SNOOD RULES!

Back in the old days, I used to steal in to the penny arcade at Lakeside Amusement Park and use my "magic quarter" to play game after game of Asteroids. Atari created the game Asteroids shortly after it introduced Space Invaders and Pac-Man. I believe the unveiling year was 1978 or 1979. The object of the game was to fly a stark looking triangle (aka spaceship) around a thick black monitor screen and dodge irregular polygons (aka asteroids). By aiming and pushing a button repeatedly, you could break the large irregular polygons into small irregular polygons. Eventually, continuous repetition would cause the irregular polygons to disappear. To make things a bit more interesting, every now and then an annoying little circle (aka flying saucer) would march across the screen with its goal being your ship's destruction. I loved Asteroids, and while I no longer have Lakeside or a magic quarter, I still play that game on my home computer to this day.

Asteroids is not the best game ever in my opinion. That honor belongs to a rather simple, mindless game called, SNOOD! SNOOD is a shareware game. That means you can download it from the internet and play it for free as a demo (demonstration version), but for a small fee ($15) you can play an expanded, complete version forever.

I began playing SNOOD about seven years ago during down time at school. My two teaching friends, Andy and Tim, used to teach fifth grade at my school, and sometimes when I'd walk past their rooms, they'd be in there playing SNOOD. At first I was curious and just watched them play...then I gradually became immersed in the game myself and found it delightfully addicting.

These days, I don't play SNOOD at school anymore. It can wreck an otherwise fine career, but I do play it from time to time at home. Playing SNOOD is a rich experience.

The opening screen shows you the high scores in the difficulty level in which you will be participating. In the game I captured here, I was chasing a high score of 19,778.

At start up, you are given a set of Snoods to destroy with your cannon. In order to destroy a Snood, you must have at least three like Snoods clumped together. As the game progresses, Snoods advance down the screen and if they make it past your cannon, you lose the game.

Here's an example of me losing a game. I don't lose very often, and I only lost here for demonstration purposes.

Here's an example of me on a roll. I have already eliminated most of the Snoods on one side. I simply needed to mine a few more Snoods from the right side, and I would be home free with a big score.

It turns out that after I got rid of the last Snood and won the game, my score registered in the top ten.

In this final shot, you'll notice that I nabbed the second highest score at this difficulty level. That's a pretty good game.

While SNOOD owns my heart, I also have a stable of other interactive internet games that I like to try from time to time. Here's a list for you with a brief review of each one.

Fly the Helicopter

This is a classicly styled game. You use your left click mouse button to keep your helicopter from crashing in flames. The annoying sound will eventually grate on your last nerve, but you won't be able to stop playing.

Spaced Penguin

This is my absolute favorite game of all time other than SNOOD and Asteroids. Spaced Penguin is a challenging game where you try to send this poor penguin named Kevin through space and back into his spaceship. Unfortunately for him, you earn more points by making his trip back take a very long time. Kevin is launched through space by your special slingshot and celestial bodies interact with his progress to his ship. Master the gravitational effects of the heavenly bodies will boost your score. Interestingly, this game was created by the good people at the animated kids' show, Veggie Tales.

Marbles

Pure addiction. Zap clusters of like colored marbles for big points. There is no glitz, no flash, and no sound...just beautifully colored marbles.

Penguin Baseball

Politically incorrect game where happy penguins are batted like baseballs across the snow by a yeti.

Penguin Toss

In this game the happy penguins are tossed high into the air by a yeti.

Spear Toss
An islander throws a spear over and over again. The music in the background drones on and on. After an hour or so, you will be left in a catatonic state.

Drunk Walk

Really politically incorrect...but very challenging. You must use your mouse to keep a drunk guy standing up as he staggers down an alley in Germany. Of course, all he wants to do is flop over. I do not advise mining the site further to play the "Hangover" game...it's rather gross.

Monkey Kick-off
This game is pretty fun. You get to have your monkey kick a ball and see how far it goes.

Trebuchet Challenge

You actually get to build a trebuchet and then test it. Fascinating and educational. Brought to you by engineers.

Hell of Sand Falling

Sometimes it’s just fun to watch colorful sand fall. You can divert its path creating beautiful sand streams.

Jui Chiant

Some crazy people have created a deceptively hard game. The object is to keep both balls on the board. It’s not quite as easy as it looks.

Magnetic Letters

Order out of Chaos. This interactive magnetic letter board invites users to move a screen of letters around. Since the number of letters is finite and the number of participants are variable, you may end up fighting someone else for letters you want to spell words you want to spell. Sometimes people spell bad words, so beware.