Topic: Worms: Battle Islands

Remember this? It was supposed to be a WiiWare game, but then they turned it into a disc game.

It's been out for at least a couple of weeks now, but there are no reviews on MetaCritic or GameRankings, and Nintendo Life has said nothing about the release. Has anybody tried it yet?

I lost interest in this game after it went retail. Shame, because it would have been a day one download for me.
So to answer your question...nope. Haven't played it

Well here's a question. Why did people lose interest when it went from WiiWare to retail? Is it the higher price? If it's on a disc then it should to have more content and higher quality artwork, music, etc. so it may actually be worth the price.

Partly because this sight is a bit more focused on the downloadable side of Nintendo games. Also partly because downloadable titles are really easy to buy and when something goes retail on Wii, it is going to be tough to find it if it is not a highly anticipated title. The simplicity of not having to put a disc in also fits with the more "casual" aspect of worms.

I've got this, but it was indeed hard to find. I wish I could give an in-depth impression of its quality relative to other Worms titles, but I've never really been a huge Worms fan--I've only played Worms 2 and the second DS game. The game certainly does everything I'd expect it to, but if you've played other recent Worms games, they might have features this one doesn't. Or they might not. I just don't know.

As a member of the mostly uninitiated, the game seems quite deep, with custom stages and weaponry, selectable "home bases" in the campaign mode which each have their own strategic advantages, customisable Worms (voices, accessories, colours, tombstones, etc.), customisable play modes (modifying the default rules or creating modes from scratch), online play (sorry, haven't been able to try this yet, nobody else seems to have the game!), and probably more I'm forgetting.

The controls default to sideways Wiimote (except in the stage builder, which uses the IR sensor), but can also be switched to motion controls, which I haven't bothered trying at all. The presentation is acceptable; the fonts are quite ugly, but the stages don't seem any worse for wear for the budget production.

I think right now this is probably the definitive Worms game for Wii, if only because it has online play where the previous one didn't. I also believe Space Oddity forced the motion controls, whereas here they're off by default and relegated to the options screen--however, not having played Space Oddity I can't say that with certainty. As for whether the game was improved by the move to disc, from what I've heard this is the exact same game that was planned for WiiWare, and doesn't take advantage of the additional space offered by a disc release. That said, I haven't really noticed the constraints of its planned WiiWare release either, so that's not overly concerning.

It's a shame the game isn't on WiiWare, as I think its primary market would have an easier time finding it there, being that the Worms demographic is presumably already online, whereas hunting down a disc can be a drag. This will probably hurt it in the long run in terms of online play, but as the only online Worms game for Wii, its userbase may build over time as more Worms enthusiasts catch on, presuming they haven't already got a version of the game for another system.

If anyone has any specific questions I can fire it up later and have a look around--I'm very conscious of neglecting to mention how many stages there are, which I would do if I could recall from memory, so at the least I'll check on that.

The game is exactly the same as it was on Wiiware. I lost interest after retail too because of the price and I would have been able to get it easier.

A smattering of screenshots for anyone who's interested in how the game looks.

I thought they said everything in the disc release is what they were trying to put on WiiWare, but they couldn't get it all to fit in 40MB. I'll have to hunt down the old Worms: Battle Islands WiiWare thread.

EDIT: Nope, it doesn't say, but I assume that would be the reason. I don't see how all of the levels, game modes, customization options, level creator, and online play could fit in 40MB.

Doesn't matter if this is WiiWare or Wii retail.

The real question is: Is this the Worms game Wii users have waited for?

Bulbasaurus Rex, trust me, the game fits, I go over at the Team 17 forums. The only thing that didn't fit are the cut scenes... which AREN'T even in the retail version.

and SKTTR... probably..

So what you're saying is, instead of filling up the game again to its former original self with all cutscenes and everything, they have put the reduced, dumbed down, cutscene-less, compressed 45MB-WiiWare game on a 4000MB Wii disc?

I don't know if you are being sarcastic or not SKTTR but that is indeed what they did. They also took off the DLC section and no none of that content that was on the DLC menu is in the retail game. It was just flags and maps though. Also there's only one soundtrack for all the levels. They had the soundtrack, and said they would add it if they had room. The retail version is out and no soundtrack.

Ouch!! That hurts!
Team 17 must have been scared to lose money with their new Worms coming too late to the holiday season, so they screwed any optimization.

It's especially bad because this game was supposed to be released last year, but it took an additional year to be... what?? ...perfected?!

Everyone hoped that this would be one of the most polished, greatest Worms games ever... and now news like this?
A major personal disappointment.

The bane of my existence.

This topic makes me depressed. =(

Is there people online, at least? If I can find a online game now and then I'll probably pick it up for that and to have Worms on a TV to play with friends in person again.

According to this site it was supposed to be released on Wiiware on 3 December

The first post in this thread:

Why was Space Oddity so bad? I'd rather spend $10 on ebay for that then $30 for battle island.

It's not bad per se, it just has some questionable motion controls, and as far as I remember, no alternative control options.

Apparently, Space Oddity has big problems with the motion controls, which is its only control scheme. That won't be an issue with Battle Islands, since even if they have screwed up the motion controls again, the Classic Controller (and maybe more) can also be used this time.