Parent's Guide: Worms Battle Islands - Age rating, mature content and difficulty

Although it may not seem like it at first sight, your child will actually take away a lot of good lessons from Worms Battle Islands, as it's a game that really makes your brain work. Whether you're trying to work out the best escape route after planting a stick of dynamite next to your opponent, or calculating the right trajectory to lob your grenade at, in order to get that perfect bounce and land it next to your opponent, there's a surprising amount of thinking involved. Even though they don't realise it, your child will be learning all about the basic concepts of physics - and maybe even a bit of maths too, with the angles of incidence and reflection.

While the game may revolve around a team of worms trying their best to blow up, or otherwise deal out punishment to another team of worms, what violence there is here is incredibly cartoonish, meaning there's actually not all that much for parents to worry about here. 

With nothing in the way of swearing or sex, and some suitably slapstick battles, this is actually a great pick for kids. While the Worms are trying to blow each other up, if there's one thing the Worms games *don't* try for, it's realism - there's no blood, gore or guts, no horrible dying sounds, and nothing that a parent should majorly object to - instead, you have worms throwing exploding sheep at each other (and again, here, with no gore when it blows up!), trying to aim bazooka shells, or running as quick as they can from a poorly placed Holy Hand Grenade, which explodes with a "hallelujah!" and sends your opponent flying. When hit with a bazooka shell, a worm may fly across the map, before plopping into the water; when they run out of life, they pull out a detonator, and blow themselves up in a puff of smoke, turning into a gravestone (or one of a number of things you can have them leave behind). In fact, possibly the most violent thing is the baseball bat, which serves as a handy way to send another worm flying, but makes a "thwack" sound when you use it. Still, it's all very slapstick - and not all that violent.

Allowing four players to play on the same console (and you can even share the same Wii Remote by passing it around), Worms Battle Island is great for family play. There are plenty of options to play in multiplayer, from standard versus mode, to forts (which sees two teams of worms stranded on opposite islands, and is a real test of your mental trajectory plotting), and even a race mode if you fancy a real challenge. Whether you're playing as every man/woman/child for themselves, or teaming up in pairs, there's plenty to keep you coming back here. In fact, with each new Worms game that comes out, it inevitably finds itself as a regularly game night game at Everybody Plays towers - because it's just so much fun.

Age Ratings

Format Reviewed: Nintendo Wii