This article was posted in December 2020 and before the shocking news from Eurogamer please read this as it’s far more important: https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2022-02-10-inside-team17-following-the-worms-nft-firestorm
It has been a week. Looking at the backlog and the drafts still in progress, I happened to see the hashtag #Team17at30 trending. For a blissful moment I was reminded of the many times over the years Team 17 have either produced or published some really great games. Looking over at the shelf where my big box version of Worms United sits next to some PC classics, I decided. What better time to indulge in a little nostalgia? There’s a few new games coming soon that look ace! It’s the perfect time for a reminder of the some of the best things about Team 17 and a little digging into some interesting facts about a company that has been steadily chugging away since 1990. Let’s make a start then!
1 – Worms – We should get the most obvious reason out of the way first. One of the greatest games of all time. In any form you want to play. It’s still worth finding a copy of the original if you can.
2 – The Super Sheep – A mascot in its own right. Since arriving in Worms: The Director’s Cut the Super Sheep has been a Worms staple every since. There’s even a plushie.
3 – Supporting BLM – Not only did they post on the day that they support the movement (their actions with supporting BAME employees backs this up to) Team 17 also committed to donating to Stand Up to Racism every month as well.
4 – Worms 2 – The game I remember more than any other. Bigger and better in every way. Incredibly easy team editing and sound effect customisation that made it stupidly good fun.
5 – Supports Pride – Team 17 doesn’t just change their icon to the Pride colours they successfully raised £1,525 for Mermaids on a Teamster charity stream!
6 – Worms Armageddon – If you preferred your Worms nostalgia on console this was the best of the bunch. Still incredibly great fun on the Dreamcast.
7 – The Holy Hand Grenade – The best Monty Python reference in any video game. The little musical note before it explodes is just the icing on the cake. Insert coin made a fantastic T-shirt for this design.
8 – “You’ll regret that” – I can hear the words in wormish. The phrase also reminds me of the pioneering CGI shorts that the original game was filled with. It was staggering to see back then and are still pretty good even now.
9 – Publishing Beyond Eyes – Despite it’s so-so gameplay the premise and design is incredibly unique. A game about losing your sight and using other senses to see around, it really has an incredible beauty to it.
10 – Lemmings in 2006 – A cracking PSP port of the original. If you’ve never played Lemmings then stop what you’re doing and go do it. Now.
11 – The Escapists – An absolute gem. It was the first PS4 game I have ever played and wanted to write down notes for while playing to tick everything off the trophy list.
12 – Publishing Yooka-Laylee – Love it or hate it, the ports to PS4 / Xbox1 were made possible by them. It was also a good start for the IP as Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair is pretty good!
13 – Publishing Overcooked – What needs to be said about Overcooked that hasn’t already been covered multiple times? It is a huge success and reaffirmed the need for sofa coop gaming.
14 – The banana bomb – Yes it’s another Worms weapon. Yes it’s just a big banana that bounces and then explodes into more bananas that explode. Yes it is worthy of being remembered.
15 – Overcooked 2 – A huge sequel to the fantastic first game with even more stuff for people to scream at and fall out over.
16 – The Escapists 2 – The sequel to an amazing title. It built on everything the first had to offer and more. Jumping from a 8-bit to 16-bit style and stuffing it full of interesting bits and bobs.
17 – Publishing Blasphemous – A stand out 2d platformer with a roguelike feel despite being designed throughout. It has such a distinct style that would have just been buried by any other publisher.
18 – Addiction Pinball – Worms Pinball. No really. Worms Pinball. That’s all you need to know.
19 – Student Placements – Team17 have a great program for hiring student programmers for placements. It’s not easy to get a foot in the door and this gives a much needed year of experience to the CV.
20 – Publishing Automachef – A cracking puzzler which just encourages that ‘I can do better’ feeling. It scratches the programming itch without any coding or compliers and is a lot more fun.
21 – World Rally Fever – It may not seem it now but this was mind blowing back when it originally launched on PC. An alternate to Super Mario Kart to anyone who couldn’t afford a SNES.
22 – Published Mugsters – A really unique indie game and one of the earliest reviews on this site! The review is over here!
23 – The humble Team17 bundle – Back in 2018 the bundle of games successfully raised $261,136.89 for various charities!
24 – Publishing My Time at Portia – Despite a slow pace this was welcome competition to the farming and exploring genre of games. There is a plethora of lets play videos for this title and it’s a welcome break from stress.
25 – The Golden Joysticks Hall of Fame award – This year Team 17 received the Golden Joysticks Hall of Fame award and it was well deserved for 30 years in the industry and 25 years of worms!
26 – Publishing Neon Abyss – What if there was a really cool looking 2D platformer that played like some of the greatest roguelikes but also had guns? Also quirky eggs? You get Neon Abyss.
27 – One of the founders has an MBE – Debbie Bestwick MBE (now owner of Team17) was awarded the MBE in 2016 for services to the industry and given the success of Team17 it’s well deserved.
28 – Publishing Going Under – I’ve made my opinions on Going Under well known but to summarise; It’s an absolute diamond of a game! There’s a review for it over here!
29 – Publishing Way to the Woods (when it launches) – Way to the Woods was that amazing looking Deer adventure that everyone went nuts for an E3 trailer ago. It still looks amazing and we’ll hopefully see it in 2021!
30 – Worms Rumble – The game is currently in its early days but the beta was a blast to play. It’s a cracking 2d action battle royale blast and yes it’s free to play but at the time of writing it seems like one of the good ones.
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ElderlyGoose 
You know, you’ve got me wondering on the quote in number 8. “You’re regret that”. I always thought it was “You’ll regret that” as in “You will regret that” as opposed to “You are regret that”. Is it possible this is different in the queens English?
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Just a typo I missed 🙂 Thanks, it’s now fixed.
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