Survival Horror in 8-bit. The classic Nokia snake game, inverted. You control the food, and the Snake is an AI determined to eat you.

👉 Click here to play the live game

Reversed Snake is a free, open-source browser game built with Vanilla JavaScript and HTML5 Canvas. It flips the script on the classic retro arcade game: instead of guiding the snake, you play as the Apple.

The Snake is controlled by a sophisticated pathfinding algorithm (A* Search) that ruthlessly hunts you down. As time passes, the snake grows longer automatically, making the grid increasingly claustrophobic.

Level 10 features a "Swarm Mode" where you must dodge 10 intelligent snakes simultaneously, making it one of the hardest snake game variants on the web.

• Inverted Gameplay: A unique twist on the classic 90s game.
• Smart AI: Snakes use A* Pathfinding to track your every move.
• Progressive Difficulty: 10 Levels, ranging from a single snake to a full swarm.
• Cross-Platform: Fully responsive design that works on iPhone, Android, and Desktop.
• No Install Required: Play directly in your web browser.
• Offline Capable: High scores are saved locally to your device.

1. Desktop: Use your Arrow Keys (⬆️ ⬇️ ⬅️ ➡️) to move the Red Apple.
2. Mobile/Tablet: Use the on-screen virtual joystick to navigate.
3. Objective: Survive as long as possible. Do not let any Snake head touch you.
4. Scoring: Your time survived is your score. Can you beat the Level 10 world record?

This project is a perfect example of game development with pure JavaScript (no engines like Unity or Phaser).

The snake utilizes a PriorityQueue to calculate the most efficient path to the player's coordinates. To maintain 60FPS with 10 snakes, the game uses a Collision Grid Cache (O(1) lookup) instead of checking every snake body segment individually.

function findPath(start, goal, snake) {  
  // Manhattan distance heuristic  
  const heuristic \= p \=\> p.manhattan(goal);  
  // ... implementation of A\* loop  
}

• Canvas Rendering: Uses requestAnimationFrame for smooth gameplay.
• Memory Management: Object pooling principles to prevent garbage collection stutters.
• Zero Dependencies: Extremely lightweight (<5kb logic) for instant load times.

Want to modify the AI or add new skins? No build steps required.

# Clone the repository  
git clone https://github.com/ImBIOS/lab-snake-reverse.git

# Navigate to directory  
cd lab-snake-reverse

# Open in browser  
open index.html

Keywords: Reversed Snake, Play as Apple, Snake Game AI, Hard Snake Game, A* Algorithm Game, Browser Game, HTML5 Game, Survival Game, JavaScript Game Project, Open Source Game.