Just when you thought the N-Gage had breathed its last, Nokia had to go and do something stupid and release a game like Snakes. Thanks, Nokia! No, really, thank you. For once in your addled line-up of mediocre offerings for the once-sidetalkin’ handheld you’ve actually come up something worthwhile. It’s about time my $199 fad gadget impulse purchase actually amounted to something. Snakes for the N-Gage is a three-dimensional remake of the classic time-waster seen on Nokia handsets since the last decade, albeit with several significant updates, like more defined game mechanics, arena variations, and multiplayer via Bluetooth. While the game’s basic premise hasn’t changed much, a slew of improvements like level-based objectives, the addition of power-up items, hexagonal-shaped paths (at the more advanced stages), and the ability to control your snake’s speed have significantly increased the depth of game’s once simple gameplay. Its previous incarnation, which consisted of little more than guiding a little monochromatic snake around a flat arena picking up apple-shaped icons, is now a full color, polygonal world with hills and valleys populated by breakable and unbreakable walls, color-coded floor tiles that boost or slow down your snake, and portals that allow you to traverse through the arena floor. The act of picking up the requisite icons, now colored green, have more use than simply extending your avatar’s tail. It also serves to fill up your life meter, which depletes each time you run into an obstacle in the game world. These icons also serve to chip away at a new Evolver bar, which serves as a sort of goal meter that allows you to advance to the next stage after it is emptied. Other elements include red boost icons, extra life pickups, and a scattering of special items – such as letters that spell out words like N-GAGE or SNAKES – that offer up rewards upon completion. Another gameplay addition are power paths - blue diamonds placed in a row which, when picked up in succession, act as score multipliers and enable you to shrink your Evolver bar even faster. As if the game wasn’t frenetic enough, a timer limits the time you can spend on each level, translating in the instant loss of a life after it counts down. Crossing into your own tail or hitting an obstacle at your lowest health also means an end to your hungry little wireframe reptile. Snakes’s learning curve, while intimidating at first (mostly because timing turns takes some getting used to), ramps up at a reasonable rate. Arenas get progressively more festooned with power-ups, obstacles, and bonus items and do tend to get confusing when you’re trying to negotiate turns while keeping your eyes open for that extra life or missing letter across the room. The game fortunately makes use of special buttons, such as the 2 key, which allows your snake to make sharper turns on hexagonal arenas, a trick which will come in handy at later levels. Memorization also comes into play at the more hectic stages, since discovering the best route through the maze-like arenas will net you the required number of items in the least amount of time. An appealing aspect to the game, which also makes thorough use of the N-Gage’s Bluetooth capability, is the ability to play Snakes against three other N-Gage users in a battle for points. To further encourage this potential, players are given the option to transfer a copy of the game wirelessly to other units…that is, if you know anyone else who owns an N-Gage. Seeing as I have no friends who own N-Gage units living close enough nearby to test out this facet, I’ll leave off giving my impression of it. Steve Palley says it’s fun, so I’ll take his word for it. A good part of the fun in playing a game is that sense of competition, so it’s nice to note that Snakes allows players to upload their high scores to a worldwide leaderboard through N-Gage Arena. You will need to have Internet access activated on your wireless account to do this, the cost of which varies from one provider to the next, so suffice it to say that being able to log on to N-Gage Arena is more of a nice extra than a necessity to enjoy the game. While the gameplay improvements are definitely something to write home about, the one feature that will undoubtedly get the world’s N-Gage owners (at least the ones who haven’t been ridiculed into hiding) to download and play Snakes is that fact that it’s being distributed absolutely for free. It’s as if Nokia wanted to make up for all those times you handed your phone to a friend and they complained, “How the heck am I supposed to use this idiotic thing?” All things considered: the improved gameplay, the relatively smooth graphics, and the budget price of zilch; Snakes is a more than just a winning addition to any N-Gage owner’s library. It’s a necessity.
I downlaoded this from the N-gage website thinking that would be absoult rubbish , But.. i was wrong being very addictive its one of my favorite games on the n-gage to the date. The game is simple but effective . A grea... Read Full Review
Nokia Snakes is hard but fun game. Its a great game to play with your friends. Considering the fact that you can get it free and send it to your friends using bluetooth. If your very skilled you can take on other enemies... Read Full Review
