How to Play

Nuke Snake is a retro arcade game, a cross between "snake" and "tank" games of yore. You control a nuclear-powered snake via keyboard, game controller, or touch screen. Nuke Snake runs on Mac, iPad, iPhone, and Apple TV. You can play against the AI opponent, or two players can play on the same device or over the network. The first player controls the blue snake and the second the red.

Your nuclear-powered snake is armed with torpedoes, rockets, or nukes, which can either be unlimited or limited by ammo packs. Various terrain types can slow down your snake or provide cover against enemy fire. Exploding mines add additional opportunities for mayhem. The game board is a torus, so you can blast through the walls and wrap around to the other side.

The object of the game is to kill your opponent before they kill you, while navigating all the obstacles on the game board. You score a point either by killing your opponent or causing them to self-destruct. The first to score 10 points wins. You can continue playing for the best 2-out-of-3 games, 3-out-of-5 games, etc.

Game Controls

Two players can play on a keyboard. The red player uses the red keys for movement and firing. The blue player can use either set of blue keys. In network play, you can use either red or blue keys to control your snake. They will both work.

You can also play with one or two game controllers. The left joystick and D-Pad control movement and the A button fires. The B button will pause or end the game.

On a touch screen device the blue player can tap or drag to control movement and double-tap to fire.

With Apple TV's remote you can use the direction ring for movement and center button to fire.

Network Play

Your color in a network game and the options used are determined by the player who initiates the game. The initiator is blue and sets the options for the game. The invited player is red and goes along for the ride. In an auto-matched game it might be random who is red and who is blue, but the blue player still determines which options are used for the game. The size of the game board is determined by the player with the smaller screen.

Game Options

Tails Leave tails on for a more snake-like experience. Turn them off and the real action begins.
Diagonals Allows for diagonal movement, especially nice when tails are turned off.
Mines Add some explosive fun to the game board. When you shoot a mine it explodes torpedoes in all directions. Be careful you don't get caught in a deadly chain reaction.
Linear Terrain Adds a meandering line of rocks, trees, water and marsh to the game board. Rocks are impenetrable. You can move through trees, water and marsh, but they will slow you down. You can blow up rocks and trees. Don't shoot a tree while you are in the forest -- you'll be consumed by the fireball.
Ammo Packs With ammo packs you’ll start the game with only 5 torpedoes. You can pick up additional packs of 5 from the game board, unless your opponent gets to them first. If you have rockets and nukes turned on, they will also be available for pick-up on the game board.
Rockets Upgrade your firepower with rockets. Everything you shoot will explode like a mine.
Nukes Nukes add mutual assured destruction to the game. Be careful of the blast radius when you fire one. Nuclear explosions will evaporate all objects and terrain within the blast radius. Mines caught in the blast will detonate. If a mine detonator is caught in the blast, every mine on the game board will simultaneously detonate.
Shields Pick up a shield for a brief period of invulnerability. While shielded, your snake will flash, with the flashing speeding up just before the invulnerability ends. When shielded, you can move through solid objects and torpedoes won't hit you. You can still shoot, but you won't be able to pick up any objects during this time.
Clusters Ammo, mines, and other objects can be distributed evenly over the game board, or they can be clustered together. Clusters can really heat up the competition between players. Can you get to that cluster of rockets and mines before your opponent does? Can you get out again before your opponent blows up the whole stockpile right in your face?
Mine Detonators Notice a mine on the board that looks a little different? That's a mine detonator. If you shoot one with a nuke, all the mines on the board will simultaneously explode, unleashing a withering barrage of torpedoes. If your opponent is armed with nukes and has a dangerous look in his eye, it might be a good idea to destroy the mine detonator with conventional weapons before he can fire a nuke.
Fractal Terrain Adds topographical terrain to the game board.
Noise Terrain Adds terrain based on coherent ridged noise. You’ll get interesting large patterns.
Fireproof Torpedoes Normally, anything fired into an explosion is consumed by the flames. With Fireproof Torpedoes turned on, every shot will hit its mark. Be prepared for maximum destruction. Watch your back when rapid firing into a wall.
Rubber Walls Instead of being destructible, the game’s borders are rubberized and reflect everything thrown at them.
Free Motion Just plain crazy. Auto-fire in every direction and see what’s left standing, if anything. Works best with a game controller.

Strategy Tips

Ammo Packs Hoard ammunition! Grab the ammo closest to you and destroy the ammo near your opponent. Consider killing yourself to keep your opponent from consuming an entire ammo cluster. If you run out of ammo, maneuver for a collision with your opponent; that way you'll each get one point.
Torpedo Traps It's fun to shoot out the walls and set up circulating torpedo traps. Several of these going in different directions can add excitement to the game.
Forests Forests are good places to hide if your opponent is armed with torpedoes. However, if your opponent has rockets or nukes, be careful! A rocket or nuke fired into the forest creates an intense fireball that can consume many surrounding trees -- and you!
Game Point If you only need one point to win, try to collide with your opponent. It is usually easier than trying to shoot him.