Snake Royale is a free Snake game you can play online in your browser, inspired by the classic Nokia Snake that so many of us played on our first phones. Steer the snake, eat the glowing orbs, and grow longer without hitting a wall or your own tail. It starts slow and calm, then gets quicker with every bite.
You start in the middle of a square 22 by 22 board with a short snake, four segments long, already moving to the right. A red orb appears somewhere on the board. Steer into it and your snake eats it, grows by one segment and scores 10 points. A new orb then appears in a random free spot.
The snake never stops moving, so your only job is choosing when to turn. You cannot reverse straight back into yourself: if you are heading right, pressing left does nothing. Turn up or down first, then left.
The run ends the moment your head moves into one of the four walls or into any part of your own body. There is no wrap around in Snake Royale. The edges are solid, just like the walled mode many people remember from Nokia phones.
On a computer, use the arrow keys or W, A, S and D to turn. Press Space or Enter, or any arrow key, to start a game from the start screen. Press P or Escape to pause and again to carry on. The game also pauses by itself if you switch to another tab.
On a phone or tablet, tap the board to start and swipe in the direction you want to go. A short, firm swipe works best. Very small finger movements are ignored, so a nervous twitch will not send you into a wall.
The game remembers up to two turns in a row. If you quickly press up and then left, the snake will make both turns on the next two moves. This makes tight U-turns along a wall much easier than in old phone versions.
Every normal orb is worth 10 points. Every fifth orb that appears is a larger gold bonus orb that pulses faster, and it is worth 50 points. The gold orb does not wait for you, though. If you do not reach it within about 44 moves, it turns back into a normal red orb in a new spot.
Speed is tied to your length. At the start the snake moves roughly seven squares a second. Each orb you eat makes it a little quicker, until it reaches its top speed of about thirteen squares a second once you have eaten 30 orbs. After that the pace stays the same, so the real challenge becomes the length of your own tail.
- Normal orb: 10 points and one extra segment
- Gold bonus orb (every fifth orb): 50 points and one extra segment
- Top speed is reached after 30 orbs
- Your score and length are shown at the top of the screen
Most runs do not end on a hard turn. They end when a long snake traps itself in a pocket with no way out. These habits help you avoid that.
- Decide early if a gold orb is worth it. Count the squares. If it is across the board and your tail is long, a safe 10 points can beat a risky 50.
- Leave yourself an exit. Before you dive into a corner for an orb, check that your body is not sealing off the way back.
- Once you pass about 30 orbs, try a lawnmower pattern: sweep the board in long back and forth rows. It is slower but very hard to trap yourself.
- Follow your own tail. The square your tail is leaving is always safe to move into on that same move, so trailing close behind it keeps space open.
- Use the two turn buffer for U-turns. Press both turns quickly instead of waiting for the snake to arrive.
- Pause with P or Escape when you need a breather. The snake waits for you, and the speed does not change.
Snake Royale saves your best score in your browser on this device. It shows on the start screen and at the end of every run, and you get a New best stamp when you beat it. If you clear your browser data or switch to another phone or browser, the best score starts again from zero.
The idea of a line that grows as it moves goes back to arcade games of the 1970s, such as Blockade. Snake became famous worldwide in 1997, when Nokia put a version on the Nokia 6110. Later phones like the 3310 carried Snake II, and newer Nokia handsets had colourful versions such as Snake Xenzia.
For a whole generation in Pakistan, India and around the world, Snake was the first mobile game they ever played. Snake Royale is our own original take on that idea. It is not made by or linked with Nokia, but it keeps the same simple rules: eat, grow and do not bite yourself.