Everything old is new again: The most popular game on the iPhone App Store right now is an MMORPG version of Snake, the first cell phone game that was ever worth playing.
Slither.io puts you, a snake, in a hexagonal wasteland filled with other serpentine monsters who are controlled by other iPhone users around the world. Glowing orbs of various colors serve as valuable means of earning XP, which is used to upgrade your snake’s length and girth stats, making you more fearsome in player-vs-player combat.
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The goal of the game is to eat these orbs and to avoid running into the side of any other snakes, an instantly fatal action in “the hexagon,” where life is fleeting. As you grow in size, you’ll move up a leaderboard of the longest snakes. In an interesting twist on the classic game, your own snake body isn’t fatal—you can run your head over your tail, so long as you don’t crash into any other player while you’re doing so.
Though Slither.io is the only MMORPG I’ve ever played, I must say it’s quite a harrowing and immersive experience. It’s rewarding watching your snake grow from a hatchling to a formidable boa constrictor capable of boxing in some dude waiting for a bus somewhere, presumably. And it’s highly frustrating when some powerup-roided superspeed snake kills you.
Unlike many MMORPGs, Slither.io has a permadeath feature—if you happen to broadside some earthworm (that’s what I call noob snakes), you’ll explode into a million tiny orbs, and the circle of life starts over.
Playtimes range anywhere between a couple seconds and a couple minutes, meaning you can, in theory, join the Slither community without losing your job, your relationship, or your sense of self. In practice, however, it’s addicting as hell to watch your name move up the leaderboard of badass snakes, and you’ll probably find yourself returning to the hexagon dozens of times in a row. Embark on your snake journey at your own risk.
Though the game is currently at the top of the App Store, I would recommend trying out the browser version on a top-of-the-line gaming PC, because even new iPhone 6Ses have trouble rendering the world Steve Howse has created at a fast framerate, which can result in a lot of premature demises for otherwise skilled snakes. Great game. Highly recommended. See you out there in the hexagon.
Waiting for the Bus is a new series about the smartphone games we’re playing while we wait for the bus.
