(I have no idea where they fit the six person crew in this thing)
Wurm is one of the darkest and most serious games I have played on the NES. It features a very sober looking bunch of scientists as they travel to the center of the Earth where perils abound and evil scientists threaten to turn them into de-brained coma victims. It is more about figuring out how to destroy the enemies than it is about fighting. It features a strong female lead who stands out among the men in the story. So with all this information, what do we get for a cover? Joyriding futuristic teenagers having one last adventure before they are crushed by the very Earth itself. I don't know who would design a subterranean digger as a convertible. It seems like you would die almost instantly. I can't think of a more serious game with goofier cover art. There is also no point in the game where the name Wurm is used. It is supposedly the name of the ship, but at all times it is called the VZR. The Japanese Title was Vazolder: The Underground Battle Space. That might actually be sillier than Wurm, so I guess I'll let it slide. How about the game itself?
(I do enjoy the Phantasy Star styled cut scenes)
Like every other aspect of this game the gameplay is a bit hard to explain. It switches from shooter(both vertical and horizontal) to Metroid like side scroller to first-person boss fight. Each level is set up more or less the same. First you fly around in your ship and shoot things. There are different forms that the ship can take, but it took me a long time to learn how to switch between them, or even understand why I would want to do so. It seems like one setup keeps you alive and the other causes you to instantly die. Perhaps there is something I am missing. After you fly around for a while the crew of the ship start to get suspicious and Moby, whom the instruction manual describes as the game's "Lady Protagonist" goes out to investigate. It is nice to have a female lead in an NES game, but you kind of ruin it when you describe her like that. She functions well in the game though, and it's nice that she's kicking enemies to death while trying to save a man in distress. At least it's a slight diversion from the typical formula.
(It's nice to have a game with a woman who literally kicks ass)
The instructions also describe the side scrolling portion as role-playing, but there is nothing at all RPG like about it. Sure there are some branching paths and people to talk to, but you basically use your few bullets and awkward kick until you solve the mystery. There is no level gaining or money collecting. This description is probably another sign that publishers had no idea how to market the game. It's dark and surreal with several types of gameplay. Why not give it a silly cover and describe it as role playing?
The boss fights are also very unique in this game. Although they take place in a first person point-of-view involving plenty of shooting they are more focused on strategy and collaboration. Occasionally the action will switch back to the cockpit of the Wurm and you will have the chance to talk to your shipmates. The more helpful their advice is, the higher the percentage is that your attacks will be successful. There are also characters that will give you back life along with useless characters who will actually lower your percentage. The bosses will only pop on your screen for short amounts of time, so the best strategy is to spin around in a circle until prompted back to the cockpit until your percentage is up to 100. It is strange and almost impossible to lose, but at least they were trying to get us NES players to think about things in a different way. The bosses were nice and large on the screen so that's a plus.
(I don't like those odds very much)
So I played through this game like a champ and I'm still not sure what to make of it. The biggest drawback is that it is very short. It probably took around 90 minutes to play through it from start to finish which is very short for a game with a password. This fact only adds to the overall strangeness. It's one of those games where the manual doesn't even know what's going on. If you ever find it for sale at a used game store in the future you should probably pick it up. You won't necessarily enjoy it, and you probably won't be able to make much sense out of it. However, you will probably never forget it. Maybe I will be able to decide if I liked it or not after a couple more years of thinking about it.
