Worm Food is people. That is to say, what you do in the game is eat people. You yourself are a tunelling worm-like entity with massive mandibles, and your job is to 'clear' each level, by eating all the people in it. It's 2D, but a side view, not overhead; after all, you can tunnel, quite rapidly, through the earth.
Despite apparent simplicity, the controls take a bit of practice to get used to. Left and right arrows turn your worm, but rapidly, so you mostly want to tap rather than hold them. Up is not "forward" but "accelerate" -- and at least when you are in solid earth, you can build up quite a head of steam, leaping from the ground with a roar to wreak havoc on the defenseless if tiny and pixellated human meat. You accelerate only in earth or water, however, and in the air are subject to gravity, which ultimately brings you back to plunge back into the comforting underworld.
Despite the game's relatively small window, there is at times a somewhat Sonic-like sense of speed. Levels are timed, and while the minimap shows where the meat is, you have to eat it all in the time alotted. Destroying buildings and such earns bonus points, but is not strictly required.
A few additional elements are added over time -- among other things, the meat learns how to plant mines, which you must avoid -- and Nitrome has made an effort to vary levels by design. There's not a lot to the game, ultimately, but it has a nice macabre sensibility and an interesting control scheme. When your worm goes "raaaaauuughgh," you sympathize.
(Via Gamin.ru.)
Hey, this was awesome back
Hey, this was awesome back when it was called Death Worm.
I must be getting old
It's either that, or "casual" games have become way more hardcore in the last two years. I play ca. ten Flash games a week, and I don't quite remember when was the last time one of those seemed more enjoyable than frustrating.
Nitrome games have been particularly annoying. They have neat ideas and the execution is good, but I always give up around level five, because they make me feel like I'm fighting controls rather than whatever is the challenge of the day.
(Death Worm was indeed awesome)
I know what you mean about
I know what you mean about Nitrome. I have played and not finished so many of their games because they are pretty, have clever design, and often have great ideas but then are let down by slightly-off controls or stuff that's just impossible.
Their viking themed physics puzzle game seemed like it should have been the best game ever, but quickly on there were puzzles that required exact and perfectly timed solutions that I was simply unable to do.
EDIT: Greg, you really should look up Death Worm, which this game is pretty clearly cloned from. I think Death Worm even has an officially endorsed clone on Newgrounds.