Snake, Video Game Found on Every Flip Phone, Is Now a Board Game

The “classic” video game Snake is getting a board game adaptation. If you owned a non-smart phone or a smart calculator, you probably played Snake, the simplistic pixel game about a snake eating dots and growing in length without trying to touch its own tail. The game originated as the arcade game Blockade way back in 1976, was incorporated into the Tron arcade game, and eventually made its way onto Nokia phones in the late 1990s. While simplistic, the game literally defined an entire genre of copycats and is now available to play as a free time-killer on places like Google and Facebook Messenger. 

Now, Snake is becoming a board game thanks to designer Maarten Krijgsman. Snake – The Board Game is a 2-4 player strategic game in which players control a snake that slowly grows over time. Players maneuver their snake (represented by colored pieces) around the board by placing the “tail” tile to the front of their snake. Players grow their snake by eating apples, and extra complexity is added via obstacles like rocks and wormholes and “infinity fields.” There’s also an one-vs-many mode called “Black Adder” where players try to work together to capture a Black Adder controlled by the other players. Apples are continuously replaced when eaten and are placed at random thanks to two dice to add an element of luck to the game.

In the Kickstarter for Snake – The Board Game, Krijgsman noted that the board game mechanics for the game are new and unique and add some new wrinkles into an old genre of games. For instance, a snake that becomes significantly larger than its opponent is able to “bite” a smaller snake under certain circumstances, which means that players need to keep their snake growing if they don’t want to see it become the prey of their opponent. 

Backers of Snake – The Board Game will receive a physical copy of the game for a $39 pledge. A Deluxe version is also available for a $55 pledge. As of press time, the Kickstarter had more than doubled its $5,200 goal. You can check out the full Kickstarter here.