On July 1st, Rare’s Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts will be playable via the cloud. Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling, an acclaimed Paper Mario-style RPG, will also be available for cloud, consoles and PC alongside Gang Beasts and Immortal Realms: Vampire Wars. If that weren’t enough, Playdead’s iconic platformer Limbo is coming to the service as well.

Interestingly, Judgment wasn’t announced for the subscription service despite a recent tease. Perhaps we’ll see it added later. In the meantime, some titles will be leaving Xbox Game Pass on June 30th so play them now while you have the chance. The games in question include:

• Battle Chasers: Nightwar (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• The Messenger (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Mistover (PC)
• Monster Hunter World (Cloud and Console)
• Out of the Park Baseball 21 (PC)
• Outer Wilds (Cloud and Console)
• Soulcalibur 6 (Console)

Worms Rumble has three modes at launch – a classic deathmatch, a battle royale style mode, and a team battle royale mode. Each of these modes work exactly how you’d think from those descriptions, with up to 32 worms duking it out against each other in some rather zany maps, and with some delightfully imaginative (and differentiated!) weaponry. Last Worm Standing, the battle royale mode, pretty much has your involvement end once you’re killed – and with a low TTK, this can be the quickest moving mode. Whether or not that’s a good thing ultimately comes down to your personal skill level. If you’re good at the game, quickly being able to mow through other players to nab the gold for yourself is probably an empowering and thrilling prospect. If, like me, you suck at the game, then your involvement in a Last Worm Standing game will be over pretty quickly. This, of course, is true of all battle royale games, but dedicated battle royale games usually have full fledged rules and maps dedicated to that style of play which help keep things nuanced and interesting even for less skilled players. Worms seems to be less compelling in this mode (or in the Last Team Standing variant of this mode).

"Worms Rumble is a surprisingly fresh and enjoyable multiplayer game, with a unique and quirky spin on several multiplayer tropes."

The true star of the game, in my estimation, is the deathmatch mode. Much like he battle royale modes, this mode works exactly how you expect – you and the other worms spawn on one of the game’s three maps, and then you duke it out against each other until the timer runs down. This is where Worms Rumble’s mechanics and finely honed design chops truly get to shine. See, since a single unlucky (and inevitably quick) death doesn’t spell the end of your time in the game, this mode is where you truly get to enjoy Rumble’s delightful map design (replete with shortcuts, multiple levels, dynamic elements, nooks and crannies to set up ambushes, and more), and this mode is where you get the chance to really try out the full range of weaponry that Worms Rumble has to offer, given that you actually have the time (and impetus, in case the one you have isn’t working for you) to experiment.

The weapons themselves are great – while you have your standard and conventional ones such as  a shotgun (which is great) or an assault rifle (which is less so), as well as stuff like grenades, you also get some truly off-kilter armaments to wreak havoc with, including a plasma rifle (which has the ability to shoot charged shots, and go around corners – a superb advantage on a multi-tiered, vertically oriented game such as this one), and a gun that shoots out sheep that, I kid you not, then proceed to chase any worm in sight, until they catch up, at which point they explode, dishing out massive damage.

The delightful weaponry, coupled with the really imaginative and clever map design, really help games feel dynamic and frenetic, helping every match feel different in how it flows and how you progress. This kinetic variation across games is, to be frank, necessary, since Worms Rumble has a shockingly low amount of content at launch – the three modes I mentioned, and only three maps. While, as I mentioned, those maps are really well designed, and should end up giving players a lot to work with over the course of many, many games, even the best designed map of all time will eventually get repetitive, which is a risk Worms Rumble runs three times over. Worms Rumble does try other things to keep you coming back, to its credit, including the requisite leveling system for your profile, as well as each individual weapon you play with, all of which works towards unlocking more cosmetics for your character and profile banner – but that kind of thing works better as a supplementary reward rather than being the primary, or even sole, motivation for a player to invest dozens of hours into something. I can only hope that this, as well as the other content issues plaguing this game, is alleviated in some future update.

"Worms Rumble has a shockingly low amount of content at launch."

In spite of the radical departure from other games in the series, Worms Rumble does retain some elements of the older titles’ identity. The controls, for instance, retain the franchise’s trademark floatiness to some degree, which actually ends up working well with the game’s verticality. As you may already have picked up on, the game also retains some visual motifs and nomenclature that has been pervasive through the series in the past as well.

We were promised that Worms Rumble would be the first 3D game in the series, and that was only true in the most technical sense – while the graphics are undoubtedly rendered in polygonal 3D, the actual gameplay takes place entirely on a 2D plane. On the whole, this ends up being strongly in the game’s favor, however, since keeping the action 2D helps it stay simple and brisk (not to mention the sidescrolling view’s ability to give you a view of a larger portion of the map at any given time, helping you prepare for springing or avoiding ambushes based on the rather clever and intriguing possibilities that the design and camera angles can provide for). In spite of the relative simplicity that this 2D format can provide, however, I did find Worms’ controls to be finnicky on console – especially aiming, which seems to lack finesse (the game compensates for this by not demanding a lot of accuracy from you either).

If you’re not sold on Worms Rumble because you balk at the very notion of real time Worms, playing the game will probably be all that’s needed to make you at least start to come around on the idea. As mentioned, Worms Rumble is flawed and lacking in a lot of areas, but the core gameplay and design works, and works remarkably well, to the point that the primary complaint you can lob at the game is very literally that there isn’t more of it.

