Promising online stripped from Worms Wii
Thursday, January 17th, 2008 at 12:50am by Derek
It didn’t take THQ long to capitalize on the good press and success of its latest handheld Worms title.
Only days after the critically acclaimed Worms: Open Warfare 2 released to market on DS/PSP and reinvigorated the long-running strategy franchise, THQ and Team17 Software announced an exclusive and surprisingly ambitious Worms title would be coming to Wii in early 2008.
In a Sept. 6 interview with IGN, Team17’s Karl Gilbert lifted the curtain on Worms: A Space Oddity. Particularly noteworthy in his glowing preview was his description of the game’s elaborate online component. Gilbert promised customizable four-player online matches, editors-a-plenty and even downloadable content via WiiConnect24, something even Nintendo has yet to deliver.
It sounded too good to be true. Which is probably because it was.
This comes from the bearded one himself:
“In our initial interviews with Team17, the developer promised that the Wii exclusive Worms: A Space Oddity would feature a fully hashed-out online component and future downloadable content through WiiConnect24. Well, we’ve just finished our first hands-on demo with the title and we can state that none of these promised features made it into the end product — a truth that is beyond disappointing, especially since the Worms franchise is ideally suited for both.”
Casamassina said no reason had been given by either THQ or Team17 for the online omissions. Interestingly, he also lauded the game’s slick visuals, fun gameplay and well-implemented controls.
So how much is online content worth to you? Does Team17’s decision to remove the online component deflate your anticipation for A Space Oddity, an otherwise promising third-party Wii project?
Worms: A Space Oddity is due to release on March 10. Ouch.
January 17th, 2008 at 1:51 am
This was not a good idea. I’ve played GunBound, so I know that the Worms gameplay can work well online. It’s a shame.
January 17th, 2008 at 2:03 am
Boooo! Worms not online won´t sell now that we have online on the ds. Hope they reconsider.
January 17th, 2008 at 5:03 am
Won’t buy this without online mode.
January 17th, 2008 at 6:21 am
This is ridiculous, I’m very disappointed by this. Although TBH I wasn’t all that interested in the first place. The graphics look extremely blurry for a Worms game (which should be clean and crisp) and the whole space theme seems inappropriate. It should just be Worms like how we know it.
January 17th, 2008 at 6:49 am
“So how much is online content worth to you? Does Team17’s decision to remove the online component deflate your anticipation for A Space Oddity, an otherwise promising third-party Wii project?”
Without the online features, I simply won’t buy Worms for the Wii. It’s an easy choice - especially since the DS version has a great online mode already available (and at a lower price). If it’s possible to still add any of these features, they should delay the release date to make it happen.
That said, the first Worms game released for DS wasn’t nearly as good as the second game. Maybe they think that it’s possible to “double dip” by selling a feature laden game next year to replace this one?
January 17th, 2008 at 7:47 am
I won’t buy this without online mode. Worms is my wife’s favorite video game ever, and we play it on DS all the time. For her, I was more than ready to pay another $50 so that we could play it with friends of ours that have moved all over the country. But if it’s going to be just her and I playing it, I’ll stick to my DS copy, thanks. I’m already pissed that I bought the first DS game just to find out that it’s filled with flaws that I have to pay another $30 to get rid of, by buying the sequel. Considering how long these games have been around, they should have gotten it right the first time. DS hardware isn’t exactly the most complicated. So no way are they getting more of my money without online play.
Online play was just an obvious thing to include.
January 17th, 2008 at 9:09 am
This is one reason I bought Xbox360 before the holidays. Not a single online component of Wii is attractive to me. Worms is already on 360 and has a great online feature.
January 17th, 2008 at 9:29 am
Considering that online-enabled versions of Worms exist on both the 360 and the PC, and at a cheaper price point, to boot, this was not a good move. Even a game delay to get the online stuff up and running would have been preferable to complete excising.
January 17th, 2008 at 10:16 am
I thought about getting the recent DS version that has online play, but decided that I’d be more likely to play the Wii version on the couch next to my wife. Lack of online components is a bummer, but not a deal breaker for me.
January 17th, 2008 at 10:33 am
Ya, that’s pretty weak. I was playing worms online back in 1998 . . .10 years ago! And now they can’t do it? no excuse for that.
January 17th, 2008 at 10:58 am
It is specially puzzling that Team 17 was able to add online gameplay to the DS version but not to the Wii version… It confirms my fears that online play on Wii is not an easy thing for a developer to implement on any project!
With Worms DS covering the Nintendo users and Worms on Xbox LIVE covering the HD graphics junkies and both having the online component AND being way cheaper, I don’t see how the Wii version is going to sell more than a dozen copies, mostly from clueless consumers…
January 17th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
I don’t see this game selling very well.
“even downloadable content via WiiConnect24, something even Nintendo has yet to deliver.”
14 months ago, the Wii came out. Yet we still have nothing from Wii connect 24, and with only a few exceptions, we still continue to see potentially good online ideas striped from Wii games.
But hey! At least we can vote online, if we prefer Dogs or Cats better!
January 17th, 2008 at 2:26 pm
Hell.. i used to play worms ONLINE 7 YEARS AGO on my PC.
why would i downgrade for a new version on my Wii?
They lost three customers (three of my friends were going to get this.. we will just stick to our PC version)
January 17th, 2008 at 2:41 pm
… urge to kill… rising….
January 17th, 2008 at 2:49 pm
http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/2050/disappointmentce4nk1.jpg
January 17th, 2008 at 4:56 pm
This is just another in a long string of disappointments, almost all of them having to do with online functionality. I hate to say it, but I’m glad I got a 360 for Christmas. I’ll still keep my wii, though, so I can pay to download last year’s most popular flash games once wiiware is introduced.
January 17th, 2008 at 5:38 pm
Absolutely not purchasing without online play. The entire appeal of Worms is large multiplayer matches, and I just don’t have enough friends in the local area who frequently come to my house (most of them have kids and I end up going with my wife to their houses instead) who would play it.
No online, no sale. Sorry, Team 17. It’s a shame, because it could’ve been great.
January 18th, 2008 at 12:07 pm
I too think this is a deeper concern than just a studio not bothering with online.
Some studio’s use more BS, the common one is “We looked at the target market for Wii and decided to focus our efforts on a really compelling single player game”. The end result is the same, screwed for online on Wii.
No one expected an XBL on Wii, but something comparable with a 12 year old pc game over modem would at least be a start.
Nintendo clearly built another online lemon with the Wii, or simply have no clue what the hell they’re doing. So far we have a couple online games, both have fairly poor performance and laughingly restrict players to play online only with people in their region.
So I can play Mario Strikers with the kid down the street but not with some footy nut in Italy.
Nintendo continues to fall short, often on purpose and it drives me crazy. Instead of going one step further they always seem to go one step short. It’s a shame. The problem is they’re still shifting systems so this time it’s showing them that they don’t have to deliver a feature rich system and they’ll sell systems purely on gimmick, which is sad because the Wii has massive potential.
I’ll be skipping Worms, sorry T17.
January 19th, 2008 at 1:14 pm
There has to be a REAL reason for all these online features of games being stripped. I’m sure the ‘target market’ on Wii is very interested in playing online games together.
I sense red tape of some sort. Look at Guitar Hero. You know the companies have the technical know how. The audience is there. I just can’t think of any other reason.
Question: anyone know if a developer, in order to make an online game for Wii, has to go through Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, or can they use a network of their own choosing?
I would also like to see cross-platform connection, like Capcom once did, but don’t see it happening.