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Worms. Not exactly the usual stars of a board game night, right? But in Crazy Worms, they take centre stage in a tile-laying game that quickly turns your table into a tangled mess of colourful, squirming segments.
At its core, this is a game about placing tiles to build long, colourful worms, and trying to make sure your colour shows up where it matters. It starts off light and silly, but before long you’ll find yourself staring suspiciously at other players’ worms and planning your next move like a cartoon villain with a mild worm obsession.
👥 2-4 players, ages 7+
⌛ Playing time: 20 minutes
📝 Designer: Fabrizio Tronchin & Ghigo Maurizio Buso
🎨 Artwork: Olivier Fagnère
🏢 Publisher: Piatnik (review copy provided)
Gameplay Overview
Each player chooses a colour and gets an overview tile. This shows how scoring works and which colour mirrors yours on the reverse side of each tile. That comes in handy when you’re trying to guess what’s on the flip side or plan your next move.
Place the grassy starting tile in the middle of the table. Then split the 36 double-sided worm tiles into three face-down draw piles.
On your turn, draw the top tile from any pile, choose which side to use, and place it next to an existing tile. Tiles must be placed orthogonally, and connecting worm parts must match in colour. As you might expect, each worm is only allowed to have one head and one tail.
Multicolour segments are the wild cards. They can connect to any colour, which gives you flexibility, and they’re especially handy for sneaking into other players’ worms.
The game ends when all tiles have been placed. Worms are scored based on their size and which colour dominates each one. A complete worm, meaning it has a head, a tail, and at least one body segment, scores 2 points per segment for the colour that appears most in that worm. Incomplete worms score 1 point per segment, but only if they include at least one head or tail. Worms made of only body parts, or just a head or tail alone, don’t score anything. Multicolour tiles count towards the length of the worm but not towards dominance. If two colours are tied, both players score full points.
There’s also a team mode for four players, where blue and yellow face off against red and green. This cooperative twist leads to some fun moments of quiet plotting between teammates.
Components and Artwork
The game comes in a compact box, but it’s got everything you need to cover the table in colourful worms in no time: worm tiles, the starting tile, overview tiles, and a small rulebook.
The tiles are made of thick cardboard and feel solid. As you lay them out, they form an ever-growing mosaic of worm chaos. Each tile shows worm parts, like heads, bodies or tails, in bright, bold colours. Some have stripes, others have spots or stars. It keeps things fun to look at, without making your eyes work harder than your brain.
What really gives the game its personality are the faces. Each worm head has its own cartoon expression. There’s a smug red worm, a stern yellow one with a moustache, a green worm that looks a bit too cheerful, and a blue one flashing a massive grin while wearing earrings. It’s silly, yes, but that’s the charm. You can’t help but root for your own worms, even if they’ve got a slightly ridiculous face.
The illustrator, Olivier Fagnère, has leaned into the lighthearted side of things. It’s all very cartoonish and colourful, and it really works for the style of the game. Once the worms start to sprawl across the table, it creates a visual mess that makes people stop and ask, “Wait, what are you playing?”
Our Experience
When we first laid out the tiles, the game looked charming enough. But once we started playing, it didn’t take long before we were fully into it. We were squinting at tile connections, groaning when someone blocked us, and laughing at the ridiculous worm faces.
The game plays fast. Most turns are quick decisions, although now and then you’ll pause to calculate whether it’s better to grow a worm or cut one off before someone else claims it. The way the tiles are designed, together with the multicolour segments, gives you a few interesting decisions that feel meaningful but are still quick to make.
It’s also more interactive than it first appears. At three or four players, you start seeing more blocking moves, accidental alliances, and moments of surprise when someone places a tile that flips the scoring balance completely. The 2 vs 2 mode was a highlight for us. It brought more table talk and a few sneaky moves, but the game still stayed quick and simple.
Despite the simplicity, there’s still a satisfying feeling when you complete a long worm in your colour, especially if it means blocking someone else or stealing control of the worm they thought was theirs.
Our Thoughts
This isn’t a heavy strategy game, and it doesn’t try to be. Crazy Worms is light, colourful and easy to pick up, which is exactly what makes it work well in the right group.
We’d happily recommend it for families, casual gamers or mixed-age groups. It’s also a good one for introducing new players to tile-laying games without overwhelming them.
That said, it’s not a game that will stay in rotation forever for more experienced players. There are only 36 tiles, and once you’ve played a few times, you’ll start to see familiar situations. It doesn’t have the depth or variety of classics like Carcassonne or Kingdomino, so more experienced players may find it runs out of steam after a few sessions.
But if you take it for what it is, a quick and funny filler game, there’s a lot to like. It does its job well. The worms have personality, the game never drags, and there’s always a bit of laughter at the table. It’s also the kind of game you could leave out at a café, a holiday home or on a family bookshelf, and most people would be able to figure it out within five minutes.
Just don’t get too attached to your worms. They might not stay yours for long.
📝 We received a copy of the game from Piatnik for this review.
