Adding a bit of character went a long way towards making Worms the global success that it is today. Much like another Amiga hit, Lemmings, Worms was an exercise in squeezing as much personality as possible out of characters that were just eight pixels tall, expressed as they flip through the air in explosions or turn to face the player before detonating themselves. Crates could occasionally contain Sheep or Banana Bombs, and in the CD versions, rounds were punctuated with FMV skits of Worms accidentally missing teleports or unexpectedly meeting a flamethrower-wielding enemy. Having seen success with comedy, Team17 went all-in for the second game. The silly weapon quotient was increased, and the Worm character was overhauled with a new cartoon style. Later on, higher resolutions and 3D models helped draw out additional expressiveness.
But just as it does elsewhere in life, much of the best humour in Worms comes from those unscripted moments that nobody could reasonably plan for. “Sometimes I think people think the comedy of the game might come from the funny things that the Worms do, which is obviously important to me as an animator,” says Andy Morriss, principal animator at Team17. “But a lot of the time it’s emergent from the crazy things that you’re doing while trying to play the game. This is generally the thing that makes people laugh, so the Worm is really just a vehicle for those comedic situations.” This is supported by certain design choices, such as not overexplaining the weapons. “There’s an element of ‘try it and see what happens’,” says Colin.
“The comedy is there, when it explodes in your face after 30 seconds of moving carefully around the landscape,” agrees Andy.
“We had weapons that could do as much harm to you as they could your opponents, there was a bit of luck, like Mail Strike – you never quite knew where [the letters] were going to land,” Colin continues.
There’s definitely some intent to the comedy though, as evidenced by the topical references sprinkled throughout the series. “We had an Indian Nuclear Strike around the same time that it was in the news that India was becoming a nuclear power, we had Flaming French Sheep Strike at the time when the French were burning our sheep, and stuff like that,” remembers Colin. “There’s a lot of puns, and a lot of stuff we did that we probably couldn’t do today.” Often though, it’s simple silliness that goes a long way. “I don’t know where it came from, I don’t even know what the joke is, but the Inflatable Scouser from the 3D games,” says Kevin. “Like, why? Why did we do that?” We may never know, but it’s right at home in the Worms universe.
» [PC] Who needs live ammunition when you can fire hamsters at your enemy’s face?
» [PC] Ah yes, the fruit machine jackpot is a bunch of dynamite that’s about to explode. How very 2020.
» [PSP] Much of Worms’ humour is derived from moments that make people ask, ‘Was that what you meant to do?’