Worms Rumble Announcement Trailer Reveals Very Different Game

Team 17, the developer team most famous for the Worms franchise, have revealed a new game, called Worms Rumble. As you can see in the announcement trailer, it strays significantly from the tried and true Worms formula. For example, it will feature real-time combat and a Battle Royale. And very limited destructibility of terrain. I don’t know why, either.

For our younger readers that might not have as many fond memories of the Worms franchise, allow me to break it down real quick. It has always been a more slow-paced 2D turn-based strategy kind of thing. You had teams of worms that duke it out with wacky weapons; last team standing wins. Pretty simple and to-the-point. Plus, all the terrain was destructible, and that played a very important part in how you’d plan out your way to victory. Unless somebody got and threw the Holy Hand Grenade, murdering half the screen.

With all that said, the trailer for Worms Rumble, which you can check out below, has me scratching my head. As you can see, it’s a real-time 2.5D shooter now, with both Team Deathmatch and Battle Royale modes for up to 32 players. The terrain is only partially destructible, and varies from map to map. There’s dances, emotes, and cosmetic items that you unlock via in-game currency. Then, to top it all off, the trailer includes several Fortnite references, such as Worm Burger. At least it features the classic weapons. Oh, and wall jumping. Lots and lots of wall jumping.

So, I find myself asking questions like “Why?” and “Who asked for this?” Who is this game for? Not old fans, certainly, but I’m not sure that paying lip service to titans like Fortnite will be enough to rally young people to the Worms banner. They can just play Fortnite. I guess we’ll have to wait and see what happens when Worms Rumble launches some time this year.