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SNAKE ROY (MGDK)
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Publisher: Timlex.
Developer: Sachen. Released: 1993. Genre: Snake. Posted 6th November 2023. By Tom Clare © 2023 |
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The snake genre’s return to prominence as a pack-in game for Nokia phones remains as baffling a phenomenon today as it was in the late nineties. A no-frills rebirth of a genre that had largely exhausted its possibilities by the close of the 1970s, the concept nevertheless captured the imaginations of a generation of casual gamers. If for whatever reason you found yourself captivated, you’ll likely have lost your mind over Sachen’s effort from 1993. The Mega Duck never failed to deliver as a home to unlikely curios, and Snake Roy marked another pleasant surprise.
King Roy sits astride his throne, safe in the knowledge that he’s the highest-achieving and most influential Roy ever to have walked the Earth. Life has a habit of biting you on the bum when you least expect it, however. His smug reverie is soon interrupted, in extraordinarily leisurely (and indeed, unopposed) fashion by Jada, a witch who boldly announces herself to the King as “a woman who will replace you”. She promptly makes good on this threat, turning him into a snake and seizing the throne. In tenuously connected events, the player must navigate through 35 maze-like levels in serpent form, hoovering up orbs and accumulating enough magical power to eventually confront Roy’s newfound nemesis.
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Keeping Roy out the walls is more difficult than it seems at first: some levels you'll need to plan a route
Developed by Sachen, things were never going to pass without incident, so here’s the first zinger: this is almost certainly the best snake game there had ever been, either at the time or very likely since. If you’ve zipped ahead to have a peek at the score, you may be realising that this is somewhat faint praise. It can only beat what it’s up against, however. A few early computer efforts from the late 1970s, 1982’s Nibbler that combined snake with the mazes of Pac-Man, Naxat Soft’s promising but ultimately unremarkable 1990 versus variant, Serpent, and of course, Nokia’s ultra-basic mobile rebirth four years later. Next to these, Snake Roy is like rocket science.
Not only does the expanding size of the snake body act as a hazard (doubling back on yourself results in death) but there are also cramped, tricky mazes to factor in as colliding with any part of the perimeter results in a life lost. For the first time, the snake genre could claim to provide some legitimate puzzle variants. Collecting orbs dotted about each level results in the opening of an exit door, meaning so long as the player can navigate back to it, the layout can be beaten and progress made. Like the Mega Duck’s excellent Pipe Mania clone Railway, Snake Roy exhibits appreciable design evolution (even if its difficulty is a little up and down) and a good stock of levels.
Not only does the expanding size of the snake body act as a hazard (doubling back on yourself results in death) but there are also cramped, tricky mazes to factor in as colliding with any part of the perimeter results in a life lost. For the first time, the snake genre could claim to provide some legitimate puzzle variants. Collecting orbs dotted about each level results in the opening of an exit door, meaning so long as the player can navigate back to it, the layout can be beaten and progress made. Like the Mega Duck’s excellent Pipe Mania clone Railway, Snake Roy exhibits appreciable design evolution (even if its difficulty is a little up and down) and a good stock of levels.
FOCAL POINT: THE ODD COUPLE
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The intro and ending sequences feature just two characters and amount cumulatively to perhaps two dozen lines of dialogue. But boy, is it something. A battle of wills ensues between King Roy and the witch Jada, and the ensuing dialogue is absolute gold. The backstory was unlikely a priority (or, let’s be honest, even a basic consideration) when Sachen got stuck into creating a snake/maze game, but the bitterness with which the pair joust verbally raises plenty of questions and plenty of laughs. Had Jada a vendetta against the King? Were they lovers in a past life? They treat each other with ruthless contempt and mutual disdain. It leaves the player to ponder whether we’re dealing with a strong hero triumphing in the face of adversity, a tyrannical monarch and an oppressed magician, or a pair who’ve simply gone mad. Of course, none of the above bears any scrutiny. It’s just that, with a lovably rickety translation, their spats are meme-worthy gold.
