Super Secret details about the My Game Space program: details here
7.2 excellent
Our adventure begins where most adventures begin: the Canberra Zoo. Australian jumping snake Jake is bored out of his mind in his cage crowded with all the other Australian jumping snakes. Foolishly, he makes a wish for some adventure, and a passing fairy decides to teach him a lesson about idle wishes. The lesson is: Don't wish for adventure or you'll spend a lot of time collecting coins and fruit and crystals in the jungle! With monsters!
Snaky Jake, by Charlie Dog Games, is a scrolling platform game. To escape each level, Jake must make his way to the exit platform. Along the way he needs to avoid monsters as well as the danger of falling from a platform to his certain doom ten thousand billion spagillion feet below. You play as the fairy (turned mouse pointer) who controls where Jake moves next.
Snaky Jake is controlled completely by the mouse. No keyboard, no gamepad. No, your eyes do not deceive you - it's a mouse only platform game. What could possibly go wrong? In fact, I read somewhere that as soon as Nostradamus prophecized a mouse only platform game, he was afflicted with the gout. I don't know what that means, but the gout is extremely painful so beware. Don't gorge yourself on proteins unless you drink lots of water. And eat some blueberries now and then. Here's how the controls work: Any platforms that are within Jake's jumping distance are highlighted, while distant or impossible-to-jump-to platforms are dark. Click on a platform with your sparkling fairy mouse pointer and Jake will jump to it. To slide him along his current platform, click on where you wish him to slide to. To jump him to a position on his current platform (let's say sliding would result in a collision with an enemy, so a jump would be preferable), doubleclick where you want him to jump to. You can also right click to hang him from a platform.
There are two things that make the controls even more difficult. First, some of the platforms are moving. Elevators, conveyors, spinning wheels with platforms along the circumference, platforms tied to the bottom of swining vines, etc. Second, Snaky Jake is one of those platform games that scrolls at a constant speed and pushes you along. If Jake stands at the left edge of the screen, he can chill and relax as the game pushes him to the right... Until he falls off a platform. If you like playing games on your laptop, don't even download Snaky Jake. Controlling Jake is futile on a touchpad.
Jake can get extra points by collecting coins. I tried this in real life and it works. I found a coin in the street and got fifty points!
More interesting than coins are fruit. Littered throughout the four different worlds Jake must visit (that cruel fairy just won't let him live down his wish) are various fruit. Grapes, apples, bananas, pears (my favorite), oranges, etc. When Jake collects one, it follows behind him like a chick would if it were imprinted with a cartoon snake as its mother. Before long, Jake is likely to to have quite a fruit tail. One way to get rid of this pesky fruit is to collect three in a row of the same kind. For example, three apples. Do that, and all the apples in the chain will explode. If there are more than three (i.e. if there were other apples in the chain besides the three you collected in a row) then Jake will get bonus strength and power. He'll even increase in size.
Another way to eliminate trailing fruit is to let the end of the chain touch the left side of the screen. If that happens, the fruit will catch on fire and like a giant fuse made of fruit, the conflagration will eventually reach Jake. It won't kill him, but the flames will take away any bonus strength or power or size previously gained.
By collecting the fairy's lost power crystals, Jake can gain special powers, such as the ability to jump on enemies and hang onto platforms by the teeth.
Watch out for spiders and slugs!
Once, when I was a kid, my cousin and I were at the zoo, and the snake handler was showing off a python. As you know, pythons like to suffocate their food before eating, just like I like to cook my food before eating. Since all kids are afraid of snakes and think snakes are slimy, the handler offered to let my cousin and me touch the python's skin. He had the heavy snake draped around him. My cousin grabbed its tail and began squeezing as hard as she could. The python immediately began constricting the handler, who cried out. "Let go! Stop squeezing it! Help!" That's one of those stories that will never stop being funny.
Snaky Jake is a beautiful game with a perfect jazzy score. If you're in the mood for jazz and fruit, download this game without delay. Your ears won't regret it. If you're in the mood for a fun platform game, keep in mind that the mouse only controls might make your wrist and/or mouse and/or big toe explode.
