Snake

Snake is one of the oldest ideas in video games and still one of the best: a hungry snake, a field of apples, and a body that keeps getting in the way. Every apple makes you one segment longer and a little faster, so a calm stroll across the board slowly turns into a tight, twisting puzzle you are solving at speed. This version glides smoothly from square to square, looks where the food is, and celebrates every bite.

How to play

• Swipe anywhere on the screen to turn. You can draw an L-shape with one finger to make two turns in a row.
• On a computer, use the arrow keys or W, A, S and D. Space or P pauses.
• Prefer buttons? Switch on the D-pad from the menu or the pause screen.
• Eat the red apples to grow. Crash into a wall or your own body and the run is over.
• Once per run you can continue: the snake survives with four fifths of its tail, keeps its score, and is safe for a moment.

Modes

Classic is the original: the edges of the board are walls. Wrap removes the edges, so leaving one side brings you back on the other. Maze adds hand-built walls with doorways in the border, and moves on to a new layout each time you play. Daily is the same run for everyone that day, with the same board and the same apples in the same order, so you can compare scores with friends and keep a streak going. Your first Daily run of the day is the one that counts; play it again as often as you like for practice.

Food and power-ups

Golden apples are worth five times as much but vanish when their ring runs out. Now and then a bubble appears: the blue clock slows time for a few seconds, and the purple ghost lets you slip through your own body once. Eat quickly to build a combo of up to five times the points. The bar above the board shows how long you have for the next bite.

Tips

• Hug the walls in Classic and leave the middle open. Space is your most valuable resource.
• When the snake gets long, sweep the board in long back-and-forth lines instead of chasing every apple directly.
• Plan your way out before you go in: a pocket with only one opening is a trap.
• Save the ghost for an emergency. It waits a while before it fades.
• Scoring well in any mode unlocks new skins for the snake and the board, and a few skins are earned by eating apples over all your games. There are eight to collect, the last at 20,000 points.