Snake Classic

Snake, the way you remember it - but it finally moves the way it should.

Most snake games hop from square to square. This one glides. The snake is drawn between grid cells, so every turn is fluid instead of jerky, and it stays readable even at top speed.

SMART CONTROLS

Swipe anywhere to steer, and keep swiping - every flick registers, even when two turns land in the same instant. Prefer one hand? Tap the left half of the board to turn anticlockwise, the right half to turn clockwise. Arrow keys and the D-pad work too, so it plays fine on a Chromebook or with a controller.

PICK YOUR PACE

Chill, Classic or Fast. Each keeps its own record, because a score only means something against the speed you earned it at.

TWO WAYS TO PLAY

WALLS ON is the classic rule: clip the edge and the run is over.

WALLS OFF lets you tunnel straight through and reappear on the far side.

CHASE THE GOLD

Every fifth apple summons a golden star. It is worth 70 the instant it lands and decays to 20 as its ring runs down, so the only question is how much of a detour you are willing to risk.

THREE WAYS OUT OF TROUBLE

Every seventh apple drops a power-up, and it rots if you leave it. SLOW stretches the clock. SHIELD rides on the snake's head and cancels one fatal move, then holds you still just long enough to steer out of it. MAGNET drags the apple to you - though never the last step of the way. None of them is worth a single point, so taking one is always a decision. Turn them off for a classic run.

IT GETS TIGHTER

The snake speeds up as it grows. From level four the board starts growing blocks as well - never in your path, never sealing off a corner, but the room you have to think in keeps shrinking.

A NEW BOARD EVERY DAY

The daily challenge takes its seed, its pace and its wall rule from the date, so everyone plays the same board - the same size, on every phone - and tomorrow is a different one. Today's best is kept until the day rolls over, and SHARE passes the date, the score and the streak to anyone who fancies beating it.

COME BACK TOMORROW

Finish the daily and a streak starts: days in a row, with the last seven drawn as dots under the button. It counts turning up rather than scoring, so a run that ended on nothing still played today - the only way to lose a streak is to miss a day.

KEEP SCORE

Your top five runs at each pace, and the tallies that outlast them: games played, apples eaten, longest snake, deepest level, longest streak. Behind them are twelve achievements, made only of numbers the game already kept - so the runs behind you count towards them, you just have to finish one more. A locked one says what it wants. And a run that finishes just short of your record tells you how short.

MAKE IT YOURS

Two more looks - a calculator LCD and a neon arcade cabinet - unlock as your best score climbs. There is a quiet music loop too, off until you ask for it.

PLAYS FOR EVERYONE

Every button is reachable with TalkBack, and so is the score as you play. Reduced motion drops the shake and the particles, and switches itself on if your device has animations turned off. A colour-blind palette repaints the board so the snake, the apple and the bonus never collapse into one hue. Portrait or landscape, phone or tablet - the board fits what it is given.

Just one more go.