From Solid Snake to Slither.io - a history of snakes in video games
What is my life
Believe it or not, but Slither.io isn't the first game to feature a snake. I know right? Mad.
Here, then, are 7 other games that feature a snake either as a playable character, as a helpful chum, or as a slippery enemy.
Snake
Anyone who had a Nokia phone in the 90s will remember this waste-of-time classic. But did you know that it wasn't always about a snake? The first version, released back in 1976, was simply titled "Blockade".
Variants (or clones, if you're not feeling so charitable) changed the line into dominos, Tron light cycles, a worm, and eventually a snake. Now the game was about a serpent gobbling up food, getting bigger and bigger, and trying to avoid munching on its own body.
In 1997 the game came to phones and kicked off the mobile gaming revolution that has ruined all of our lives.
Snake Rattle 'n Roll
Once again perpetuating the stereotype that snakes are greedy food hoovers, Rare's late NES game Snake Rattle 'n Roll is about making snakes eat Nibbley Pibbleys (seriously) until they're fat enough to activate a weight scale.
Special mentions must go to David Wise's jazzy 50s soundtrack, and the last boss of the game which is a giant space foot you must lick to death. Yep. That's a thing.
Yawn (Resident Evil)
Loads of games have featured snakes as baddies and bosses, but few are as pant-ruiningly scary as this monster serpent from Resident Evil.
It started life as a regular ol' snake, but those dumb bums in the Umbrella Corp tried to turn it into a bio weapon. Bad move: the snake escaped. Then, to add insult to injury, it got infected with the t-virus and turned into a mega monster.
You'll run into this ugly reptile twice during Resident Evil, and it will probably kill you a fair few more times than that. So, uh, good luck!
Snake Man (Mega Man 3)
All the Mega Man robot masters were designed as useful robots before Dr. Wily went bonkers and turned them all into unstoppable death robots. And so, Snake Man's slender body was created to slither into narrow areas and survey topography on uninhabited planets.
But under the reign of Wily he becomes a terrifying killer, capable of wiping out its enemies in- oh what's that? Mega Man stood in a safe space, jumped over a few search snakes, and murdered Snake Man with a barrage of needles? Okay, fair enough. Next!
Ekans (Pokemon)
I'm about to blow your mind. Prepare to be amazed. You'll never look at the world in the same life. This is going to turn your life upside down. You won't be able to sit straight for weeks. Ready? 9/11 was an ins- I mean, Ekans backwards is "Snake".
KA-BOOOOM. That's the sound of your head shattering into a zillion pieces. I've just changed the course of your life forever. Now just wait until I tell you about Ekans's evolution, Arbok...
Solid Snake (Metal Gear Solid)
You didn't think we'd leave out this chap, did ya? He might be an elongated, legless, carnivorous reptile. He doesn't shed his skin or lay eggs or have only one functional lung. But he is called Snake, and that's enough for me.
There's actually loads of Snakes in Metal Gear. There's Naked Snake who's actually big boss and there's Liquid Snake and Solid Snake who are his clones and there's Solidus who I think is another clone.
And, wait, which one is Punished Venom Snake? Someone get me a wiki.
Rattly (Donkey Kong Country)
Of all the animal buddies in the Donkey Kong Country games, I can quite safely say that Rattly is the most snake-like. He's also super bouncy and can be used to hop on enemy heads, to leap over big gaps, and - with his super jump - leap up enormous heights.
That's about all there is to say about this guy. He's a snake. What more do you want?
Slither.io
I almost forgot about Slither.io. That's the whole reason I'm writing this stupid feature in the first place.
Harkening back to those classic snake games, Slither's all about gobbling down dots to grow in size. But, thanks to a modern twist, you'll be sharing the plays pace with loads of other real life gamers.
It's a snake eat snake world, so don't crash into any other reptiles or it's game over...
Want more Slither.io stuff? Then check out the following bits: