REVIEW / Cube Snake (PC)

Anyone who owned a Nokia phone back in the ’90s will remember Snake. This straightforward yet fiendishly addictive game gave us something fun and challenging to do on our phone screens before the term “smartphone,” had probably even been thought up. The premise was simple. All you had to do was move your ever-growing snake through several targets. Each time you collected one your tail grew. The simple aim was to see how far you could go before touching your own tail. As we all know the simplest ideas often spawn the most addictive creations and this was very much the case here. This format has been reused in gaming a few times over the years and every time it is I get a twinge of nostalgia. It’s for this very reason that I’m currently playing Cube Snake, the PC game we’ll be discussing today.

We often ask the question as to what you look for in a title. This is really important in cases such as Cube Snake because it informs what metric you’ll be using when trying to determine how much you’re going to like the game. In this particular case, it’s going to boil very simply down to expectations.

Cube Snake stays true to the form of the original game. Your snake is moving around the floor and two of the walls of a cube, picking up snacks as they appear. The rest of the rules that I mentioned at the start apply and after that, well that’s it. You are scored on the number of snacks you can eat before you lose control and hit your tail. Making matters slightly more complicated is that you’ll slowly build up a fever bar. When you go into fever mode a bunch of targets spawn at the same time and everything moves a lot more quickly for a while before the pace slows again. After that, it’s just a case of seeing how far you can go.

As I also said earlier, the fact that Cube Snake is simple is what makes it charming. This is the sort of game you play for a quick five minutes between doing other things, and it’s perfect for that. The simplicity paired with the fact that games are quick also gives this title that “one more run” feel so this is the sort of thing that could easily get you hooked. It’s ideal for short breaks or will be brilliant for the score junkies among you that just need to do a bit better every time.

I’m aware that we live in a world where there’s always something more, and we’ve come to expect this as gamers. If you’re the kind of person that wants a bunch of levels or loads of unlockable extras you won’t get your kicks with Cube Snake and this is where I think this title is going to lose a few points. Many gamers don’t play for high scores alone, and for the most part, I’m one of them. Now, I’m not saying we need to reinvent the wheel, the mechanics are fine and I don’t think I’d really want to change them. I’d like to see a bit of a story, a few levels to play through, or even some unlockable cosmetics. Having a goal to work towards will make some players want to come back more often than just the prospect of a score hike.

None of this makes Cube Snake a bad game. This is very much a case of it is what it is. Another important point to make is that this title is the whopping sum of £2.49, and the devs have still been kind enough to give us a 10% introductory discount on that. For such a low sum nobody has a right to complain that they aren’t getting value for their money.

All in all, if you want something addictive and simple to eat some of your time Cube Snake is not a bad call. This is a fun, bright, reimagining of a mobile classic with no bugs and easy controls. This is a perfect addition to the library for anyone who likes simple games that can be picked up and played for a few minutes, or quite a lot longer in the case of those of you who will no doubt get hooked. For those of us who remember the original, this is a no-brainer. Great stuff all around.