Games Like Worms: Artillery and Aim-and-Fire Duels
Updated
Games like Worms are artillery games: you aim a weapon at an opponent across a landscape that explosions can reshape. Worms is a series by Team17 that began in 1995. The games below are original browser games by independent studios, and most of them are duels for two players.
How Worms plays
Worms is a turn-based artillery game in which your team of worms fights teams controlled by the computer or by other people. Each turn you pick one worm and use the available weapons and tools to attack the enemy worms, and each turn is time-limited.
A match can offer more than twenty weapons and tools, and most weapons cause explosions that deform the terrain. A worm dies when its health runs out or when it falls off the map or into water, and the winner is the player who keeps the last surviving worms.
So the asks are to aim and fire at a target, to choose between weapons and to change the ground you fight on. This table shows where the games below ask for the same.
| What you do in Worms | Games that ask the same |
|---|---|
| Aim and fire at an opponent | Arrow of Janissary, Gun of Janissary, Stick Archers Battle |
| Set the angle and the strength of a shot | Mace of Janissary, Catapult Of Janissary, Island Mayhem: Tiki Blast 3D |
| Allow for the wind and the ground | Arrow of Janissary, Mace of Janissary, Gun of Janissary |
| Choose between weapons | Janissary Tower, Crown Cannon, Island Mayhem: Tiki Blast 3D |
| Blow holes in the ground | Crown Cannon, Unicycle Mayhem, TonkWars.io |
| Play against a friend | Janissary Battles, Janissary Tower, Unicycle Mayhem |
Duels where you set the shot
These are the closest to the core of Worms: one shot at a time, one opponent, and a score that usually stops at five.
- Arrow of Janissary has two players fight with arrow shots that are affected by wind, angle and bonuses. The first to 5 points wins. Touch controls work, or W and the up arrow on a keyboard.
- Mace of Janissary has you hit your friend by setting the angle and speed of the mace according to the terrain and the wind. A single-player mode lets you train and chase high scores. Controls are touch, or W and the up arrow.
- Gun of Janissary fires bullets that trees and winds can carry off course, so you work out where a shot will go. Collect the bonuses in the game to get an edge over your friend. Controls are touch, or W and the up arrow.
- Catapult Of Janissary asks you to hit your opponent by adjusting the angle and speed of a catapult. Bonuses named Smart, Ghost, Big and Bomb can help, a hit on your first try or with the powershot scores two points, and the first to 5 wins. It uses the mouse and left click, or touch.
- Stick Archers Battle is a bow game for one or two players. Before you release the arrow you guess the right angle and distance, and the environment and physics change as you play. It has 1 Player, 2 Player and Death-match modes, and the first to 5 wins.
- Janissary Battles packs 8 retro-pixel games into one for two players: the Arrow, Axe, Sword, Mace, Arena, Spear, Catapult and Gun levels, each played to 5 points, with a scoreboard that keeps your win count.
Weapons and ground you can break
Worms lets you choose weapons and blow up the landscape. These games offer one or both.
- Janissary Tower lets each player try to win from their own tower with 3 different cannons, and each cannon has unique features. You can build bricks to reach spots on the map and strengthen your defenses, and flying smart balloons and bonuses give an edge. The red player uses WASD and the blue player the arrow keys.
- Crown Cannon is a 2D strategy game in which you expand territory, deploy various weapons and battle an AI on destructible terrain, with upgradeable units. Arrow keys and Space play it on a computer, and it lists touch controls for a phone.
- Unicycle Mayhem puts ragdoll puppets on one-wheel bikes. The ground is made of breakable pieces, and each shot that hits it makes a piece vanish, so you destroy the floor where your opponent stands and drop them. Score five to win. Playing alone, A and D move and Space shoots. With two players, the first uses A, D and G, and the second the arrows and L.
- TonkWars.io is an online tank battle: shoot other tanks, destroy terrain and collect powerups, and customize your tank with flags and hats. The mouse moves the tank and a click shoots.
Blow up towers on your own
- Island Mayhem: Tiki Blast 3D is a 3D cannon game: drag to aim, slide the power bar and fire to knock down tiki towers, wooden forts and stone walls. It has 200 levels across 10 islands, with twists such as ice, wind and low gravity, and 10 special cannonballs.
- Bazooka Boy Adventure has you use the weapons at hand to blow up enemy bases and buildings. The fewer weapons you use, the higher your score, and your bullets are limited. You tap or click.
NEW
More aim-and-fire games, from stickman duels to pirate islands, are in games like Raft Wars.
Habits for artillery duels
- Read the wind before you fire. Arrow of Janissary, Mace of Janissary and Gun of Janissary all mention it, and Island Mayhem adds wind on some islands.
- Change one thing at a time. Island Mayhem separates aim and power: you drag to aim, then slide the power bar.
- Look at the ground. Mace of Janissary asks you to set the angle and speed according to the terrain.
- Take the bonuses. Catapult Of Janissary has four named bonuses, and Gun of Janissary and Janissary Tower hand out bonuses too.
- Break the floor under your opponent. In Unicycle Mayhem that is how you win a round.
- Practice alone first. Mace of Janissary has a single-player mode, and Stick Archers Battle has a 1 Player mode.
Games like Worms FAQ
Are there games like Worms online?
Yes, and they play free in the browser, with no install and no registration. Several are duels for two players, and TonkWars.io is an online multiplayer tank battle. 2 player games has more.
Are there turn-based games like Worms?
Few. None of the games above calls itself turn-based. They are duels decided by points: the first to 5 wins in Arrow of Janissary, Catapult Of Janissary and Stick Archers Battle.
Are there games like Worms for a phone?
Several of them. The Janissary games list touch controls, Stick Archers Battle has tap buttons, and Island Mayhem lists touch controls. The site works in the browser of a phone, a tablet and a computer.
Are there 3D games like Worms?
A few. Island Mayhem: Tiki Blast 3D is a 3D cannon game, and Unicycle Mayhem is tagged 3D. The Janissary games are retro pixel art.
Check the wind, set the shot, and fire once.
