Gaming Greats – Worms (1994)
With the release of Worms HD for iPad, our thoughts have once again turned to Team 17’s evergreen strategy combat classic. Here’s why Worms is still delighting gamers 16 years after it first wriggled onto our monitors.
Yes, it’s been almost a generation since Worms was released, initially on the Commodore Amiga. The key to its success is perhaps its simplicity: it’s a 2D, turn-based game that pits your team of four worms against up to three opposing squads. The object of the game is simply to ensure that your team has the last worm standing. Or slithering. Or whatever.
In facilitate this, you have a wide range of weapons and tools at your disposal. Your worms are basically Rambo without a backbone, and can attack their enemies by calling in airstrikes, lobbing grenades, spraying bullets from an Uzi or even unleashing an explosive-packed sheep in their direction.
As that last entry on the list suggests, Worms does not take itself at all seriously. And this is another of its charms to set alongside its simplicity: it’s hard to forget things like the little squeak a worm makes when it finally expires, or the Street Fighter II-referencing “Hadouken” it screams as it performs a punch on an enemy and sends him tumbling into the sea.
Following its success on the Amiga, Worms was ported to a variety of other platforms including the PC, PlayStation and Game Boy, and there have been at least 10 sequels since 1994, culminating in Worms HD for the iPad. It’s safe to say that this very British game has become a worldwide classic.
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Comments
martin27scott
2 years ago
This game is probably responsible for the largest amount of hours lost when I should have been revising years ago! I'd love an Android port right now...