That’s a pretty good base to build from.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 4.

Team17’s Worms series has a history of releasing fun, accessible multiplayer games, and though Worms Rumble is trying something different, it’s still looking very interesting. As the first 3D game in the series, it’s looking to do some new things, and it’s out today for everyone to try out.

Worms Rumble has launched with three maps and three playable modes, but developer Team17 plans on adding more content to the game with post-launch updates. Cross-platform play across all the systems it’s available now is also supported. Curiously enough, it’s currently only available on PlayStation and PC, so whether or not it will come to Xbox and Switch (or other platforms) remains to be seen. In the meantime, check out its launch trailer below.

Worms Rumble is available on PS5, PS4, and PC. The game will also be available for free to all PlayStation Plus subscribers throughout the month. You can learn more about the game and Team17’s post-launch plans for the multiplayer title in our interview with lead designer Adam Findlay through here.

We’re at the point now to where the year is slowly winding down. Thanksgiving is here (if you’re in the United States) and December is right around the corner. It’s been a year I imagine a lot of us want to put behind us with hope that 2021 will be a lot better. With one last month also comes one last month of free titles for PS Plus and now we know what Sony is giving us to close out the year.

The final PS Plus selection for 2020 consists of three titles. First up is the multiplayer-focused Rocket Arena, a unique 3v3 title all about blowing each other up. Then you have the massive open world title from Avalanche Studios Just Cause 4 that will allow you to also blow up a lot of stuff, but in a huge sandbox world. Finally, like last month, we have a game that will be debuting day and date on PS Plus, Worms Rumble, a new entry in the franchise all about worms blowing each other up in turn-based warfare.

All three titles will be available to redeem for PS Plus members starting December 1st. All three games will also be redeemable on either PlayStation 5 or PlayStation 4.

December’s PlayStation Plus games bring the chaos, with Worms Rumble, Just Cause 4 and Rocket Arena leading the line-up: https://t.co/VCTOJtmOH2 pic.twitter.com/foo1B6tss6

— PlayStation (@PlayStation) November 25, 2020

"We have always asked the question- what would a real-time version of Worms look like and how would it play? This is the answer to that!"

The Worms series’ tried and true formula is one that many fans of the series have gotten a lot of mileage out of. What was behind the decision to take Worms Rumble in a completely different direction?

We have made turn-based Worms games for 25 years now, and I’m sure we will continue to make more in the future. With Worms Rumble we wanted to try something new out, we have always asked the question- what would a real-time version of Worms look like and how would it play? This is the answer to that!

How has the reception to the game been since it entered beta? How much impact, if any, has the feedback from the beta impacted development?

The beta is just a small slice of what the final game will be, and it has gone down really well with a lot of players. It is quite a departure from our main line of turn-based games in the series, but once people got into the beta and played it, they found the game to be a lot of fast, frantic fun! We received invaluable feedback from the beta and will be looking to incorporate some of it as we continue with development.

Can you talk about the weapons that will be available to players in the game, and what players can expect in terms of both quantity and variety? 

We have only revealed a small selection of weapons available to players in the beta, players can expect more quantity and variety in the full game, with a mix of new weapons and returning favourites.

"We have only revealed a small selection of weapons available to players in the beta, players can expect more quantity and variety in the full game, with a mix of new weapons and returning favourites."

Given Worms Rumble’s real-time gameplay, what has your approach been to designing maps and weapons, and how has it differed from previous games?

The approach to designing maps for Worms Rumble has been significantly different to previous Worms games. We wanted to create a battle arena feeling, which allows slick, speedy movement throughout the levels, while providing interesting variety and strategy to combat.

What are your plans for Worms Rumble as far as post-launch support is concerned? Are new modes and maps on the cards?

We have plans in the works for post-launch and a desire to support the game with interesting updates and content, watch this space!

Given the inclusion of a battle royale mode, how did you land on capping players in any given map at 32? Is there a chance that that number is increased eventually, perhaps with bigger maps to support them?

We want the game’s battle royale mode to feel bite-sized, to have that one-more-game feeling. We wanted to keep the pace of the game faster than other battle royale games and think that the player count works perfectly for this alongside the maps we have created.

What is Worms Rumble’s approach to progression in terms of monetization? Are you looking into implementing a battle pass-style system?

One thing is for sure, and that’s Worms Rumble will not be in any way a pay-to-win game. We’re building the experience up to be enjoyed by newcomers and veterans of the series, and we’ll be talking more about the meta-game and levelling progression closer to launch.

"The approach to designing maps for Worms Rumble has been significantly different to previous Worms games. We wanted to create a battle arena feeling, which allows slick, speedy movement throughout the levels, while providing interesting variety and strategy to combat."

What should players expect from seasonal events? Is it a case of delivering new and varied content to the community on a regular basis?

We have a lot of things planned for the game at launch and post-launch, which we’ll be sharing closer to the time.

As a PlayStation console exclusive, how can players expect the game to leverage the console’s unique capabilities? For instance, how will the haptic feedback, adaptive triggers, and 3D audio come into play in the game?

We are of course looking to build various capabilities into the PlayStation 5 version of Worms Rumble, but it’s not something we’re quite ready to discuss. However, stay tuned over the months ahead.