Snake Rewind Review: A walk down memory lane but it has drawbacks

Does the new Snake surpass the vintage one in terms of excitement and sheer fun? I tried it out and the results were not what I expected. Let us take a look at what worked and what did not.

What’s good 

The groovy, arcade machine-soundtrack hooked me instantly. When I started the game, I was welcomed by a familiar screen, or rather, a familiar box, with a small snake inching towards the fruits – just like the original Snake started.

I know, in this world of story-driven games, you cannot expect a game that catapults the gamers straight into the game to do well. But, that’s the charm of vintage games. You never asked why Mario had to save the princess, you just jump-smashed the little turtles out of your way to the castle.

Snake Rewind is a walk down memory lane. (Source: Screenshot)

The upgraded graphics of Snake Rewind looks great. The snake is not overtly designed – it is designed as the same long strip of coloured blocks. The fruits are also kept pixelated and so are the power-ups. It is this vintage design that keeps the retro feel of Snake alive. Added to this are cool background effects. For instance, the snake’s head glows in the dark like a railway coach; the background boxes can be changed later to different templates. I must admit, the new Snake looks much better than most 8-bit inspired games out in the market right now.

However, these are about all the positive points I could come up with for Snake Rewind. The music, the graphics wore out soon and slowly I started to see why Snake Rewind is nowhere close to the vintage Snake.

What’s bad

Users played the original Snake with the Nokia keypads. The 2-4-6-8 or, later, the d-pad gave us amazing precision, which made twisting and turning the snake much smoother and tighter. In Snake Rewind, though, you control the snake’s movement by tapping on the screen. Sure, it sounds simple, but is actually a lot more complex.

First, the snake does not respond well to your command. It will not turn the instant you tap. So, when the snake gets longer, you lose the pin-point precision you need to survive. Second, once the snake gets longer, you tend to get confused, as you cannot figure out where to tap and before you know it, your snake bites itself. Game Over!

I could not understand why the developers restricted the gaming area to a small box. Why not use the entire screen as the playground? It is after all the age of big screen smartphones. Just imagine the excitement of seeing the snake go all over a six-inch screen, go out one end and come in the other! This was definitely a wasted opportunity.

Also, as the name suggests, your snake has the power to rewind a little once it meets with an accident. Even though it sounds great, an orthodox gamer like me cannot make peace with this idea. I think it just reduces the tension of one-hit-death which made the original Snake so much popular. That’s just a personal opinion though.

Verdict:

Snake Rewind gives you a chance to take a trip down memory lane and engage in the simple game that once kept you up for hours at night. Even though there are a few technical drawbacks, Snake Rewind, overall is an beautifully designed game. So go ahead, download the app on your phone right away.