Portal Snake

Snake with a teleporter

Portal Snake drops a pair of linked gates onto the classic board. Steer your head into the dark portal and it emerges from the red one instantly, still moving in the same direction, with your body streaming through behind you. The pair relocates every time you eat, so portals are a resource you evaluate fresh with every apple: shortcut, hazard, or bait.

The trick that separates portal veterans from portal victims is remembering that your body follows you through. For several moves after a warp your snake exists in two places at once, and the exit side can get crowded fast. Warping is easy; arriving is the skill.

When to warp

• Warp to cut distance. If the apple is across the board and a portal points you roughly toward it, the warp usually wins.
• Check the exit first. Before entering, glance at what surrounds the other portal. Exiting into a wall-adjacent squeeze with a long tail is the classic portal death.
• Use portals as escape hatches. Boxed in by your own body? A portal is the only move in snake that ignores geometry. Some of the best saves in the game are last-second warps.
• Mind the direction. You exit travelling the same way you entered. Enter a portal heading up and you leave the other one heading up.

Scoring

Apples are worth one point each and the speed rises slowly as you grow. The WARPS counter on the device tracks your teleports for bragging rights, and your best score is saved in your browser.