Snake

About Snake

Snake is one of the oldest video games there is, and still one of the best two-minute breaks. Your snake crawls round a walled garden of 18 by 18 squares, and it never stops. Turn it towards the apple; eat it, and the snake grows one square longer. Touch a wall, or bite your own tail, and the game is over.

Every five apples the snake speeds up and the apples are worth more: ten points at the start, twenty after five apples, and so on. At the same moment a golden egg appears somewhere in the garden for a few seconds, worth fifty if you reach it in time. A long snake leaves less room to turn, so the late game is about planning a path, not just reflexes. The leaderboard is weekly: it resets every Monday at 00:00 UTC.

How to play

1. Press Start. The snake sets off to the right straight away.
2. Turn with the arrow keys or W, A, S and D. On a phone, swipe on the garden or use the arrow pad under it.
3. Eat the red apples to grow and score. The snake cannot reverse into itself; a turn the other way is ignored.
4. Every five apples the snake gets faster and each apple is worth ten more points.
5. Grab the golden egg before it vanishes for 50 points.
6. Hitting a wall or your own body ends the game. Sign in to put your score on the weekly board.

Tips

• Two quick presses make a tight U-turn: the game remembers both, so you can tap up then left between two moves.
• Keep to the edges while the snake is short, and leave the middle open for when it is long.
• Before you take an apple in a corner, check that there is a way out of the corner.
• The egg is worth five early apples, but not a crash — if the path is tight, let it go.
• When the snake is long, follow your own tail: the square it leaves is always free.

Questions players ask