Snafu

"A game redone for the umpteenth time, but with some nice twists this time around."

Yep, almost all of us have played this classic game of ''you're a worm and you have to keep growing without touching yourself or the walls,'' at least once. This version of the game has some nice variations to make playing it more interesting.

Story: N/A
Um...join the adventures of Mr. Wormy, the worm who dies when he touches any part of his body with his head...yeah...

Gameplay: 8
In a standard game of Snafu, you either play against the computer or against another human player. You have to carefully control the direction in which you grow so you don't run out of room to move. The first person to run out of space loses. You can play honorably or you can try and trap your opponent in a small space. There are many variations to this game, all of which are fun. First of all, you can have up to four worms on screen, two of which can be human players. You can also toggle an option for games with many worms that increases the speed of all worms when one worm dies. When it gets down to two, the action will get fast and furious. You can also add obstacles to the game field which kill you if you touch them. You can add just a few or many.

Graphics: 6
Nothing special, just colored lines with heads representing worm(s) and some oddly shaped objects for obstacles.

Sound/Music: 8
The only sound during the game is the swishing of your worms as they grow. It's actually a soothing sound. When there are only two worms left, one of two songs will play. These songs are actually pretty cool sounding and are almost at NES quality, but one of the songs is better at making the final moments of the game more suspenseful than the other.

Control: 10
You select the type of game you want to play from a menu, then you move up, down, left and right. It can't get much easier than that, folks. :)

Replay Value: 6
Playing with a human opponent is very fun, especially with two other CPU controlled worms. If you are going solo, there are enough gameplay options to keep you entertained for a decent amount of time.

Bottom Line?
Even if you're tired of this type of game, the many ways you can change the gameplay may actually make you want to try it. This game is a time tested classic and good for killing time as well as boredom, which is why I give it an 8.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 09/01/01, Updated 09/01/01