Neon Snake

What is Neon Snake?

Neon Snake is the classic snake game with one big difference: there are no walls. Steer off the right edge and you come straight back in on the left; dive off the bottom and you reappear at the top. Eat fruit to grow longer, and the only thing that can end your run is your own tail.

It is free, starts in a second and plays the same on a phone, a tablet or a computer: swipe anywhere on the board, or use the arrow keys or WASD. Pick Classic, Chill or Turbo, chain quick bites for a score multiplier of up to eight times, and grab the golden fruit before it fades. Your best score for each mode is saved in your browser.

How to play Neon Snake

1. Choose a mode (Classic, Chill or Turbo) and press Play, then swipe or press an arrow key to set off. On a computer you can also press an arrow key straight from the menu to start moving at once.
2. Steer with the arrow keys or W, A, S and D, or swipe in any direction on a phone. The snake keeps moving forward; you only choose when to turn.
3. Eat the glowing pink fruit to grow one segment longer and score 10 points, multiplied by your combo.
4. Every edge wraps around: leave the board on one side and you come back in on the opposite side, in the same row or column.
5. The game ends when the snake's head runs into its own body. You can't turn straight back on yourself, so a single key press can never cause a crash.
6. Pause with Space, P, Escape or the pause button. When you resume, a 3-2-1 countdown gives you time to get ready.

Neon Snake tips and strategy

• Use the wrap. The quickest way to fruit on the far side of the board is often off the nearest edge, and the edges are also the easiest way out of a tight spot.
• Keep the combo going: eat each fruit within roughly the time a direct route takes, plus a few steps of slack. The bar under the multiplier shows how long you have left.
• Golden fruit is worth 50 points times your combo and makes you three segments longer, but it fades after a few seconds. The ring around it shows the time left.
• As the snake gets long, sweep the board in long straight lines and tidy loops instead of cutting across it, so your tail always leaves you a way out.
• You can press two turns in quick succession, for example up then left for a tight U-turn: both are remembered and carried out in order.
• On a phone, short flicks are enough. A turn registers as soon as your finger moves about a fingertip's width, and one continuous zig-zag stroke can make several turns.

Snake game rules and scoring

The snake moves one square at a time in a straight line, and each fruit you eat makes it one segment longer. It can pass through every edge of the board, so the board has no walls; the only way to lose is to steer the head into your own body. Moving into the square your tail is just leaving is safe, because the tail moves out of the way on the same step. If you ever fill the entire board, you win.

Fruit is worth 10 points. Eating fruit quickly builds a combo: each fruit eaten within its time window raises the multiplier by one, up to times eight, and missing the window drops it back to times one. After your fourth fruit, a golden fruit sometimes appears for a few seconds; it is worth 50 points times your current combo and adds three segments.

Three modes: Classic, Chill and Turbo

Classic starts at a comfortable pace and speeds up a little with every fruit you eat, so a long run gets steadily more intense. Chill keeps the same relaxed speed for the whole game, which is ideal for learning the wrap or simply unwinding. Turbo starts fast and gets faster still, for players who have mastered the other two.

Each mode keeps its own best score and number of games played, so a Chill record never hides a Turbo one. The board size is chosen to fit your screen when each game starts and stays the same until that game ends, so turning your phone or entering full screen never reshuffles a game in progress.

A short history of snake

Snake grew out of the 1976 arcade game Blockade, in which two players steered growing lines around the screen and tried to make the other crash. Home computer versions in the late 1970s and 1980s turned it into a single-player game about eating and growing, and in the late 1990s it became one of the best-known games in the world when it came preinstalled on millions of mobile phones.

Many versions over the years let the snake pass through the edges of the screen instead of dying at the walls. Neon Snake is built around that idea, with smooth movement, bright neon colours on a dark board, combos and golden fruit.

Neon Snake FAQ