Creature Conflict: The Clan Wars

You May have had Worms. Not the five metre intestinal kind that hang out of your arse, but the humorous turn-based strategy game. Either way, the experience of Creature Conflicts will be somewhat familiar.

What we have here is gangs of animals scrapping it out with a variety of kooky weaponry on tiny planets, cartoon-style. Each player - human or Al - controls a squad of ravenous wolves, beavers or whatever, and takes it in turns to move and attack.

A turn comprises 25 seconds of real-time, where you run about the place, grabbing power-ups, jumping through teleporters, firing yourself from catapults, and most importantly, attacking your enemy. Attacks range from blatting someone with an iron to plastering them with a goo blaster, but you only get one per turn. Once you've done the damage, you get a little extra time to peg it and hide. It's all easily mastered, and a fair bit of fun. But it's not likely to be one of those sleeper hits you keep coming back to.

First up, the comedy weapons lack the sadistic glee of Worms' exploding grannies and sheep. Secondly, the nature of the game's 3D micro-planets makes the ballistics of throwing grenades and arcing your rocket attacks far too difficult, taking away the child-like satisfaction of lobbing a grenade perfectly on to your invertebrate 2D xjnent in Worms. In all, it'd worth a punt if it were half price, but not for 30 notes.