Break out your disgusting Taz t-shirt, Outhere Brothers album and LA Lights footwear – the 90s are back, starting with Snake ’97.
The year was 1997. Tony Blair had become Prime Minister of Britain, Katrina & The Waves won the Eurovision, Titanic was on course to make $1.8bn worldwide and the Spice Girls were the biggest group in the world.
As you can tell, things were shit. Thank the tech gods then, for the release of Snake, the first ever mobile phone title to take the world by storm. Forget your Angry Birds, in 1997 all people wanted to play was the simple tale of a snake with an incredible digestive system.
The unnamed snake’s insatiable appetite led him to swallowing circular foodstuffs whole, which were then instantaneously digested and added to the snake’s overall body mass. However, like all snakes, if he managed to touch his touch or any part of his body, he died. That’s what actually happens to them, apparently.
Fourteen years later, amid cocky upstarts such as the recent release Hard Lines, Snake is back, with absolutely no bells or whistles. Snake ’97 is exactly what you remember from the Nokia 3210 days, right down to the pleasingly retro sound effects and original Game Boy-like green hue.
Ah, a much simpler time
As you can see above, the game itself uses the image of a retro Nokia phone as you play, so you actually have to press the ‘2’, ‘4’, ‘6’ and ‘8’ digits on the touch screens to control the four directions your snake can go.
This concept is played out so brilliantly that when I showed a colleague the display, he commented, “Ahh, the 5110”, referring to the absolute brick of a phone that was on my iPhone screen.
However, there are actually five models at your disposal – great news for anyone that owned an 8850, 3310, 8210, while a bulky ‘XL’ model offers horizontal play. The game itself is as infuriatingly addictive as you remember, while the game also offers international high scores, 12 difficulty levels and the Snake Wikipedia entry if you’re feeling bored.
We’re not going to pretend that Snake ’97 is a revolution – that’s what Hard Lines is – but if you’re fond of rose-tinted glasses, you’ll leap at the chance to try out this incredibly frustrating and impossibly addictive title.
Although you can’t put a price on nostalgia, Dutch developer Willem has – 79c on iOS devices. That’s fair enough if you ask us and if you’re looking to delve back into 1990s trends, it’s a darn sight cheaper than picking up an X-Files box set or an unloved Nintendo 64 on eBay.
Snake ’97 is available for download on iOS and Android devices.
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