Can of Wormholes Review (eShop Conversion)
Hello, worms! Finally, for all you worm readers out there looking for worm-related content on Nintendo Life, here’s a game that puts earthworms front and center. Heading to the Switch from solo developer Munted Finger, Wormholes Box Dare to open that proverbial can and toss the squiggly bird feeder – if we can call it that – straight into a series of wonderful multi-dimensional puzzles. Worms everywhere can stand proudly. Or at least just one kind of lie proud.
The gameplay is simple enough to get your little worm brain going: in each level, you, the main worm character, have to squeeze into a worm-shaped slot. You move your head square by square on the grid, and the rest of your body follows your path – just like you eat through a flower bed, aerating the soil. One important change in gameplay is that when you reverse, your tail always turns in a straight line, not backtracking on the path it came from. Other mechanical additions include edible potions to grow longer, blocks to push, shapes to swallow, etc. The game even allows for the sad discovery that cutting a worm in half doesn’t actually make two worms. (Not two life It’s a worm anyway.)
The variety of puzzles is truly impressive. The challenges are grouped around worm spaceships, and hopping between ships—a metaphysical puzzle in its own right—introduces new concepts along with new visual themes. But even within each ship, the range of logic tests is impressive, with new ideas constantly piling up. And they’re seriously tricky puzzles—or at least they’ll tease out the little brain-like ganglia at the end of your central nervous system. (No offense, but worms aren’t exactly known for their intellectual prowess—they’re more concerned with instinct. And eat dirt.)
But to go along with the difficulty of the puzzles, there’s a hint system that actually goes the extra mile. It doesn’t hold your hand – or your feathers – seta It doesn’t cover your worm’s body – instead, it takes the time to really teach you the core concepts of each poser. It does this by breaking away from the stage into a smaller, simpler black and white setting. Here, the core of the puzzle is isolated so you can figure out the key ideas yourself before taking them back to the ‘real world’ and applying them. It leaves so much up to you as the player that it never feels like cheating or a cop-out to call it that.
For the most part, the presentation is clear and to the point, letting the puzzles do the talking. Like worms without eyes, you don’t miss them. also much on the graphical side. However, equipped with vibration detection, you will appreciate the music, which will appear wonderfully in upbeat signals when you take an important step in the solution or become a little jarring when you make a mistake.
With clever puzzles, high difficulty levels, and an educational hint system, be careful or Can of Wormholes will keep you hooked.