Sachen employed similar, smart choices to help flesh out the game. There’s a three-letter password system, meaning you won’t have to slog through it all in one session. Whilst layouts seem fairly harmless to begin with, the developer got the most out of the concept, demanding forward-thinking from the player in later levels as you must hunt down orbs in a particular order, to be able to navigate around tight spots. Better still, the small smattering of power-ups act, on occasion, as a specific mechanic that must be exploited for the player to beat a level. As well as the handy but brief invincibility power that forgives contact with walls, there’s one that sees the snake form shrink a couple of lengths. Utilising this at the correct moment is crucial to completing the toughest levels.
It looks very respectable. It’s snake, so there’s little room to show off artistic flair. Surprisingly though, it’s a fair bit more detailed than Game Boy equivalents such as Serpent, and whilst the title screen is a little simpler than the heroics Sachen managed with Railway, its introduction and ending sequences are worthy of mention and surprisingly lavish in their detailing. Even if they come across as unintentionally amusing thanks to a somewhat tortuous English translation, the character sprites are quite nice.
It looks very respectable. It’s snake, so there’s little room to show off artistic flair. Surprisingly though, it’s a fair bit more detailed than Game Boy equivalents such as Serpent, and whilst the title screen is a little simpler than the heroics Sachen managed with Railway, its introduction and ending sequences are worthy of mention and surprisingly lavish in their detailing. Even if they come across as unintentionally amusing thanks to a somewhat tortuous English translation, the character sprites are quite nice.
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Sachen didn’t scrimp on sound either and you could rely on the majority of their Mega Duck output to provide distinct, catchy jingles and solid effects. Snake Roy is no different: whilst there’s nothing to discuss at length, the likeable pause jingle, buoyant call-to-arms blast that precedes each level and a decent showing of cheery, chirpy BGMs all do a decent job.
There are just a few issues around the edges. Of least importance is the wonderfully repellent box art, likely rendering Mega Duck software sales an even tougher ask. The controls are a little bit on the sluggish side. Nothing ruinous, but it does mean that the player has to pre-empt direction changes a little more than would be ideal. It’s a bit of a regret the game doesn’t feature difficulty settings, as these might have offered additional speeds or tighter time limits. That being said, its persistent, moderate challenge is well-judged. There’s no ‘classic’ snake mode, but perhaps Sachen realised that, with slight control issues, this might not have shown the game to the best of its abilities. Some ambitiously busy level layouts border on the excessive, especially when you consider the small screen. Whilst modern emulation softens the blow somewhat, later levels require keen eyesight to stay afloat, with death just one mistake away.
There are just a few issues around the edges. Of least importance is the wonderfully repellent box art, likely rendering Mega Duck software sales an even tougher ask. The controls are a little bit on the sluggish side. Nothing ruinous, but it does mean that the player has to pre-empt direction changes a little more than would be ideal. It’s a bit of a regret the game doesn’t feature difficulty settings, as these might have offered additional speeds or tighter time limits. That being said, its persistent, moderate challenge is well-judged. There’s no ‘classic’ snake mode, but perhaps Sachen realised that, with slight control issues, this might not have shown the game to the best of its abilities. Some ambitiously busy level layouts border on the excessive, especially when you consider the small screen. Whilst modern emulation softens the blow somewhat, later levels require keen eyesight to stay afloat, with death just one mistake away.
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Don't blink: death is often one mistake away
High scores are unlikely to provide a massive motivation for return plays but the 35 levels nevertheless represent sturdy longevity, and they’ll likely take a few sessions to battle through. There is the broader issue of the snake genre offering rather less immersion, complexity or action than competing platformers or puzzle games of the time, and from the outlook of 1993, it was rather old-fashioned. Still, if the snake genre carries with it a glass ceiling of sorts, then credit where it’s due: Snake Roy fought harder to reach it than its safer contemporaries. With all this in mind, it will have to settle for a place amongst the good-not-great of gaming.
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VERDICT
"...if the snake genre carries with it a glass ceiling of sorts, then credit where it’s due: Snake Roy fought harder to reach it than its safer contemporaries. Not for the first time, Sachen have taken a simple concept and built a very sturdy Mega Duck game around it." OVERALL: 6/10 |
OTHER PORTABLE PUZZLERS REVIEWED
Tetris (1989, Game Boy)
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Railway (1993, Mega Duck)
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