Snake

How to play

Steer the snake around the board to eat the red food dot. Each piece eaten adds a segment to your tail, adds a point to your score, and speeds the game up slightly — every five points bumps the speed level shown above the board. The run ends the moment the snake's head hits a wall or runs into its own body, so as the snake gets longer and faster, leaving yourself room to maneuver gets harder. You can't reverse directly into your own neck — trying to turn 180 degrees is simply ignored, so you always have to steer around rather than backtrack. Press "New game" any time to reset the board and start over from a fresh, short snake.

Frequently asked questions

Is my best score saved?

Yes — your highest score is saved locally in your browser and will still be there the next time you load the page on the same device. It only updates when a run beats your current best, so a short run won't overwrite a longer one. It lives in your browser's local storage rather than on a server, so it won't carry over to a different browser or device, and clearing your browser data resets it.

What are the controls?

Arrow keys or WASD on desktop; swipe in any direction on the board, or tap the on-screen direction pad, on mobile — the pad only shows up on narrower screens since desktop players have a keyboard handy. The snake starts moving as soon as you make your first move, not before, so there's no rush to react until you press a direction.

Where did Snake come from?

The concept dates back to the 1976 arcade game Blockade, which had two players trying to trap each other with a growing trail rather than food to chase. It stayed a fairly niche arcade idea for two decades until it became a global phenomenon after being preloaded on Nokia phones starting in 1998, introducing an entire generation to the genre on a tiny monochrome screen long before smartphones existed.