A port of a PC classic that’s a bit rough around the edges.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/71675/worms-armageddon-anniversary-edition-switch-review
The Worms franchise has been a staple of PC gaming since the ‘90s, and over the years has made its way to consoles in numerous forms as well. The series previously made its way to Switch in 2017 in the form of Worms: W.M.D., but now at the opposite end of the Switch’s life we got Worms Armageddon: Anniversary Edition, a port of the critically acclaimed 1999 game. The port was released in 2024, and in 2025 received a significant update that included emulated versions of several console ports of classic console versions of Worms.
The base game of Worms Armageddon: Anniversary Edition remains very true to the original, which is not always a good thing. The core gameplay remains fun, with challenging turn-based strategy in 2D side-scrolling form. You control a squad of the titular worms and face off against others, with a wide variety of weapons available to choose from, most of which have the ability to destroy the terrain in addition to your enemies. While the variety is fun, it’s very clear that this game was built for a PC interface. Trying to navigate menus with a controller instead of a mouse is clunky, and while it works, it’s not the ideal way to play.Worms Armageddon: Anniversary Edition also doesn’t include much in the way of a tutorial or training for new players. This is a series known for its unforgiving difficulty, and it doesn’t really even try to help bring you up to speed. There are a few missions called training, but they don’t explain the mechanics, they just give you an opportunity to practice them. If you don’t know what you’re doing, this will involve a fair amount of trial and error and maybe going off to YouTube to figure things out.
Beyond the training the game includes a number of single player campaign missions in addition to the standard deathmatch, but the game is probably best enjoyed in multiplayer. There are a lot of options for local games with hotseat play on one system, as well as online multiplayer, but if you want to play online you’ll need to arrange it ahead of time with someone, because it doesn’t seem like anyone’s still actively playing online on the Switch version.
The big draw of the 2025 update for Worms Armageddon: Anniversary Edition, which this review coincides with, is emulated versions of Worms for Genesis, Worms for SNES, Worms Armageddon for Game Boy Color, and Worms World Party for Game Boy Advance. While these games are interesting to poke around with for a little bit as a curiosity, there’s no reason to spend much time with them. As dated as the base game can feel at times, all these classic ports are even more so, with limited options and control schemes that utilize even fewer buttons. The only possible perk is that they include a save state option, and if you want to abuse that in order to counteract the unforgiving difficulty it’s an option.
Worms Armageddon: Anniversary Edition is a good, faithful port of a classic PC game, for better and for worse. If you’re a fan of the series, it’s an enjoyable way to play it despite the clunky controls, but if you’re a new player you should expect a steep learning curve. The classic Worms games are neat to play around with for an hour or two, but are not worth buying the game just to see.
Topic: Worms Armageddon: Anniversary Edition (Switch) Review (Read 45 times)
