''Worms Rumble'' is a 2020 action game developed and published by

Team17 Team17 Group plc is a British video game developer and publisher based in Wakefield, England. The venture was created in December 1990 through the merger of British publisher 17-Bit Software and Swedish developer Team 7. At the time, the two co ...

. As a spin-off of the long-running ''

Worms Worms may refer to: *Worm, an invertebrate animal with a tube-like body and no limbs Places *Worms, Germany Worms () is a city in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, situated on the Upper Rhine about south-southwest of Frankfurt am Main. It had ...

'' series, the game was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 in December 2020 and for the Nintendo Switch,

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and

Xbox Series X/S The Xbox Series X/S are home video game consoles developed by Microsoft. They were both released on November 10, 2020, as the fourth generation Xbox, succeeding the Xbox One. Along with Sony's PlayStation 5, also released in November 202 ...

in June 2021.

Gameplay

Unlike its predecessors, ''Worms Rumble'' is a 2.5D

real-time Real-time or real time describes various operations in computing or other processes that must guarantee response times within a specified time (deadline), usually a relatively short time. A real-time process is generally one that happens in defined ...

action game. In ''Rumble'', players assume control of anthropomorphic worms and compete against each other in modes including Death Match, Last Worm Standing and Last Squad Standing. The game features a variety of exotic weapons, such as Sheep Launchers, Plasma Blasters, and Sentry Turrets, which can be used to defeat enemies. Players can also acquire

jet pack A jet pack, rocket belt, or rocket pack is a device worn on the back which uses jets of gas or liquid to propel the wearer through the air. The concept has been present in science fiction for almost a century and became widespread in the 1960s. ...

s and grappling hooks to navigate the environment easily. As players progress in the game, they can also gain

experience Experience refers to conscious events in general, more specifically to perceptions, or to the practical knowledge and familiarity that is produced by these conscious processes. Understood as a conscious event in the widest sense, experience involv ...

points which can be used to unlock cosmetic items and customise the appearance of their playable avatars.

Development

announced ''Worms Rumble'' on July 3, 2020 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the ''

'' series. It is the first game in the series since '' Worms W.M.D'' (2016). The game is envisioned to be a spin-off rather than a mainline installment in the franchise, as it replaces the series' traditional turn-based

artillery Artillery is a class of heavy military ranged weapons that launch munitions far beyond the range and power of infantry firearms. Early artillery development focused on the ability to breach defensive walls and fortifications during siege ...

gameplay with real-time combat. An open beta for the game was released on November 6, 2020. The game was released for

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for ser ...

, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 on December 1, 2020 with

cross-platform play In video games with online gaming functionality, also called cross-compatible play, cross-platform play, crossplay, or cross-play describes the ability of players using different video game hardware to play with each other simultaneously. It is c ...

enabled. Team17 has announced that the ports of ''Worms Rumble'' for Nintendo Switch,

and

are planned for a 2021 release. The new versions were released on June 23, 2021 and include platform-exclusive costumes. The game was added to the

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service on the same date, with physical editions for all platforms to follow on July 13, 2021.

Reception

According to

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Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, the game received mixed or average reviews. Christian Donlan from ''

Eurogamer ''Eurogamer'' is a British video game journalism website launched in 1999 and owned by alongside formed company Gamer Network. Its editor-in-chief is Martin Robinson. Since 2008, it is known for the formerly eponymous games trade fair EG ...

'' called the game "a hectic real-time delight" and noted that ''Rumble'' "completely subverts ''Worms''". Fraser Brown from ''

PC Gamer ''PC Gamer'' is a magazine and website founded in the United Kingdom in 1993 devoted to PC gaming and published monthly by Future plc. The magazine has several regional editions, with the UK and US editions becoming the best selling PC games m ...

'' wrote that the game was fun to play, but expressed his disappointment that the game had deviated too much from the established gameplay formula expected from the series. Chris Carter from ''

Destructoid ''Destructoid'' is a website that was founded as a video game-focused blog in March 2006 by Yanier Gonzalez, a Cuban-American cartoonist and author. Enthusiast Gaming acquired the website in 2017, and sold it to Gamurs Group in 2022. History ...

'' awarded the game a 7/10, praising its gameplay and map design while lamenting the game's lack of content. Less than 11 months after its Windows launch, Steam reviews note the game is completely unplayable because of its PVP only mode and lack of other players.

References

External links

* {{Team17 2020 video games Windows games PlayStation 4 games PlayStation 5 games Video games with cross-platform play Battle royale games Action games Multiplayer video games Nintendo Switch games Worms (series) games Video games developed in the United Kingdom Video game spin-offs Xbox One games Xbox Series X and Series S games