Every year a group of zealous programmers hold a Mini-Game programming competition for classic videogame consoles. Purely by chance, I had been browsing through the 2003 Mini-Game competition page. A few clicks later and I was on the 2004 Mini-Game competition. The only Nintendo entry (so far) has been Nesnake. I thought "what the heck," downloaded the rom, and decided to give it a quick run.

When I said quick run...I meant it. For the most part, the Mini-Game competition games are not too entertaining. I enjoy the fact that people are taking the time to program Nintendo games, however, 1k and 4k limitations make these games more like demos. Not so with Nesnake. I was pleasantly surprised with this game, in fact, I became hopelessly addicted.

If you ever played the game Nibbles, then you know what Nesnake is about. Collect the numbers (1-9) while avoiding the walls and obstacles on screen. Each time you collect a number, your snake grows larger, making it harder to maneuver your character. When you collect all nine numbers, you advance to the next stage.

Nesnake takes this simple game play to the max. The game features flashing walls and directional arrows, both making the game very difficult at some points. However, Nesnake also has its share of easy spots. Nesnake (as with most *good* puzzle games) starts out easy. The difficulty is slowly increased, until you think "Wow! This is so much harder then the earlier stages..."

As far as replay value is concerned, Nesnake has it. This game has three different difficult levels. I find myself constantly playing through the game when I have free time; five minutes here, ten there.

The only downfall to Nesnake are the graphics and music. There is no background music. However, there are a few sound effects. The graphics aren't that great. They get the job done, though they look too Atari-ish for my tastes. Fortunately, the programmer of this game informed me that he intends on upgrading the game sometime after the Mini-Game competition is over. I can hardly wait for this.

I really like Nesnake. It is definitely one of the better NES games that the Mini-Game competition had yielded. Check below for screenshots from all 18 stages of the game. There is also a link to download the rom for this game. Download the game, give it a try, just don't get too addicted ;)

Download Nesnake