OS: Android (also available on iOS)
Price: Free (supported by in-app purchases, very limited ads)
The game of Snake is almost as old as the PC itself. Anyone who had to use a graphing calculator in high school should be familiar with Snake. It’s an easy to make game that has been replicated nearly as many times as Tetris. If you hadn’t played it on your calculator in class when you were supposed to be knocking out some algebraic equations, you either didn’t have a graphing calculator or you actually liked math class.
Many a student heard “Hey, get back to work!” while viewing this screen.
So how do you evolve a simple, classic game like Snake? Tetris reinvented itself with countless sequels. Tetris 2, Tetris Blast, Tetrisphere, Tetris Attack, and so on and so forth all brought something new to the Tetris table.
The Tetris table.
So who would jump at the chance to make Snake an everlasting and beloved gaming series? Constantly evolving and changing things up when things were getting stale? Anybody? Seriously, anyone want to take a shot at glory? Well, it seems many were content with leaving Snake in its very basic form. Sure, you may fancy up the graphics a bit, but it is essentially the same game. Like the HD remakes of our favorite Sony games or 3D re-releases of movies we’ve watched countless times, new graphics don’t essentially change the experience. Let’s say you own a house. The paint on the outside of it is royal blue. You decide to change it to sky blue. Yes, you’ve given the house a new coat of paint, but you haven’t changed anything on the inside and you still live in a blue house.
…with a blue little window and a blue Corvette…
So in 2013, NimbleBit takes it upon themselves to do what no-one did for decades: take the game Snake and make something really awesome. How do you do that? NimbleBit says you take a whole Snake, add in a dash of RPG elements, a pinch of delightful retro graphics that everyone loves, melt in some buttery-smooth controls, bake in an iOS or Android dev unit for a while and you get: NIMBLE QUEST!
No actual snakes were harmed in the making of this game… that I know of.
Controls are pretty basic. Swipe your finger in the direction you want your ever-growing team to move. You start off with one hero. As you progress through the game you can unlock additional heroes who will join your team and extend your hero train. The heroes will use their attacks to defeat spiders, skeletons, knights, and more as you move to avoid running into them and collect boost items and gems. If you are defeated, you must start back at the beginning, with one hero, but any heroes you have unlocked are available for you to choose to be the leader. Each hero has a different specialty allowing you to choose a hero to play as to suit your style. Among these are sweeping blade attacks, magic fireballs, bullets, arrows, and more. Assisting you are the many items you can pick up to boost your attack speed, freeze enemies, give you a protective shield, or a magnet to attract gems to you. You may also use NimbleBit’s currency (represented by large gold coins) used across their games to help you.
Frozen enemies and copious amounts of gems. Pictured: Success.
Gems are used to increase the effectiveness or duration of these boosts or they can be used to immediately level up one of your heroes. Each hero has 3 levels, each increasing a certain stat like attack speed or armor. Increasing these levels can be done without the use of gems, but it takes quite a long time, although the amount of gems needed is quite high as well.
Just like when you went to the bar last weekend, you will spend too much money here.
This game is addicting. I haven’t played an Android game this addicting since I discovered… well, anything made by Kairosoft (if you’re familiar with any of their “_____ Story” games, you know what I mean). My only complaint is that on rare occasions your movement swipe will either not register or move you in a direction you didn’t intend to go in. The ads aren’t intrusive at all. Nothing will appear during gameplay or on the menus. The only thing that will pop up is a very rare full screen ad when going back to the character select screen after a death. Even then, it’s only for one of NimbleBit’s other games.
Bottom line: Like classic gameplay with a modern twist all at the low, low price of nothing? Check out Nimble Quest today, you Android or iPhone having gamer! The links below will bring you to the version of your choice!
Also, check me out on Facebook or Twitter! I post more on Twitter, but articles get posted to Facebook… sooo… I don’t know how to end this…
Run away!
