Snake mobile game has been turned into a strategic board game

Play the classic video game Snake on the tabletop with an upcoming board game adaptation of the original retro title.

Snake: The Board Game looks to transform the video game that was initially released as Blockade in 1976 - before becoming a huge hit on mobile phones as Snake - which has players attempting to navigate an arena as an ever-growing snake who cannot make contact with any obstacles or its own extending body. A video game board game for two to four players, Snake: The Board Game slows down the pacing of the original retro title by having players gradually move their respective snakes around the board without colliding with anything along the way.

Just like in the video game players are still competing to eat apples that appear on the board, with every apple devoured seeing a snake’s body lengthen. Whereas players in the video game have to think and react rapidly to avoid having their fast-moving snake get into any collisions, players in Snake: The Board Game will need to plan ahead to ensure that their snake is able to continue moving, unobstructed, across the board. With other players’ snakes also slithering and growing on the board, players must be careful to take their potential moves into consideration.

Players move their snakes across the board by placing the tail token of their snake at the front and putting all their remaining tokens in front of them in any order they like, as long as all the pieces are adjacent to one another. When a snake eats an apple, they replace that apple with a new snake token before putting a new apple token on the board by rolling a dice to determine its position. However, growing longer isn’t always the best option, especially if it will potentially put a player’s snake in harm’s way. Whichever player’s snake lasts the longest is named the winner of the game.

Snake: The Board Game was created by Maarten Krijgsman, this title being the designer’s tabletop gaming debut, with illustration from Anica Smiljkovic. The board game is set to be self-published, with an online version of Snake: The Board Game currently available to play.

The Kickstarter campaign for Snake: The Board Game is live until November 28th, with a pledge of €33 (£29/$38) getting backers a copy of the core game in May 2022.