Among the myriad of multiplayer games ever made, Worms has stood out as one of the most enjoyable. The game play isn’t absolutely unique (gorillas with exploding bananas were causing havoc even back as far as BASIC), but considering that the barebones core was already vastly enjoyable, the series’ marked improvements on the base essentially guaranteed an equally enriching experience. In other words, it was already freakin’ fun to start with, and the addition of armed militant invertebrates to the mix made it even better.

Worms: Open Warfare for the PSP is more of the same, which is all right if you liked the games to begin with. The lack of a substantial single player experience and some wonky AI won’t attract new converts to the fold, however. Multiplayer is capable but cumbersome thanks to its lack of a game-swapping feature (it has hot-swap instead), but otherwise everything goes according to the typical Worms formula.

So should we get ourselves some Worms then? That would all depend on what kind of medical coverage you have (drum roll).

• GameSpy (3.5 / 5) – “Worms: Open Warfare marks the first time the franchise has hit Sony's popular handheld, and the results are actually somewhat impressive… [It] isn't quite perfect though. Although the single-player portion of the game is a lot of fun to play, the AI can prove to be a little frustrating.”
• Yahoo! Games (3.5 / 5) – “Despite the fact that Worms fanatics have been clamoring for a return to the 2D world for a while now, Open Warfare isn't the perfect comeback. If you want a killer single-player experience, this game is definitely not for you. But there's plenty of mobile multiplayer mayhem to be had, even if the execution is a little flawed.”
• IGN (7.0 / 10) – “Worms: Open Warfare is a decent game that doesn't offer much in terms of new content. It's great for fans who want a faithful iteration of the series on the PSP. It's also a good game to play in quick 10-minute bursts. But if you find yourself bored with strategic silliness, or if you never liked Worms to begin with, there's not much here to love.”

Is Sony’s upcoming strategy game Field Commander delayed till April? Robert of the A Gamer’s Life weblog wrote in and essentially told us a little birdie (one that strangely looked like a preview event) told him that the title, which was originally slated for a Q1 2006 or late March release, would instead be pushed back to April 24. Then the birdie told everyone to leave the premises while it bussed its own tables. Yeah, we’re really making sense now.

There’s no official word from Sony at this point, so we’ll have to assume this is a rumor until they tell us otherwise. Still, a delay of a month isn’t that bad. Duke Nukem Forever this ain’t.

[Thanks, Robert]