I remember and like armageddon - and remember world party being good too. I've wanted to try getting into a modern-er worms again, but for several years now, there have been so many different versions being sold simultaneously with so many different names, it's impossible to tell which is the "latest" or even most advanced (several being cut down for consoles and subsequently ported).

See e.g. the post world-party https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worms_(series) with often several new, similarly named titles per year. It's impossible to know what to get, and the fact that several are usually being sold/on sale simultaneously just leads to confusion.

The latest worms game worth playing is probably Reloaded on PC. It's a little stripped down compared to Armageddon/World Party but it's the last worms game where the physics are spot on. After Revolution came out they've all been floaty and janky, grenades that would rather roll than bounce, ninja ropes that actually act like rope (and are therefore completely useless) and just general visual 'bleh' from the 2.5d.

> I want to like the newer Worms games, but IMO the series peaked with Worms Armageddon in 1999.

Heh, I never liked the Worms 2 style graphics, so for me the series peaked with Worms Director's Cut. One day I might dig up the countless WRM16 maps I made in Deluxe Paint: http://worms2d.info/Colour_map_(first_generation)

A J2ME Java mobile port was played for many a hundred of hours by my mates and I at school. Replay value was absolutely insane.

Sometimes I feel those J2ME games were better than games today. I remember wasting hundreds of hours on worms and galaxy on fire and several others. I tried the new galaxy on fire in android and the game is just not good enough to keep me engrossed.

Perhaps your attention span/taste/expectations have changed since. I certainly had more fun with video games as a teenager than now, and I don't think it's necessarily due to an objective change in quality.

The J2ME phones had physical buttons, with real physical clickey sensation when you press them. That's a world of difference in gaming when compared to a touchscreen.

I'm sure of that. Some games you just can't play on a touchscreen, but you could on a 12-key keyboard (and vice-versa, to be fair).

Same, as well as other Fishlabs games (Blades & Magic etc) and plenty others from Gameloft et al. I remember being much more engrossed those times than I have ever been involved in post-touch mobile games, for Android and iOS. I wonder if there was an objective decline in quality (it certainly seems so with the pesky social integration and all consuming microtransactions), or if I simply am less easily taken in than before.

Am I the only person here who loves the iOS app? Agreed, on desktop Worms Armageddon is the top, but the iPad is just the perfect device for Worms in 2016.

Which one is "the" iOS app? They've got Worms 1-4, and more :)

Right on, that's important: 1-2 were terrible actually. 3-4 are up to par.

WA saved a woefully boring junior year in college as me and my mates had epic worm offs. Love this game. Still play it.

The theme song from Armageddon is also perfect and brings back memories for me.

I was going to post something along these lines. This is one of thee few games I get downright emotional about.