Title: Snake Escape
Memory required: 48K/128K
Retail price: Free to download
Language: C z88dk (NIRVANA+ Engine)
Author: Einar Saukas
Graphics: Jarrod Bentley (BiNMaN)
Music: Sergey Kosov (MmcM)
Released: 2016
It’s no secret that the best games are usually the simplest ones and Snake Escape rams this concept home with some top-notch music, graphics and playability.
Written by Spectrum community stalwart Einar Saukas (using his self-developed NIRVANA+ engine) Snake Escape offers 42 screens of increasingly difficult puzzle-platforming with the highly respected MmcM and BiNMaN taking on the Music and Graphics roles respectively.
Based on Flash title LIME RICK, Einar not only ported it to the humble Speccy, he also managed to make it sound, look and play better than the original in every possible way. The rules are straightforward. You control a snake of unlimited length that can be extended vertically for a maximum of 4 squares. The snake cannot re-enter a square that it already occupies and gravity also plays its part. So, moving left or right will extend you downwards if there is nothing to block your path. Each level starts you off as an egg and your goal is to reach the fruit. The early levels ease you into the mechanics, eventually ramping up the difficulty and adding more features along the way. There’s no time limit, so you’re free to take as long as you need to think about your next move. If you get stuck (and you will!) simply hit the fire button to reset the level.
The NIRVANA+ engine really shines in Snake Escape; Einar has managed to really push the limits of the hardware resulting in the kind of colourful graphics never before imagined on the Spectrum. While there are no sound effects, the catchy title and gameplay music (on the 128K version) more than make up for it.
CRITICISM
Despite the outstanding use of graphics there’s no way to save your progress, meaning you must start from scratch every time you load the game. This isn’t too much of a problem with modern solutions such as the DivMMC allowing for save-states or emulators allowing for snapshots but for people playing on the original hardware it could become a burden. A simple option would have been the inclusion of a password entry system that would allow you to start on later levels. An even simpler option would have been a level select screen.
COMMENTS
Control Keys: Q, A, O, P (SPACE resets the level)
Joystick: Kempston, Sinclair, Cursor.
Keyboard Play: Preferred!
Use of colour: Incredible!
Graphics: Amazingly colourful and bold sprites that work on the original hardware.
Sound: Great 128K title and gameplay music. No Sound effects.
General rating: One of the best puzzle games on the Spectrum. Give us a password entry screen, Einar!
Use of computer: 93
Graphics: 95
Playability: 90
Getting started: 95
Addictive qualities: 90
Overall: 93