Worms 4 Review

Developer: Team 17
Price: $4.99
Version Reviewed: 1.02
App Reviewed on: iPhone 5

Graphics / Sound Rating:
Game Controls Rating:
Gameplay Rating:
Re-use / Replay Value Rating:

Overall Rating:

Available on many formats and in many guises, you’ve probably played a Worms game at some point. They all feature easy-to-learn controls while still offering some complex strategy at times. They also make for great games to play in local co-op. Worms 4 won’t quite excite you like that first time around, but it’s still a fairly entertaining mobile strategy game.

As before, you’re assembling a team of worms as they battle it out with increasingly zany weaponry. While there are bazookas and grenades to use, there’s still an eclectic mix of, well, weirdness. Smaller teams of worms are available for the fighting here, but customization options are still plentiful. Most significantly of all, you can now upgrade weapons, tailoring your team to your way of fighting.

There’s a single player campaign that’s mostly made up of small puzzle like missions. It works as a kind of introduction to the basic concepts within Worms 4, but also serves well as something you can devour in pieces. Alongside that are daily challenges and world events, both things that regularly work well at holding your attention on iOS.

The real meat stems from Worms 4’s multiplayer options with you able to fight the AI, another player via the same device, or online. While the iPhone is no great size, it still proves to be immensely fun to play with a friend, and passing it back and forth. Online multiplayer is frustratingly quiet though and there’s no sign of asynchronous multiplayer which would have combated such issues.

So, Worms 4 isn’t perfect and it offers a virtual d-pad rather than true touch controls, but it’s still charmingly fun. It's not as fun as the purist days of its original, but it works reasonably well on iOS. The campaign mode kept me suitably hooked and the daily challenges keep you suitably supplied with new content.