Over the weekend I noticed that Worms has just turned 30 years old, and given how I’ve been playing Team17’s quirky multiplayer strategy series since the very beginning, it felt right to acknowledge the moment here on my little site.
What is Worms?
Way back in the early ’90s I used to play a lot of Scorched Earth, a tank-based artillery game that preceded Worms. This simple yet effective strategy title is all about moving to a position, lining up a good shot, and then executing it as effectively as possible.
Just four years later, in 1995, developer Team17 came along and threw a holy hand grenade into the heart of that same formula, and replaced the tanks with squiggly worms while they were at it.
Originally called Total Wormage, the game evolved from being a curious artillery-based project starring Lemmings (yes, those Lemmings) into the Worms formula that we all know and love today, with designer Andy Davidson the brains behind the operation, at least until Team17 joined the party.
Catching Worms
For me, Worms started on PC a year or so later, where I would use the procedural world-building tools to try and make the ultimate battlegrounds. I would then tinker with my little cadre of pink commandos before taking them into battle across destructible environments filled with danger.
However, while I spent a lot of time with the PC version of the game, it was actually on the PSOne that I discovered the wicked joy of demolishing my best friend in lethal combat. We would sit around his PlayStation after school, passing the controller and taking turns to prod, shoot, and explode each other’s worms into oblivion. Good times.
By the time we get to the late ’90s, we had played Worms and Worms 2, although the formula across the games has remained largely consistent over the years. Of course, there have been some deviations from the slime trail, and this started in earnest in ’98, when we got Worms Pinball!
Most recently, we got Worms Armageddon: Anniversary Edition. While the original landed in 1999, the updated version dropped just last year, along with alternative versions of the third mainline entry in the series. I remember it because of the graphical update, but it was also the last game in the series that I would play for some time.
World Exclusive Worms
Back in 2016, when I was still working at Gamereactor I was sent on a fun assignment to Wakefield for the world exclusive reveal of Team17’s next entry in the series: Worms WMD.
It was there that I, along with a writer from PCGamesN (another site I’ve got a connection with), got the first look at the next evolution of a formula that I had returned to again after so many years away.
WMD introduced a few new tricks, with giant turrets and helicopters, and even explorable buildings, but it was also reassuringly Wormsy, and I immediately felt right at home as my more modern-looking invertebrate friends hopped about the place in search of trouble.
Worms is a game that knows what it is, knows what it needs to do, and then does exactly that, in the process making sure that the action is as silly as it possibly can be.
Final Thoughts
I can’t claim to be a Worms expert, but I do know the difference between a concrete donkey and a banana bomb, and when to use a gentle prod vs when to bust out the ol’ super sheep.
Worms is a series that has been with me on and off throughout my life, ever since I was a teen in the ’90s. It might not feel very fresh in 2025, but credit where it’s due; Team17 has managed to keep this most unlikely franchise burning for thirty years, and that is a remarkable achievement.
PS. All the screenshots are taken from games in the order that they were released, except for this final one, which is from Worms Reloaded (2010). The first images is from Worms (1995), then there’s a snap from Worms Armaggedon (1999), and that is followed by Worms WMD (2016).
