Act: A Snake's Life [by Twilight Games]

Game: A Snake's Life
Release: Feb. 1, 2002
Genre: Action
Developer: Twilight Games
System Requirements: Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP, Pentium 2, 64 MB RAM, 6MB Video card with support for Direct X 3.0, 640x480 High Color mode (65,000+ colors)
Price: US $19.95

A Snake's Life should be a somewhat familiar theme to anyone who has played video games for awhile.  The idea is that your character, as it moves, grows longer and longer.  Running into your own tail will end your life.  In fact, this is the same idea that you find presented in the Disney movie Tron.  Those ultra-cool light cycles were really just playing a dueling type of snake game.

Snake games are one of the oldest and most repeated types of games created.  With that in mind, you might wonder why Twilight would redo a game of this nature.  The answer is that Twilight has set out to bring its same magic and individual touch to Snake Games.

A Snake's life presents you with 100 levels of snake action.  The main concept of the game is of course to eat as many items as you can without running into yourself or into a wall or one of the other many obstacles that will present themselves.  This game is actually broken into two types of play, adventure and arena. The adventure levels are played out in 5 different areas:  Field, Forest, Swamp, Stones and Desert.  Each area is well crafted to make it seem as if you are really in a completely different biotope.  In fact, you even get different snakes as you go along.  So you will be seeing a rattler in the desert, in fact you will be the rattler!

The Adventure mode has many different animals to eat.  You start with simple eggs, that don't move at all, and are then faced with frogs, mice, groundhogs, crocs and those ever pesky fireflies.  Many of the animals have two different states.  For example, with the firefly, it has a glowing and a non-glowing state.  Catching it when it isn't glowing, which is most of the time, will reward you with a 2 second time bonus.  However, if you can catch it when it is glowing, you'll get a 10 second time bonus.  Some of the animals also present a threat.  For example, the Croc is easy to eat if you get it from behind, but if you try to take it out head on, Watch Out!

The Arena game is also an interesting challenge as well.  You choose from one of 3 arenas, one looking somewhat futuristic, one looking rather Roman, and the last looking very much like a soccer field.  After choosing your arena, your chore and pleasure is to see how many fruits you can eat without running into either a wall or yourself.  The game tracks your length, making that your score.  So hence, each fruit you eat, adds one to your length and also one to your score.  The most difficult part of this is that the fruit shows up at random spots all over the screen.  I found myself, as I started doing well, racing around the entire arena, and it got real difficult as my tail began to always be right in front of me.

As you get better at the game, you'll find yourself trying to beat the best records on the high score list.  With three different speed/difficulty levels, A Snake's Life can keep you entertained for some time.  If you have kids, you'll also find them glued to the screen, because let's face it, the snake is cool.

Graphics: 8
I've heard the graphics described as Super Mario Bros. meets a snake game.  I think that is a great description.  The graphics are bright, and extremely well detailed.  It is amazing how much detail was crafted into this 2D game.  The different areas are all very cool, and you'll find yourself playing on just so you can see how the next area looks.  Each of the animals in the game is drawn to look very friendly and it overall looks wonderful.

Sound: 6
The little intro and exit sounds are great, but for the most part, the sound isn't fantastic.  Eating most of the animals sounds something like a squawk.  Not that eating is the most appeasing sound we hear on a daily basis, but the sounds are often somewhat annoying.  However, you can turn off any individual sound in the game that you do not like.  This can be helpful, and I found I did much better with the eating sounds off, though that is likely a better indication of my own personal concentration limitations.

Game Play: 7
Unfortunately the game play in the game is not where I would like it to be.  In order to move the snake, you have to press a direction before the snake gets near the object you are going to hit.  For example, if you are headed for a wall, you will need to press left or right before you get to the wall in order to avoid it.  If you also want to move up, you'll find yourself pressing left and then up before your snake has even had time to move left.  Having to enter in commands beforehand leaves the user feeling that the response is sluggish.  I understand that the game was intentionally created this way, and that it can be overcome as you have more time to play with the controls, however, for me, a game that has good game play is one that you can pick up and play immediately without having to adjust to the game controls.

Options: 9
As is the case with all Twilight Games, you have a plethora of options available to you.  Along with the previously mentioned ability to select any one music and/or sound effect and turn it off individually, you also can choose to play in windowed or full screen mode, you can choose your difficulty, and you have the two types of game.  Being able to switch between adventure and arena allows you to seemingly get two games for the price of one.

Concept: 8
A Snake's Life doesn't really cover any new ground conceptually.  However,  the friendly graphics, and thoughtfulness into the different types of things you can eat are well thought out and fairly original.

Fun: 9
Despite what I feel is a fairly large short-coming in Game Play, this game manages to be very enjoyable.   I found myself playing it over and over again, sometimes cursing at it, but definitely addicted to the game.  A big part of that is the graphics, but beyond that, the challenge of trying to add just one length to your tail is surprisingly fun.

Overall: 8
Anyone who enjoys puzzle games or Snake games should give this one a try.  Due to the adventure mode, this game is really more like an arcade action than anything else I could think of.  A Snake's Life has this uncanny ability in it.  It is very difficult to really see the game negatively.  Though I was frustrated with the play control, I found the game to be very well put together, and a real top notch quality product.Added: March 26th 2003
Reviewer: The Mole
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