Worms: The Board Game is a fast, fun and slightly janky take on the famous video game

I have very fond memories of Worms – especially the 1995 PlayStation One release which captivated me and my friends over many an evening, in particular because one of us suffered for six weeks with a broken leg. No Worms game has ever felt quite the same since, although I fully appreciate that many have been technically better and certainly more well balanced. This nostalgia means that I am always willing to explore a new Worms game, but this one comes with a difference – because over the last three weeks I’ve been playing Worms: The Board Game. 

Worms: The Board Game is exactly what you are probably imagining it is, except perhaps simpler and with more in common with the less popular Worms 3D than I might have expected. Players control up to four worms (each with its own characteristic design) and must use them to defeat other worms in order to cause the end of the game – which is triggered as soon as any player loses their final worm.

Weapons include the famous (or infamous) bazooka, the uzi and a range of more specialised weapons like grenades and air strikes that can be drawn from supply crates. There are also a range of items such as ninja ropes that affect the movement of worms, or place things out on the board (like mines.) During setup, the players will determine a semi-random map layout that uses hexes as spaces (hence the Worms 3D reference) and flips the perspective from the original “side on” view to what is effectively “top down.”

Nonetheless, a lot of what makes Worms gameplay so unique is retained. Worms can “inch” or “jump” to move, with inching being a simple move from one hex to the next and jumping allowing the worm to traverse two hexes, albeit with the risk of being scattered to an adjacent one. A nice feature here is that a worm can move twice in a normal turn before playing a weapon card, but many weapons allow a further “inching” move after being fired… You remember how your mate would use the uzi on you and then try to use the 2-3 second countdown to leap to safety? Yeah, that feature is in Worms: The Board Game and I am here for it.

Now, because Worms: The Board Game takes place on a flat board that builds outwards across hexes, one of the most important features in Worms could have been missed. That feature is the erosion of terrain as it takes damage, but again, Worms: The Board Game has a clever and simple solution. As explosions occur in hexes, crater tokens are added – accrue enough of these and the landmass will slip into the sea (and be replaced by a sea hex.) Can you remember what happens to worms that fall into the sea? Yeah, same thing in Worms: The Board Game. 

Another way that worms can die is if they receive a second damage whilst already having been hurt. A wounded worm is laid on its side to show this, and any worm that takes a second hit whilst down is killed outright. Thankfully, as part of a turn, a wounded worm can be put right back onto its feet – which isn’t something I remember from the video game, but it does keep Worms: The Board Game flowing quickly and cleanly. 

It’s not all rosy, though, and Worms: The Board Game does have a few small problems. For starters, there are a few errors in the rulebook where (for example) the words that describe a sample turn simply don’t match the graphic adjacent to it. Similarly, there are cards (such as the airstrike) that are quite unclear – and again when you check them in the rulebook, the description is quite different and potentially still unclear.

Sadly there are quite a few small issues like this, and whilst they don’t really disrupt the fun too much, Worms: The Board Game is all about fast-paced fun, and so having to stop everyone for a few minutes whilst you search for a clarification that may not exist is simply not fun. Mantic Games have a long experience in miniatures games rather than board games (although they do have some classics like Dungeon Saga in their roster) so I wonder if this is an issue of assuming a certain level of willingness to just “figure it out” among wargamers that doesn’t exist in the board gaming community.

In any case, Worms: The Board Game is a nice package at a pretty reasonable price. You can set up a game in about five minutes and the game scales quite well between two and four players – with the board simply being larger with a higher player count. The worms models are nice and it’s great that scenery components like mines, crates and barrels are also represented by miniatures that all feel evocative of the video game art style.

As video game tie-ins go, Worms: The Board Game does capture the feeling of the original video game, even if it does borrow from some of the less popular entries into the series. For the affordable price point that it occupies, and with a few FAQ’s already released, I can more or less forgive the rules issues and clarifications needed to fully enjoy it. Please be aware of these if you intend to purchase this as a gift though, as it could cause frustration in players who just want to get straight into the action. 

You can buy Worms: The Board Game on Amazon.

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