Retro Replay Review

Gameplay

The fun begins the moment a careful plan turns into a disaster. You line up a bazooka shot, compensate for the wind, and watch it clip terrain or toss your own worm somewhere embarrassing. That mix of calculation and cartoon cruelty is still Worms at its core, and Ultimate Mayhem gives it plenty of room to breathe across turn-based matches where every move can reshape the battlefield.

Destructible terrain remains the heart of the tactics. Blasting a route through a hill, removing a safe patch of ground beneath an enemy, or accidentally opening a path toward your own team changes the board in ways that feel immediate. Mines, fall damage, supply drops, and the small explosions that follow a worm’s defeat create the best kind of tactical mess: you can plan intelligently, but you cannot fully control the consequences.

The 3D viewpoint is the compromise. It makes movement and aiming feel more awkward than in the series’ 2D entries, especially when you need a precise angle or have to judge distance across uneven terrain. The picture-in-picture view that follows an acting worm is useful, but it cannot completely remove the occasional struggle to line up the shot you thought was obvious. Give it a little patience, though, and its rougher aiming becomes part of the party-game tension rather than a deal-breaker.

There is enough here to justify returning with friends. Up to four people can play locally or online, and the five multiplayer modes—including Deathmatch, Homelands, and Statue Defend—offer more than one way to create arguments over a missed grenade. Custom weapons are a welcome touch for groups that want to bend the chaos toward their own favorite kinds of nonsense. If you play Worms for tight competitive precision, the 3D format may grate; if you play for loud turns and ridiculous reversals, it delivers.

Graphics

Ultimate Mayhem presents Worms in chunky 3D arenas, with the camera shifting between the wider battlefield and a picture-in-picture view of the worm currently acting. The biggest visual payoff comes when explosions chew holes through the terrain and leave everyone recalculating their footing.

The worms’ tiny scale and the behind-the-action camera can make precise positioning harder to read than it is in 2D, particularly around uneven ground. Still, the view keeps the important business visible: where a worm stands, what is about to explode, and which unfortunate teammate is close enough to be caught in it.

Story

This is not a game you come to for a sweeping narrative. Its campaign material is built around missions, and Ultimate Mayhem’s key advantage is volume: it includes Worms 4: Mayhem and, through a post-release patch, the missions from Worms 3D.

That makes the solo side feel more like an extended set of artillery challenges than a story-driven adventure. The focus stays on navigating a situation, choosing a weapon, and making the most of one turn before the opposing team responds.

If you want context on how this combined release came together, the Worms Ultimate Mayhem history and release information is useful background. In the game itself, though, the memorable tales are the ones you make when a supposed winning move wipes out the wrong worm.

Overall Experience

Worms: Ultimate Mayhem is a worthwhile, imperfect gathering of the series’ 3D experiments. It has the weapons, turn-based brinkmanship, destructible arenas, and spectacularly self-defeating mistakes that make Worms easy to share with a room full of people. Combining material from two games gives it a sturdier package than either campaign set alone.

The catch is simple: 3D costs the series some of its clean tactical clarity. You will occasionally blame the camera, misjudge a jump, or miss a shot that would feel straightforward in a side-on Worms game. That friction is real, and it explains why this is not an automatic recommendation over the strongest 2D installments.

Still, a 6.6 feels fair rather than dismissive. Bring it to a couch session, or gather a small online group that appreciates turn-based sabotage more than strict competitive polish. Its best moments are not elegant—they are the glorious, escalating failures that leave one worm alive in a crater while everyone argues about whose plan caused it.

Retro Replay Score

6.6/10