and I was able to recreate it almost perfectly here, to get long battles and a sense of tunneling through the kanji and herding worms; just what I liked about that level when I made it for World Party. :) I still really hope some hacker is crazy enough to make a PC-based savegame editor for this game (to be used with one of the increasingly numerous devices available for transferring DS saves to PC), but for now, the in-game editor is even better than I anticipated.
+ Great team customization with plenty of options and a really generous character limit (20 characters). You can pretty much name your team and its members whatever you want. The unlockables are also awesome. Some of the classic voice schemes I've already bought really bring me back, and I can't wait to get more!
+ Good minigames. It's gonna take me forever to master Blast though. :(
+ I hate how so many games today use full-motion video purely as an attract mode feature. We all know the DS is capable of FMV, so unless you're gonna use it as part of the game itself or as a reward of some sort, it's just window dressing. On first starting this game, I thought it was gonna be the same, but oh, no. :) Very good use of FMV, and a lot of them are really funny.

- The (European version) manual is in black and white, and not all that informative. I sort of expected more. Is this the norm for US/UK games? Every single Japanese DS game I have (15+ at present) has a full-color manual.
- Some of the new hazards add more annoyance than challenge. I HATE when all the enemy worms get killed by sliding into the water during an earthquake. I wanted to kill 'em, dammit! And yeah, I realize earthquakes aren't new, but I think the way this game implements them is.
- Most of the default weapon stocks suck (too easy - infinite ropes and so on). Fortunately, this is customizable.
- When terrain gets blown away, it disappears completely, unlike in the PC games, where there's a shadow left behind. I preferred the shadow, as it preserves custom level designs to some extent.
- Not sure why you can only edit your flag with the touch screen. That was a big mistake, IMO, as the stylus is much less accurate, so it's much harder to, say, transfer a design from a PC by hand (as is very commonly done for games like Animal Crossing and Mario Kart). Here's where I again hope for that savegame editor.

Clearly, the positives outweigh the minor, pet-peeve-type negatives, and this was easily worth the GBP27.98 I paid for it including shipping.

So thanks to Team17 for the awesome port, and BIG thanks to Two Tribes for finally giving us DS owners a quality Worms game that we can play whenever and wherever.

I found the manual very sub-par as well. It gives the grit that you need to get going, but it glosses over a lot of stuff. Newcomers won't have a clue what "the darksider award" means, for starters.

I also agree with the semi-3d landscape craters/terrain shadows, but that's likely due to the limited processing power of the DS. Same with the limits of online (no chatting, no custom names), but that's due to Nintendo's online multiplayer policy.

But yeah, I'm amazed at how well this came out. I think it's probably the best DS game I own.

So thanks to Team17 for the awesome port, and BIG thanks to Two Tribes for finally giving us DS owners a quality Worms game that we can play whenever and wherever.

You're welcome! ;)

You're welcome :)

You're welcome :cool:

your welcome:)! wait ... im not on the two tribes or team17 staff, oh well

You're welcome (although to be fair we were all paid to do it).

I agree with just about everything you said Eyedunno. I really do like this game alot I have been a fan since worms first came out except for the 3D versions. Am well pleased with the ds version two tribes has done worms proud and made a really fun game weldone and thanks for a great worms game two tribes.:D To things that would of been nice would of been the option to reduce the screen size for long distance attacks but the map at top screen and pressing one of the shoulder buttons and dpad to look around is not that hard to find worms. Also i don't know if you can get this but i don't think you can it would of been cool if on the ds version you could of used the green landscape in the mini games when using the level editor to make levels.

You're welcome (although to be fair we were all paid to do it).

You were paid to do it? :eek: I must have been doing something wrong ;)

Dang, cheap Dutch employers... :rolleyes:

Oh, BTW guys, in spite of my issues with the touch screen flag design, I gave in to my temptation to make a "kamikaze"-style flag (Japanese naval ensign). You don't even wanna know how long this took (and I'm very thankful for the undo button!).

http://img517.imageshack.us/img517/4572/kamikazemv0.jpg

I also agree with the semi-3d landscape craters/terrain shadows, but that's likely due to the limited processing power of the DS.
I'm not so sure that's it though. Watching videos of the PSP version, it's the same. I would guess that Team17 wanted to show off the backgrounds more, and if so, that makes sense (they are nice backgrounds, after all), just that I personally prefer to see where the damage has been done. :P

- The (European version) manual is in black and white, and not all that informative. I sort of expected more. Is this the norm for US/UK games? Every single Japanese DS game I have (15+ at present) has a full-color manual.

That largely depensd on the budget. Generally first- and second-party games (New Super Mario Bros., for example) will have colour manuals because Nintendo have the budget for it. When it's a third-party publisher like THQ they generally try to save money by printing the manual in greyscale and including minimal instruction to cut down the number of required pages.

As an example, print-run copies of Worms for PC floppy, PC CD, Amiga, CD32 and Mac all included the exact same manual including format-specific features and instructions (which were annotated as such). The manual wasn't exactly slim, but it did mean they only had to produce the one and include it with all of those versions.

Thanks for the overview I can't wait for my copy to arrive ^_____^

Oh, BTW guys, in spite of my issues with the touch screen flag design, I gave in to my temptation to make a "kamikaze"-style flag (Japanese naval ensign). You don't even wanna know how long this took (and I'm very thankful for the undo button!).

