This game is sort of like a cross between Asteroids and the classic snake game. Only you spin the stuff instead of eating it or shooting it. And sometimes you catch on fire. And… yeah. Anyway.
This game’s title was provided by Jonathan McCoy.
Game 39: Snake Oil,
The game mechanics are really cool here. But I’m not a real fan of the controls. Using the mouse when you’re unable to stop moving doesn’t feel natural, it doesn’t feel like I can command the snake but rather give it vague directions and hope it obeys.
Since as it gets closer to where my mouse is it starts veering off in order to circle my mouse, I feel like I have to keep my mouse 3 steps ahead of it at all times in order to have any sort of precise control. And since moving my mouse out of the game window makes me lose all control, I have to keep the snake in the center of the field.
Of course, I’ve never been a very good mouse-user anyway, so this might just not be the game for me.
Score: 749. I’m sure I could get more if I played a few more times, but oh well.
I agree with Stephen, I didn’t like the controls using the mouse, it felt a little too uncontrollable. It definitely kept it up to the standard of difficulty you regularly achieve though. This is such a creative blend of snakes and, well, whatever else was in there. Great music as always.
Different, but not one of my favorites.
Personal top score 1008.
A tip: The applet will be able to track your cursor outside the frame if you click and drag. It helps a lot, but is unfortunately rather tiring.
I’d really like to see how this game plays on a touchscreen device.
Hey Nathan,
Cool game. I got to 30 and thought it was an accomplishment. Like others, I had trouble wrapping my head around the controls. Sometimes it would go clockwise and other times it would go counter. When I actually spun around enemies, it felt pretty rewarding, but there were several times that it didn’t work out as expected.
Since you guys have such high scores, there probably is a strategy where the controls are consistent. Any advice?
I am impressed that you’ve kept to your original schedule of a new game every Sunday. That’s tough to do after a hiatus.
-John
Well Nathan, with your idea of holding the mouse button down, I now have a score of 2263. When you get really far, the name of the game is “Light on Fire as Fast as You Can.” There gets to be a monstrously huge one in the middle that can’t really be gotten rid of any other way.
1683 is my best. Fun game, I’d definitely put this on the ever-growing list of games you’ve made that are fun enough that I could see them as retail releases one day.