Google Launches Worm Game on Stadia… 5 Days Before Service Shuts Down

Google plans to pull the plug on its game streaming service, Stadia, on January 18. But even though the end is nigh, the team behind the project has given players one last game to play over the final five days.

Worm Game, an impressive adaptation of Snake, was used internally to test some of Stadia’s features, and it’s now free to play for all Stadia users. The game’s surprise release was accompanied by a short note from the development team:

Play the game that came to Stadia before Stadia came to the world. “Worm Game” is a humble title we used to test many of Stadia’s features, starting well before our 2019 public launch, right through 2022. It won’t win Game of the Year, but the Stadia team spent a LOT of time playing it, and we thought we’d share it with you. Thanks for playing, and for everything.

Worm Game features full controller support, a single-player campaign, leaderboards, online multiplayer, and a level editor. Play it now (before it’s gone forever on the 18th) in your browser at Stadia.Google.com.


UPDATE (1/19/23): Worm Game, and the rest of the Google Stadia service, was taken offline during the early morning hours of January 19. An official gameplay video of the title was never uploaded by Google, but multiple players have uploaded full playthroughs to YouTube (including from Watch the Gameplay and Helix Plays Games).

Good luck to the development team as they move on to new projects.

Finalists for the World Video Game Hall of Fame’s Class of 2020 Have Been Announced

The finalists for the World Video Game Hall of Fame’s Class of 2020 have been announced… and they’re on fire.

This year’s honorees include titles from every era of gaming, though the Star Power of Guitar Hero looms large over the competition. But that’s OK, because there’s a few other firestarters vying for a spot in this year’s class, including Midway’s NBA Jam, Mojang’s Minecraft, and Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros. Melee.

There’s also the groundbreaking GoldenEye 007, the unforgettable Nokia Snake, the edutaining Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?, and the addicting Bejeweled. Rounding out this year’s crop of finalists is Naughty Dog’s Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, and a trio of classics from the early 80s (Centipede, Frogger, and King’s Quest).

This isn’t the first opportunity to join the World Video Game Hall of Fame for some of these games, and fans will have the chance to make their voice heard by submitting a Player’s Choice Ballot. The public can vote once per day now through April 2nd, and the three games that receive the most votes will join the 29 other ballots submitted by members of the Hall of Fame’s International Selection Advisory Committee.

The Strong Museum’s International Center for the History of Electronic Games, the entity that oversees the World Video Game Hall of Fame, will announce the inductees from the Class of 2020 at a date to be determined in a special ceremony. For now, you can learn more about this year’s finalists after the break.

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