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Snakes!

Snakes!

Information
Reviewer: James Collins
Developer: iomo
Publisher: Nokia
Reviewed: N-Gage
Genre: Arcade
UK Release: 25th Jan 2005
Article Date: 13th Mar 2005
Difficulty: Easy
Retail Price: FREE
Price Comparison:
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Score Breakdown
Experience:
Game Play:
Graphics:
Sound:


Overall Score: 93%
Discuss this review in the Forums
Pros
  • Free
  • Decent Multiplayer
  • Spreads via Bluetooth
  • Presentation
    Cons
  • Nothing to note
    Screenshots

    5 of 8
    		•

    The news may not have yet reached the stock market yet but Nokia are throwing lots of money at Snakes. With a massive marketing campaign, TV spots and full page adverts Nokia are desperate to give away their free game to all N-Gage owners. However, don’t think of the classic game of snakes included on most Nokia mobile phones, this one has been brought fully up to date. It’s surprisingly addictive as well.

    Gratis games always go down well with people; after all, the best things in life are supposedly free. As long as you own an N-Gage, the free game isn’t far away. Spreading snakes is surprisingly easy with the inbuilt Bluetooth features, it’s a simple job of turning on the N-Gage, running the game, and selecting ‘send to friend’. Of course someone needs to have to have it in the first place; otherwise it’s a simple task of downloading it from the N-Gage site and using Bluetooth to send it to the Ngage. To cut a long story short Nokia want you to have this game, and there is very little reason for an N-Gage owner not to.

    Snakes for the N-Gage expands on the 2D game in every department and really does bring the classic game right up to date. Unlike the original game you can now hit certain walls, but only for so long. Snakes now has the ability to collect shields, hit walls and your shields weaken (and the length of your snake decreases) until you are completely vulnerable. Even though you now have shields, if you hit yourself its still an instant death. As the game progresses (and increases in difficulty) you’ll end up playing on a hexagonal grid which brings even further challenges. Bonuses can also be connected by collecting letters that spell out words such as “NGAGE”. Its one word per level though so it’ll take some serious snake like reactions to collect them all.

    The multiplayer aspect is where Snakes really shines though. How many times have you been desperate to play against a friend only to find out that they still haven’t brought their own version? Yes, like all N-Gage games you can only play against a friend if they own Snakes as well. The beauty here though is that as mentioned, anyone who has Snakes on their N-Gage can simply send the full game to a friend using the Bluetooth functions. Once the game has been spread multiplayer madness can begin, and thankfully Snakes is even better when playing against other people.

    Another place Snakes excels is via the whole presentation. Obviously Nokia wanted this free game to, well not ‘look’ free, and in that department they have succeeded. Developer’s iomo have gone out of their way to make everything feel exceptionally polished. The menu system cannot be faulted and all paths lead to easy to understand options. The 3D background also fits in well as does the theme music, which for an N-Gage is pretty good.

    Addictiveness has been guaranteed with the high score table, easy accessibility to passed missions and the constant knowledge that your friend could be doing even better than you. There are many ways to complete a level and even more ways to score bonus points. Unlike the earlier versions of Snakes the N-Gage version comes with a time limit with more points awarded for a faster completion. High scores of course mean a placement on the high score table and instant fame if you venture onto the N-Gage arena. Either way, this free download has a long shelf life and we certainly can’t see ourselves breaking the habit soon.

    "owning an N-Gage just became cool again.".

    It’s certainly surprising to find out that the best N-Gage game released so far is free, even if Nokia charged for this title it’ll still be a game worth recommending. We can all speculate for days the reasoning behind this free download, but it’ll be time best used for playing this corker of a game. Will there be more free games in the future? That we certainly don’t know just yet, but what we do know is that owning an N-Gage just became cool again.





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