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

Worms Battlegrounds is a game that's probably best described as a turn based strategy game, although it's one of the most accessible ones around. Pitting your team of oddly named and funnily voiced worms up against another, you take it in turns with your opponent to move your worms around a 2D playing field, choosing your target wisely, before letting rip with one of a wide range of totally bonkers weapons, from flying, explosive Super Sheep, to a Holy Hand Grenade that screams "HALLELUJAH" before it explodes, or a giant statue of a Concrete Donkey, that plummets down from the sky, and smashes its way through the earth, eeh-aww-ing as it goes. From there, it's a case of swapping the controller with a friend (or facing off against the computer), to see who's the last worm standing.

As you've probably guessed, it's all rather tongue in cheek - and Worms is a game that comes into its own when a group of friends and family join in. With full support for four player, same console, pass-the-controller multiplayer, Battlegrounds never fails to raise a smile, as your family goes to war in the nicest of ways. With the Worms themselves raising a smile with their constant one liners and somewhat unique sense of humour, it's the lucky shots, the chance hits, and the fact that most games can really go any way that makes this special. If you don't have friends and family around, there are also two single player, puzzle based modes that see you figuring out environmental puzzles (usually using magnets to repel or attract a mine or bazooka towards a target), or that ask you to show your prowess with a certain weapon, and defeat a group of Worms in the quickest time possible.

However, Worms Battlegrounds is also a game that the very young may struggle with. While some weapons are essentially melee weapons, and simply require you to stand next to your foe, aiming the ranged weapon can be a lot harder. While the bazooka essentially works a bit like Angry Birds (choose your angle and a power and let rip), aiming the shotgun, uzi, and especially grenades can be awkward, especially when it comes to getting the power right. Still, there's every chance younger players will enjoy playing along in multiplayer - they just likely won't manage the single player on their own...

Despite being a game about a load of cartoon worms blowing each other up, there isn't really all that much here for parents to worry about. There's no swearing, no sex, and very little in the way of actual violence. Attacks do no lasting damage to Worms, there's no blood, guts, or gore, and when they're defeated, they simply pull out a plunger, and explode (again, with a puff of smoke rather than innards scattering the screen). While there's a mixture of serious weapons (Uzis, shotguns and baseball bats) coupled with the ridiculous (exploding old ladies who give off a poisonous green gas as they trot along the screen, flying sheep), Worms Battlegrounds actually isn't as violent as you'd expect.

Worms Battlegrounds does support user created levels, however, and that means there's always a small risk that someone will have created a level that looks, shall we say, rude - either making a giant swear word for you to play across, or lovingly having crafted a phallic object. While we haven't come across anything like this in our time with the game, there does remain the possibility that if you play online, you may come across something rude that someone's created.

Age Ratings

Format Reviewed: Playstation 4