Thank you Black Shell Media for sending us this game to review!

While I haven’t owned a Nokia 3310 with the popular snake game that Curvatron is based off of, I have played other variants of it.  There are quite a few game modes and lots of relaxing electronica music packed into this $0.99 game.  Even if you‘re not a fan of the gameplay, it’s worth picking up for the thirty-six .ogg files located in a conveniently named Soundtrack folder within the game’s directory.

The controls are very easy in this game.  It’s just one button; the default key in the single-player mode is W to change the direction of the snake.  With each press of the button the snake will flip in the opposite direction ninety degrees.  The default key mappings can be changed in the game’s settings menu.

Though it’s not universal for all of the available game modes, the general rule of thumb is to not have your snake run into itself or touch any of the obstacles. As the snake collects more goal points, it’ll grow which makes avoiding itself more difficult.  In the Evergrowing mode there are no check points, but the snake grows continuously and you’re scored by how long you can keep it alive before having it run into itself.

If you consider yourself artistic, you may appreciate the Creative mode which lets you move the snake across the screen without any penalties for having it run into itself.  There are no time limits either so you can unleash your creativity while relaxing to the pleasant music.

The calming music is helpful for the Adventure mode which gets more challenging as you clear each of the thirty levels. After a level is cleared, the next one becomes unlocked.  Your progress is automatically saved and remembered for later.  While the Steam store page has Steam Cloud as a feature, my progress did not transfer from my desktop to my laptop.  

The levels in the Adventure mode are the same every time, but the Classic game mode has randomly generated levels.  The goal in the classic mode is to collect as many check points as possible before your inevitable demise.  The game will keep track of your record so you can aim to beat it.  

The multiplayer is fun and my kids and I enjoyed playing against each other to see who could last the longest.  There are two ways to win in multiplayer.  One way is to outlive the others who have collided to their doom.  The other possible way to win is to have eaten the most dots before the time has run out.  The worm who has eaten the most will have a gold ring around it.  

Just like the Nokia version, the graphics are very simplistic.  The snake doesn’t have any details whatsoever.  The backgrounds change color so there is some variety there.  On a positive note, the graphical system requirements are very limited and only need a screen according to the Steam store page.

All in all, Curvatron is a cute game with an awesome soundtrack.  It’s well worth the meager $0.99 asking price.  Chances are that you’ll still enjoy the music if you’re not a fan of the gameplay.  As a fan of both, I recommend adding this game to your Steam library.