Nokia 3310 Snake II: What Changed and Why Everyone Remembers It

If you were at school around 2000, you remember the sound of it. Not the game. The game was silent. You remember the tiny clicking of rubber keys from the back row, and the teacher's head slowly turning.

That was Snake II on the Nokia 3310, and it may be the most played phone game of its era. Snake II actually first appeared on the Nokia 7110 in 1998, but the 3310 is where most of us met it.

The phone that couldn't be killed

The 3310 came out in 2000. It was rounded and chunky, and it felt like it could survive being thrown down a flight of stairs. Mostly it did. The battery lasted days. You could swap the front cover for a bright colour. And it had Snake II.

What Snake II added

The basic game was the same: eat dots, grow, don't crash. But Snake II brought a few changes that made it feel new:

• Mazes. There were five mazes to pick from. Choose "no maze" and there were no walls at all: go off one edge and you came back on the other side.
• Bonus creatures. After every five dots, a little critter appeared for a short time. The faster you grabbed it, the more points it gave, and it didn't make your snake longer.
• Nine speed levels. Higher levels were faster and paid more per dot.

That bonus creature was the cruellest thing on the phone. It would appear on the far side of the screen just as your snake was getting long. Do you risk it? Of course you risk it. And then you crash into yourself on the way back.

The high-score wars

Snake II scores were passed around like football cards. Someone would claim a crazy number. Someone else would demand to see the phone. There were rumours about secret tricks, and plenty of arguing about whether "no walls" scores should count.

If you want to win that argument today, our Snake high score tips cover the moves that really work.

Playing it today

Our Snake follows the classic monochrome Nokia style: walls that kill, nine speed levels and points equal to your level for every dot. It plays on a phone or a computer.

Want the full family tree? Head to the complete Nokia Snake guide, or read how it all began on the Nokia 6110.