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It's no secret that the most addictive games are often the simplest and Snake Escape rams this concept home with some top-notch music, graphics and playability.

Written by Spectrum community stalwart Einar Saukas (using his self-developed Nirvana+ engine), Snake Escape offers 42 screens of increasingly difficult puzzle-platforming with those highly respected coders MmcM and BiNMaN taking on the music and graphic designer roles respectively.

Based on Flash title Lime Rick (2013), Einar not only ported the concept to the humble Speccy, he managed to make it sound, look and play better than the original in every possible way. The rules are straightforward. You control a snake of unlimited length that can be extended vertically for a maximum of four squares. The snake cannot re-enter a square that it already occupies and gravity also plays its part. So, moving left or right extends you downwards if there is nothing to block your path.

On each level you start off as an egg and your goal is to reach the fruit. The early levels ease you into the mechanics, eventually ramping up the difficulty and adding more features along the way. There's no time limit, so you're free to take as long as you need to think about your next move. If you get stuck (and it's an inevitability!) simply hit the fire button to reset the level.

The NIRVANA+ engine shines in Snake Escape; Einar has managed to push the limits of the hardware, resulting in the kind of colourful graphics never before imagined on the Spectrum. While there are no sound effects, the catchy title and gameplay music (on the 128K version) more than make up for it.

It's a pity that there is no means for you to save your progress, meaning a start from scratch every time you load the game. This isn't too much of a problem, with modern hardware solutions such as the DivMMC allowing for save-states or emulators allowing for snapshots, but for people playing on the original hardware it could become a burden. A simple option would have been the inclusion of a password entry system that would allow you to start on later levels. An even simpler solution would have been to add a level select screen.

Remember that Snake game you played years ago on your Nokia phone - well, this entertainment gives a huge nod and wink to that gem and adds another layer of addictiveness and shine on top. The task is simple: start at position A and move the snake's head to position B to get at the fruit. Of course, the challenge is to master the clever rules which constrain how you're allowed to slither your reptile about. You soon realise that Snake Escape is not the arcade-themed Snake of old, in which the high score was everything. No, this is a puzzle game that forces much consideration of the route you must take and the moves required to get through the clever levels to the booty.

It all adds up to a very clever, fun game, one that gets hard very quickly as you move up through the levels. In the Nirvana+ engine, it looks stunning too and comes with a very catchy 128K tune. Smashing!

Control Keys: Q, A, O, P (SPACE resets the level)
Joystick: Kempston, Sinclair, Cursor
Keyboard play: Preferred!
Use of colour: Incredible!
Graphics: Amazingly colourful and bold sprites by Jarrod Bentley (BiNMaN) which work on the original hardware
Sound: Great 128K title and gameplay music. No Sound effects.
General rating: One of the best puzzle games on the Spectrum. Give us a password entry screen, Einar!