Swarmites

Overview

Swarmites are a species of creature that appear in the Hothead Games title Swarm. The player is tasked with controlling a crowd of swarmites and guiding them to the end of a series of levels filled with deathtraps, enemies, and other dangers that seem to exist for the sole purpose of murdering as many swarmites as possible.  The player can control as many as fifty swarmites at a time, but so long as at least one survives to reach the stage end goal, the player can move on.
 
The player is encouraged to kill their swarmites through the awarding of death medals. These medals are given out based on the number of swarmites that have met their end in a particular manner, such as burning, gassing, and slicing. In a bit of reverse psychology, the game's main menu displays a message instructing the player to not press a particular button on the controller (Y in the XBLA version).  Doing so triggers the sudden demise of the swarmite standing prominently on the menu screen.
 

Characteristics

Swarmites are small, blue creatures that are, in general, a mix of curious and daft.  Comically, if swarmites are left idle for a period of time, they may investigate nearby deathtraps out of curiosity only to end up dead. When swarmites run to pick up items such as explosive tanks, some may end up collecting fellow swarmites by mistake. When the explosives are thrown at a target, those particularly unfortunate creatures will be lobbed into the air as well.