Slither: the growing snake in Games by Zaweba
Slither in Games by Zaweba is the classic growing snake: eat apples to get longer and faster, grab the flashing bonus and never bite your own tail.
Steering a snake that grows with every apple is the classic idea behind Slither, and it's every bit as compelling as it ever was. Eat the apples, chase the flashing bonus, and don't bite your own tail. It's an 8-bit game in the style of a 48K home computer, on the Retro arcade shelf of Games by Zaweba, and it's one of the easiest games in the app to pick up and one of the hardest to put down.
Steering the snake
Arrow keys or WASD steer. With the mouse, click beside the head to turn that way. The snake keeps moving forward on its own, so you're always steering rather than walking, and every press is a turn.
Apples, length and speed
Steer the snake to the apples. Each one makes it longer and faster. That's the whole challenge: the more you eat, the more snake there is to keep out of your own way, and the less time you have to think about it.
The flashing bonus
A flashing bonus appears now and then. Grab it before it vanishes. It's worth going for when you can reach it safely, but it isn't worth a risky turn into a tight space, especially when the snake is long.
Walls and your own body
Hit a wall or your own body and you lose a life. Early on, with a short snake, walls are the main danger. Later, your body becomes the problem, filling more and more of the screen. A long snake can easily trap itself with one careless turn.
The usual way to manage a long snake is to keep it tidy. Moving in neat sweeps, with your body laid in orderly lines rather than loops and tangles, keeps open space available for your head. Turning back on yourself in a tight spiral is the classic way to get caught.
The Mazes mode
Slither has a Mazes mode, where the walls inside the play area make a maze to steer around. In Mazes, eat ten apples to reach the next maze. That gives each maze a clear target, and each new layout brings a fresh set of walls to learn.
Like other games in the app, Slither lets you choose its mode on the title card before you start, and Games by Zaweba keeps your best score for each game and mode separately, so a good run in Mazes doesn't get mixed up with your scores in the open game.
Tips for a long game
Plan a few moves ahead, not just one. Before you turn towards an apple, think about where your head will be afterwards and whether there's room to get out again. Leave yourself an escape route. And remember that the snake speeds up as it grows, so turns that were easy at the start need earlier presses later.
Esc pauses, F11 gives you the whole screen, and F1 explains the game at any time. Games by Zaweba records your plays and best scores on your PC and shows your best next to your score when the game ends. It runs offline, with no adverts and no account.
Keep the body tidy, leave room for your head, and only chase the bonus when it's safe.
