Snakes in a Game

For some weird and general unknown reason we are compelled to offer our reader(s) a list of games with snakes in them. Some of the games may be good and some of them may be bad (some may not be games!!) but they all got one thing in common – They all have Snakes!!

10 – Sssnake
Atari 2600

It is usually customary to start one of these top-ten countdowns with a good title that everyone knows about but we have chosen to do something different. In fact we have done a complete 180 and stared with one of the worst video games ever made for the Atari 2600 (if not one of the worst games ever) and also a title few people have ever heard of.

Sssnake (pronounced with a hiss we expected) was developed by a company called Data Age and had terrible graphics, terrible controls with the option to let one or two players take control of the game (depending on how annoyed you wanted to get). We all know snakes can do much better than this!

9 – Python
Programming Language

Number nine on our list is Python, a programming language created by Guido van Rossum in 1990. I personally know little to nothing about developing games and would rather spend my free time playing them so I can’t really talk much about his piece of software

I do however know that Python 2.4.3 was released on March 29 this year.

8 – Microsoft Sidewinder
Controller

Microsoft Sidewinder is the name given to a collection developed by Microsoft in the 90s for PC gaming. The controller looked nothing like a snake and left no nice line in the sand if you moved it through it so why MS decided to call it the Sidewinder is a mystery. The Sidewinder family of products was discontinued by Microsoft in 2003 due to poor sales

If you are reading this on a Windows 98 PC there is a good chance an advert for the controller is hidden somewhere on your PC.

7 – Medusa Head
God of War

In Greek mythology Medusa was a monstrous female character whose gaze could turn people to stone and in the fantastic God of War Kratos wielded a Medusa head as a devastating weapon. The head was a gift from Aphrodite and had the same powers as the one from tales of Greek mythology turning everything it touched into stone.

6 – Ekans
Pokémon

As most of you may know Ekans is a Pokémon and is the only entrant in our list that actually resembles a real life snake. A quick check of my Pokédex tells me that an Ekans could easily swallow the small eggs of a Pidgey or Spearow (Which is a terrible thing!). This Pokémon can also be found in hot dry canyon areas. The evolved form of an Ekans is called an Arbok

When the DS Pokémon finally comes out and if I catch an Ekans I think I will nickname him Sam.

5 – Snake Rattle ‘n’ Roll
NES

Snake Rattle ‘n’ Roll is a game developed by Rare (when they were good at games). The title was published by Nintendo and released on the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1990. At the time of release the game was revolutionary for been one of the first titles to use an isometric playing field for the player to move about in. Disappointingly the game sold rather poorly and for those that played it the game gained a reputation for having a high difficulty level.

4 – Solid Snake
Metal Gear

We would have loved to included some more of the snakes from the Metal Gear games in this list but in all honestly the whole thing is just to confusing to write about (And would take up 1000s of words). We really wish the Metal Gear games had more shouting in them. For some reason we believe shouting to be great these days, maybe the games should have cursing as well!

Solid Snake was first introduced in 1987 the game simply titled Metal Gear. Snake’s creator is Hideo Kojima. Metal Gear was one of the first video games to focus on stealth rather that shooting at everything you see. In all the European Metal Gear Solid games Snake has been voiced by David Hayter.

Intresting Fact: Solid Snake loves cardboard boxes as do real snakes although it would not be advisable to bring them onto a plane while in one,

3 – Snaking
Mario Kart

Taking second place on our list is the execution of “snaking” in Mario Kart games. This technique has caused much controversy, especially when used in Wi-Fi games on the latest version of Mario Kart on the Nintendo DS. Snaking is preformed when skilled gamers drift their karts back and forth across a straight stretch to generate repeated mini-Turbos. When doing this the kart drifts left and right many times which is a movement likened to actual snakes, hence the term, “snaking”.

It is still unknown if snaking was meant to be included in Mario Kart as some gamers label the technique as outright cheating but some officials at Nintendo have actually described snaking as an intentional part of the game’s design. Many of the best Time Trial records (both lap and course) have been obtained using a snaking technique (once again this also cause much controversy).

2 – Tryclyde
Mario Bros 2

Tryclyde is the famous boss character that first made an appearance in Super Mario Bros. 2. In his first appearance he was a large, red serpent with three heads and the ability to breathe fire. Tryclyde served Warts (SMB2’s main enemy). When Tryclyde made an appearance in Super Mario All-Stars his colours were changed to green with red stripes. Just like all the bosses in SMB2 he can only be defeated by heaving large objects at him when you see a break in his attack pattern

1 – Snake
Nokia Phones

Snake is of course that old game that I spent many hours wasting time away in the back of class a few years ago. It was not revolutionary and it damn sure was not pretty but with its monotone goodness it sure was one of the best time wasters when a science class seems to be going on far too long. I personally played the game on an old Nokia 3110 and the 2, 4, 6 and 8 were almost wasted away by the time I got a new phone.

I never did mange to get the highest score in my class though, damn it!