About
Ambrosia's latest game, Slithereens, encompasses what the company does best. Slithereens
take the concepts of such classics as Pac Man and Serpentine, and brings it to market
with a new twist. In this one or two player arcade game, Mac users can exercise their
arrow keys for hours.
Game Play
In Slithereens, you are Luther, a witty slithering snake in a maze with other bigger
snakes. It's a snake-eat-snake world and your only hope of survival is to eat your
fellow snakes before they eat you. But there a catch of course. If you're smaller
than your fellow snake, you better stand clear of the business end of your competition.
While you are small, you need to attack the other snakes from the tail end and eat
your way up. The more snakes you eat the bigger you get. Once you get bigger than
the other snakes, they now have to fear you. As proof that size
really does matters, the hunter becomes the hunted.
Besides snakes, you can eat other little critters like rodents and birds to help
you grow. These easy catches can really come in handy as the  snakes
progressively become faster along with the introduction of new meaner snakes. Your
only hope of survival is to lay an egg and protect it until you can finish the level.
If your egg is still around after you cleared out the level, you got yourself an
extra life.
Slithereens also escalates in difficulty through its levels. The game hold 44 individual
levels to play through with each level being a different type of maze. The levels
changes go from the ordinary twists and turns, to opening and closing doors. The
player is greeted with a full color map to play upon which keeps the game from getting
if anything but repetitive. Additionally, the variety of critters and bonuses keep
action flowing.
Combined with intuitive game-play, Slithereens also includes a traditional arcade
soundtrack and ever-witty voice-overs. Luther provides a sort
of play-by-play of the game as it progresses. All this added with great textured
graphics makes for an enjoyable game play.
Ambrosia continues its tradition of bringing great games to the Mac OS. Slithereens
is no exception and will give Mac gamers something new to show their PC buddies.
Ambrosia also continues their long tradition of shareware marketing which gives users
a change to try before they buy. Unregistered users will be able to play seven consecutive
levels before the game requests you pay up.
Conclusion
Ambrosia continues to be a prominent player in the Mac gaming scene. If you are a
fan of the Apple II classic Serpentine, by David Snider, you'll appreciate Slithereens.
I personally love arcade games that I can pick up without investing a lot of time.
This game is entertaining on a number of levels and can make for a pretty fun experience.
For $20, Slithereens makes a great Christmas gift for any Mac gamer.
Pros: Entertaining voice-overs brings game to a new level. Colorful graphics
are easy on the eyes and changes to avoid repetitiveness. $20 shareware license won't
gouge your gaming budget
Cons: Early levels may quickly become difficult for casual players. |
