What would the Snake game look like if it were invented today?
That’s the question we at HTML Online set out to answer. The result? A revolutionary new game that we’re finally ready to share with the world: Snake Jungle is a free, modern twist on the classic Snake game that you can play right in your browser!
We set ourselves just one deadline: launch before GTA 6🌴and oh boy we did it!
There is nothing to download, no account to make and no app to install, and no ads (yet). Open the page, move your mouse, and the snake is already chasing its first egg.
Grow longer, never bite your own tail. One of the oldest rules in gaming, in a brand new jungle.
From the Pixel Snake to the Jungle Snake
Classic Snake started in 1976 as an arcade game called Blockade, and in 1997 it came built into Nokia phones, where millions of people played it on tiny green screens. The idea was perfect: a line of squares crawls across a grid, eats a dot, grows one square longer and must never hit itself.
Snake Jungle keeps that idea and changes almost everything around it.
No grid. The old snake jumps from square to square in four directions. Our snake glides like dragging a scarf in the sand. It follows your mouse or your finger in any direction, in smooth curves, so you can draw loops, spirals and wide arcs. You can also play with the arrow keys if you like the old feeling.
Soft walls. In classic Snake the wall is as deadly as your tail. In Snake Jungle the edge of the field is safe. Your head simply stops there and slides along it, so you can never die just because your mouse went too far.
Living food. The pixel snake eats a dot that waits patiently. Our snake hunts eggs and real jungle animals that run, hop, dig, pinch and hide. Each one needs its own trick.
Ten worlds. Every 1,000 points takes you to a new level and a new world: the jungle floor, cracked mud, snow, a lily pond, a sandy beach, a mushroom forest, an eagle’s nest, the Moon, glacier ice and finally an endless frozen lake.
Fair for everyone. Every player and every run gets the same critters in the same order, so a score depends on skill, not luck. That makes it a great game for school and office tournaments.
| Classic pixel Snake | Snake Jungle | |
|---|---|---|
| Movement | Square by square, 4 directions | Smooth, any direction, follows the mouse or finger |
| Walls | Deadly | Safe: the head slides along the edge |
| Food | A dot that waits | Eggs and 6 animals with their own behaviour |
| Dangers | Walls and your tail | Your tail, crab claws, turtle shells, hedgehog spikes, an eagle and thin ice |
| Lives | One | Three for the whole run |
| Levels | Faster speed | A new world and a new critter on the way up |
| Sound | Beeps | Every sound is made live in the browser, with no sound files |
Meet the Critters
The heart of Snake Jungle is its cast. Every critter arrives on its own level, and each one plays differently. Catch most of them within one second of appearing and you get a +100 speed bonus (+50 within two seconds). Only the mole and the turtle need time, so they never pay it. Don’t wait too long, though: food starts to fade after 10 seconds and gets away after 22, and a hungry snake ends the run.
The Egg (50 points, Level 1)
Your main food on every level. It doesn’t run away, but your own body can nudge it around the field. Watch closely and you may see it wobble, as if it is about to hatch.
The Grey Mouse (100 points, Level 1)
The first animal you meet, and the first to run from you. It is slower than the snake, but it always flees from your head. The trick: it can’t cross your body, so lay down a wall of coils and close the circle around it.
The Frog (75 points, Level 2)
It hops in a wobbly line and changes direction between jumps. Your body is no fence for the frog, because it jumps right over it. Watch where it is heading and wait for it where it lands.
The Mole (150 points, Level 3)
It digs a heap for two seconds, pops up for two seconds, then digs somewhere else. It comes up five times at most, and the last heap flashes red. It is shy: while your head sits right on the heap, it stays underground, so wait next to it instead.
The Crab (100 points, Level 4)
It scuttles sideways and turns its claws toward your head. Bite it from the front and it pinches: you lose 50 points, four segments and one of your three lives. It turns slowly, so circle around and take it from behind.
Level 5 on the sandy beach: try to atack the crab from behind
The Turtle (125 points, Level 5)
It walks very slowly until you get close, then hides in its shell. Biting the shell hurts. Stay near it, but not on top of it, and after about a second it gets tired and rolls onto its back. That is your moment.
The Hedgehog (150 points, Level 6)
The one critter you can’t eat. Touch its spikes with your head and you lose a life. Instead you crush it with your body: circle it, or box it in, then sweep a coil over it. Players love this one.
Level 6: the snake boxes in a hedgehog before sweeping a coil over it.
The Eagle (Level 7 and up)
From Level 7 a screech and a shadow tell you that an eagle is coming for your head. Once it dives, it can’t turn, so hold your line and dodge sideways at the last moment. One hit ends the run. Brave snakes get a reward, too: every catch you make while the eagle is overhead pays an extra bonus.
Two More Surprises
At 4,500 points a heavy orange ball drops onto the field. Push it with your head to shove your own coils aside, or roll it over a hedgehog. And from Level 11 the ice starts to crack. Your body slides over the cracks safely, but if your head breaks through, the run is over.
Level 17 on the frozen lake: cracks everywhere, the orange ball, and an eagle on the attack.
Why We Are So Excited About It
We have played a lot of snake games, and we honestly think Snake Jungle is something new. Here is what we are most proud of:
- It feels like an extension of your hand. With a mouse, the snake’s head simply is your cursor. There is no lag and no grid between you and the snake.
- It runs everywhere. Computer, phone, tablet or Chromebook, in any modern browser. On a phone the snake chases your finger, so your thumb never hides it.
- It is fair. The play area has the same maximum size for everyone, so a giant monitor gives you no extra room, and smaller screens get a shorter snake to keep things balanced.
- It is light. No sound files at all: the crack of an egg, the squeak of a mouse and the screech of the eagle are all made live in your browser with the Web Audio API.
- It is social. A 7-day leaderboard shows the best 50 runs of the week, and at the end of each run you get a score card you can share or save as an image.
- It is safe for kids. No login, no chat, no ads that follow you around, and you can pause at any moment with P.
Plain HTML, CSS and JavaScript
Under the hood, Snake Jungle is a web page like any other: HTML for the structure, CSS for the look and plain JavaScript drawing everything on a canvas, 60 times a second. No plugins, no frameworks to install. That is exactly what we love about the web, and it is what this site has always been about.
If the game makes you want to build something of your own, a small canvas game is a wonderful first project. Open our free online HTML editor, write a few lines of markup and script, and watch the result appear as you type. Every great game starts with a single moving square, or in our case, a single moving snake.
Play Snake Jungle Now
The jungle is open. Go to SnakeJungle.com, (you’re welcome to bookmark it) move your mouse and see how far you can get. Read the how to play guide if you want a head start, and check the 7-day leaderboard to see the score to beat.
We would love to hear what you think. And if you reach the eagle on your first try, you are doing better than most of our team did.