Mastering the many weapons on offer is no mean feat either. Unlike the original's reliance on bazooka and grenade shots, the myriad of firepower in Armageddon lends an increasingly strategic element to choosing your tool of destruction. New items, such as the gratuitous Flame-Thrower, napalm-like French Sheep Strike and erratic Skunk, are all effective additions which effortlessly fit in with the grim comic nature of the action. Wind speed and direction still play a part, with lighter projectiles (and their flaming payloads) often being blown off course by a strong breeze, regularly missing their targets and landing on your own unfortunate soldiers.

In fact, it's only the Worm Select option that appears to be an ill-advised addition to the mix. By allowing you to switch between worms during your turn, it essentially provides a stepping stone between the strict turn-based regime of its predecessors and full real-time. It's an unnecessary step that, to my mind, deserves to be ignored by mutual agreement between players.

That aside, Armageddon is as advanced from the original as you could reasonably expect it to be, given its 2D, turn-based nature. Visually, it's a welcome improvement with better animations, more imaginative scenery and a more powerful zoom feature. Sound, too, has been enhanced, with optional foreign voices available for that xenophobically light-hearted touch.

They are those who will claim Armageddon is too little too late; that the Worms concept is old news. Thankfully, though, they're wrong. You can't keep a good game down, and the return of Worms only goes to show how inspired the gameplay of the original was. It may be the end of the Worms as we know it (but I feel fine).