Wriggler is one of the few games to set the player as a maggot. The objective is to negotiate the four stages of the Maggot Marathon. This involves trekking through a garden, a shrubbery, an underground lair, and finally a mansion. Viewed form above, the game is maze-based, with many Atic Atac-style sections where the player can see other parts of the level on the same screen, but can't access them because the design of the maze puts something in the way. Graphics are quite large and chunky, reminiscent of Rapscallion's unusual visual design. The maggot protagonist has an energy bar which decreases constantly, and contact with the ants, spiders and the rest of the sickly creatures reduces this further. Fortunately the "hero" can obtain apples, cherries, cups of tea, and other foodstuffs to recharge this. These can be eaten immediately or stored for later use; however, it is only possible to hold one object at a time. Many other items are needed to get past situations during the game, requiring the player to think ahead what to keep, to avoid too much backtracking through the 256 screens.