How to Play Snake
A complete guide to playing the original 1997 Snake game in your browser. Controls, rules, difficulty modes, and strategies for every skill level.
What is Nokia Snake?
Nokia Snake is a single-player arcade game where you guide a growing snake around a rectangular playing field. The goal is to eat as many food pellets as possible without crashing into the walls or your own tail. Each food pellet adds one point to your score and makes the snake one segment longer. The game ends when the snake collides with any obstacle.
The original was created by Taneli Armanto for the Nokia 6110 in 1997. This version is a pixel-perfect recreation of that game, running directly in your browser.
Starting a game
Press Enter on your keyboard, tap the Start button on the phone frame, or press the center button on the directional pad. The snake begins moving immediately. There is no countdown.
How to control the snake
Desktop (Keyboard)
- Arrow Keys: Up, Down, Left, Right to steer the snake
- WASD: Alternative directional controls (W up, A left, S down, D right)
- Enter: Start a new game
- Space / Escape: Pause and resume
- M: Toggle sound on or off
- F: Toggle expanded view (desktop only, removes the phone frame for a larger playing area)
Mobile (Touch)
- On-Screen D-Pad: Tap the directional buttons below the screen
- Swipe Gestures: Swipe in any direction on the screen to steer the snake
Rules of the game
- 1The snake moves continuously in the current direction. You control only the direction, not the speed.
- 2When the snake reaches a food pellet, it grows by one segment and you earn one point. A new pellet appears at a random location.
- 3The game speed increases at certain score thresholds, making the snake faster as you progress.
- 4The game ends if the snake hits a wall or any part of its own body.
- 5After the game ends, you can enter a nickname (3 to 12 characters) and submit your score to the global leaderboard.
Four difficulty modes
Classic
The authentic Nokia 6110 experience. The snake starts at a comfortable pace and gradually speeds up as your score increases. This is the mode most people remember.
Fast
Double the base speed of Classic. For experienced players who find the original pace too relaxed. The speed still increases with score, reaching challenging levels quickly.
Impossible
Extreme speed from the first move. Every input must be precise. Scoring 50 points on Impossible is genuinely difficult.
Daily Challenge
A unique challenge that resets every 24 hours. All players get the same food placement sequence, so scores reflect pure skill. Uses Classic speed. Daily scores have their own leaderboard, and you can see today's top scores right from the game page. Check the FAQ for more on how the daily seed works.
Strategies for higher scores
If you are just starting out
- Focus on survival first, high scores second. Get comfortable with the controls before playing aggressively.
- Stay near the center when the snake is short. This gives you room to maneuver in every direction.
- Move deliberately. A longer path to food is better than rushing into a corner and trapping yourself.
Once you are comfortable
- Develop a perimeter circuit. Travel along the edges in a consistent loop. This keeps the center open and gives you a safe path when food spawns in awkward spots.
- Use zigzag patterns when the snake gets long. Alternate horizontal passes, one row at a time, to fill the board without creating dead ends.
- Think several moves ahead. Before turning toward food, picture where your tail will be by the time you reach it. Most deaths at high scores come from turning into a tail section that was not there when you started the turn.
- Do not chase food into tight spaces. If food spawns between your body and a wall, keep circling and wait for the gap to open as your tail moves away.