Super Worms is a compact three-dimensional racing game created by Dutch developer Mike Wiering and originally designed for MS-DOS. Distributed as shareware, it features colourful segmented worms competing on small circuits viewed from a behind-the-racer perspective. Despite its title, the game is unrelated to Team17’s Worms series.
It can be played by one person against computer-controlled opponents or by two players simultaneously using a split-screen display.
The main attraction is the Grand Prix mode, in which the player races through groups of circuits and must finish among the leading competitors to continue. Practice and two-player match options are also available. The shareware release contains five tracks, while the registered version expands the selection to twenty. Controls are deliberately simple, with support for both keyboard and joystick, making the game particularly suitable for short local multiplayer sessions.
White balloons placed around the courses contain weapons and other useful items that can be employed against rival racers. When a worm is struck, it loses one of the circular segments forming its body, giving damage an immediately visible effect. The separate Battle mode abandons conventional racing and places two players in an arena where they attempt to eliminate each other with collected weapons. This combination of racing, power-ups and competitive combat adds some variety despite the game’s limited scale.
The influence of Super Mario Kart is unmistakable, from the pseudo-3D presentation and item-based races to the competitive Battle mode. Wiering himself described Super Worms as a very small Mario Kart-style racing game. More generally, Nintendo’s Mario games appear to have strongly influenced his early work: both Mario & Luigi and the later Super Angelo were unofficial imitations of Super Mario Bros. , borrowing its side-scrolling platform gameplay and familiar visual elements. Super Worms applies the same enthusiasm to the kart-racing formula while replacing Nintendo’s characters with an original cast of worms.
Technically, the game is notable for fitting its racing engine, opponents, courses and multiplayer modes into a program of roughly 80 kilobytes. Its graphics and sound are naturally modest, and the racing lacks the variety and refinement of its console inspiration, but the action remains clear and generally easy to understand. The computer-controlled racers provide reasonable opposition, while split-screen play is the game’s strongest feature. Super Worms is ultimately a small and derivative production, yet it is also an inventive example of how an independent DOS developer could reproduce the basic appeal of a major console game with extremely limited resources.
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