Cool :)

I'm not so sure that's it though. Watching videos of the PSP version, it's the same. I would guess that Team17 wanted to show off the backgrounds more, and if so, that makes sense (they are nice backgrounds, after all), just that I personally prefer to see where the damage has been done. :P
Nope, it's mainly because of technical reasons :)

Good review. I personally like the idea of the terrain leaving no shadow, but hey thats me. Good job on the flag.

Eyedunno, excellent use of the flag editor. Very impressive.

I havent played a Worms game since Armagedon, used to love that game, and I have to say, this game is just as high on my list of favourite games ^^
Thanks Two Tribes and Team17, great game =D

WooHoo, finally got to play this today, picked up my copy at GameStop. Anyways, all I have to say is great job Two Tribes/Team17, pretty much what I had expected last time (cough, cough). great game, definitely a must have for the DS.

Thanks for the great game i liked every thing but the online multiplayer but its not your fault it the fact that there's just to many quitters but i love every thing else. there wont be much downtime for Me and friends psp's for a long time to come.
Great choice implementing the random level generator it my faverite part.

Cool :)


Nope, it's mainly because of technical reasons :)
Hrmmph. But the PSP would be fine, right? Or were they left out of the PSP version to keep it as similar as possible to the DS version?

And thanks for the flag comments, guys. I'm working on a flags thread now.

Hrmmph. But the PSP would be fine, right? Or were they left out of the PSP version to keep it as similar as possible to the DS version?

And thanks for the flag comments, guys. I'm working on a flags thread now.

I think WOW1 on PSP didn't have the edges with explosions. We decided to remove them for technical as well for consistency reasons on the DS as well.

Congrats on getting a copy and that impressive work on the flag editor.

I've been skimming though what you said of the game, and it intrigues me more to buy it.

It seems you're having a good time so be sure not to lose the cartridge. :p

Hear, hear! Great game so far. But...

Here are a few things I've taken notice of that I don't necessarily care for. None of them are technical issues, but design choices I prefer had been done differently:

-You can't back out of a multiplayer match before it begins. I've done an online game search, and when it found a match it was with someone who had previously left a match I was in. But I couldn't leave before the match started. :(

-No option to do just one round in multiplayer. I often play my DS on the go, and when a round can take up 10-20 minutes long, a full three-round match can be too long.

-This last thing is kind of a minor gripe. But during those last few seconds you get to move your worm after firing your weapon -- if you've done damage to a worm during your turn -- the camera will zoom back over to the enemy worm, making moving your worm during those last few seconds a blind proposition (since there's usually not enough time to manually maneuver the camera back before the few seconds are up).

I'm not gonna mention the pros, because, well, the TC did a pretty darn fine job of that already, and I agree -- it's a tremendous Worms game on the DS. But I assume most developers want to know what players think about various aspects of their game(s).

Overall, though -- damn fine job! :)

This game is freaking awesome.

I think the staff at Team17 and Two Tribes should get together and play us forumers sometime. If they can handle it. ;)

Really looking forward to getting it and a DS this weekend, wasn't sure about getting a DS because of my lack of interst in current games (no offense but I'm not much of a mario fan), but after hearing about WRMZ 2 and its + reviews I've decided to go for it.

Black and white manuals are fine never read em anyway.

I purchased my game for the Nintendo DS, I have to say it is nearly flawless. No issues off hand I can think about. All the people that say buy the PSP version for the better graphics, have never seen it on the DS screen. The graphics on the DS version are stunning to say the least. Perfect pixels, no troubles. Even the ninja rope looks and plays awesome, best controls for a ninja rope I have ever used and I've played almost all of them. The DS ability to draw your own map is awesome. My customer map is Stimpy (Ren and Stimpy) with Milhouse (the simpons) and super saiyan Trunks (Dragonball GT) plus a holy hand grenade I drew and threw in there for good measure. Game plays perfect. I will definatly buy Lemmings when it comes out. Team 17 and Two-Tribes all the way! (Note I feel we should post our praises to the creators here)

DS Version FTW!
Glad you like it! I'm planning to pick up mine in a few hours. That is, if BestBuy has it.

I am LOVING this game! I still have Worms Armageddon for the PC, but this is a much needed portable version for me, especially with Open Warfare 2 having online play. The thing I really loved (besides the use of BOTH screens this time) is the FMV. Once I saw that ActImagine video codec screen once I started the game, I had a feeling that the game might have some actual video in it! Needless to say, I was surprised that they did such an awesome job, especially considering the limited space the DS cartridges have.

Oh, the gameplay was great too! :)

Awesome job guys! Here's to hoping that there'll be a third!

this game rocks, AND I DON'T OWN THE GAME YET!!! AH HAHAHAHHAAH!!! ok I'll stop now

Once I saw that ActImagine video codec screen once I started the game, I had a feeling that the game might have some actual video in it! Needless to say, I was surprised that they did such an awesome job, especially considering the limited space the DS cartridges have.
Actually, this game is apparently only 256 megabits. As there are a fair number of games out there that are 512 megabits (and there are even a few, like Final Fantasy III, that are 1 gigabit), it seems to me that they could have theoretically used much higher quality FMV. That's not a complaint, just an observation about the format.

Awesome job guys! Here's to hoping that there'll be a third!
Indeed!