As is tradition on April 1st, many tech companies are releasing gags and other sorts of pranks online, with Google (orAlphabet) releasing an updatedGoogle Mapsthat will let you play the classic gameSnake.
Bring up either the iOS or Android Google Maps app and you’ll be greeted with a changed menu icon that will have a notification for “PlaySnake” as part of the menu bar. For those without mobile app devices you can also play on a custom url:snake.googlemaps.com.
Pick from Cairo, Sao Paulo, London, Sydney, San Francisco, Tokyo, or World and you will advised to pick up as many passengers as you can.
Be careful! Running off the map or into your own vehicle will end the game.
You’re train will start moving on a pixelated grid of whatever city you have chosen and you swipe, or use keyboard arrows, to move and extend your train by picking up passengers. If you pick the World map you will also get bonus points for touching landmarks that will appear in between some passengers. It’sSnake, a game everyone has been playing since 1997 on their Nokia phones. It’s a nice distraction from the general day-to-day things of life, such as writing articles, making sure your puppy isn’t eating their poop, and resisting buying aGarrus body pillow.
This isn’t the first time Google Maps has been modified to fit a video game-centric theme. In2016, in collaboration with Nintendo for the release ofThe Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD, Google changed the generic peg man into Link. A year earlier,also for April Fool’s Day, Google changed Maps to allow people to playPac-Manusing roads as the maze. In2012a 8-bit version of the game, created for the NES, was released, withDragon Queststyle visuals. In2014a video for an ARGPokemongame was released for April’s Fools, years before Niantic would releasePokemon Go.
Whether this game will appear on Google’s upcoming gaming streaming platformStadiaremains to be seen, though I’m not holding my breath to see this classic alongside the likes ofDoom EternalandAssassin’s Creed Odyssey.
