Snake Deluxe is a fresh take on the game many of us first played on a mobile phone – right down to its menus, which look and work like an early-2000s phone screen. It runs in your browser on a computer or a phone, and it is built around one thing: controls that feel exactly right. Quick double turns always register, the snake never reverses into itself by accident, and on a touch screen a swipe reacts the moment your finger moves.
There are six ways to play. Classic 97 recreates the green LCD handheld look, complete with pixel shadows and a slight screen blur, nine speed levels, walls or wrap-around edges and bonus critters that run away after a few seconds. Modern mode glides smoothly across a sunny stone patio, speeds up as you grow and rewards fast eating with a combo multiplier of up to ×8. Power-ups such as slow-motion, ghost, magnet, double score and shrink keep every run different.
Mazes is a campaign of 24 handmade levels with portals, narrow corridors, gates that open and close and walls that sweep across the board. Reach the target length to clear a level, and clear it quickly to earn up to three stars. In Battle you take on one to three computer snakes with their own personalities – a greedy one, a careful one and a hunter that tries to cut you off – on Easy, Normal or Hard. On a desktop, two friends can share one keyboard in 2 Players mode.
The Daily Challenge gives everyone the same board and the same apples each day. You get one life per attempt, and the Copy result button lets you share your best score without spoilers.
How to play: steer with the arrow keys or WASD, or swipe on a touch screen; an on-screen keypad and tap-to-turn controls are available in Settings. Eat apples to grow, and avoid the walls and your own tail. Press P to pause. Your best scores, stars and stats are saved on your device.
More snake games on the site: Classic Snake, Snake Nokia and the big arena of Worms Zone.
