AppleSnake2

AppleSnake2 is a top-down arcade action game developed and published by Verymax, released for Windows in December 2017. As part of the AppleSnake series, it follows the classic snake gameplay formula where players control a snake that grows longer as it consumes apples, requiring careful navigation to avoid collisions with walls and the snake’s own growing body. The game features fixed/flip-screen visuals and direct control mechanics, continuing the simple yet challenging arcade-style gameplay established in its predecessor.

AppleSnake2: Review

Introduction

In the vast and often unforgiving ecosystem of indie game development, where ambition frequently collides with the harsh realities of budget and scope, there exists a peculiar genus of title: the micro-sequel. AppleSnake2, released in December 2017 by the enigmatic studio Verymax, is a quintessential specimen. It is a game that asks not what it can do for the player, but what a player can possibly make of it. This is not a title that shook the foundations of the industry, but rather one that quietly slithered into digital storefronts, leaving behind a faint, almost philosophical trace. Our thesis is this: AppleSnake2 is a fascinating artifact of its time—a minimalist, almost archetypal iteration on a classic formula that serves as a stark reminder of the sheer volume of content produced during the indie boom, and a curious case study in how even the most mechanically simplistic games can cultivate a small but dedicated community.

Development History & Context

To understand AppleSnake2, one must first understand the landscape from which it emerged. 2017 was a peak year for digital distribution platforms like Steam, which had become a double-edged sword for developers. It offered unprecedented access to a global market, but also resulted in an avalanche of new titles, making discoverability a monumental challenge. Into this fray stepped Verymax, a developer about which almost nothing is known. The studio’s entire public footprint consists of the AppleSnake series—four games released in a single calendar year (2017-2018). This prolific output suggests a small, possibly solo developer, operating with extreme efficiency and minimal resources.

The game was built on the skeleton of its predecessor, AppleSnake, released earlier the same year. The vision, as inferred from the official descriptions, was not one of grand innovation but of refined repetition. The technological constraints are immediately apparent: with system requirements demanding only a 256 MB RAM and 50 MB of storage space, AppleSnake2 is a technical time capsule, a game that could theoretically run on hardware two decades its senior. This was not a product of high-end game engines like Unity or Unreal, but likely a simple framework designed for maximum accessibility and minimal overhead. In an era of photorealistic graphics and sprawling open worlds, AppleSnake2 was a deliberate, perhaps necessary, retreat into the basics of game design.

Narrative & Thematic Deep Dive

The narrative of AppleSnake2 is delivered through its storefront description and achieves a level of allegorical simplicity that borders on the profound. The player controls “Snapple,” a serpentine revolutionary ostracized from the orthodox “kingdom of snakes” for his radical belief in pacifism and a fruit-based diet. The serpent elders, a council of seemingly traditionalist reptiles, issue a challenge: “If you pass the test strip, you eat everything and survive, we will think over your proposal and we will not expel you.”

This premise sets up a compelling ideological conflict. Snapple is a reformer within a rigid society, a visionary who sees a future beyond the carnivorous instincts of his kin. The “test strip”—the game’s levels—becomes a gauntlet of ideological purification. The primary collectible, the apple, is a symbol of this new doctrine. Yet, the gameplay introduces a fascinating contradiction: Snapple can and must “destroy” animals that get in his way, an act that is accompanied by a “crispy” sound effect, as noted by players. This creates a ludonarrative dissonance that is either a deeply ironic commentary on the impossibility of pure pacifism or simply an oversight in a hastily assembled game. The dialogue is minimal, the characters are archetypes, but the central theme—the struggle for change against entrenched tradition—is surprisingly resilient.

Gameplay Mechanics & Systems

AppleSnake2 is, at its core, a top-down arcade game that faithfully adheres to the classic “Snake” formula while introducing light puzzle and action elements. The core loop is immutable: the player-controlled snake moves perpetually forward, changing direction with arrow keys or a controller. Consuming apples increases the snake’s length, introducing the primary risk-reward mechanic of avoiding self-collision.

However, Verymax layers additional systems onto this foundation:
* Objectives: Each level requires the collection of a specific number of apples before proceeding.
* Obstacles & Enemies: The world is populated by animals (presumably the ones Snapple wishes to befriend) that act as moving obstacles. Colliding with them or a wall costs one of three initial lives. Some animals actively shoot projectiles, adding a rudimentary combat-avoidance element.
* Time Pressure: A timer counts down, though it can be replenished by collecting certain items.
* Keys & Gifts: Locked doors require keys to open, introducing light exploration. “Gifts” serve as loot boxes that, when opened, release power-ups: hearts to restore health or items that destroy nearby fauna.
* Progression & UI: The UI is spartan, displaying score, lives, apples collected, and time. Progression is linear across its 10+ levels, with the entire experience consumable in under an hour, as evidenced by players achieving 100% completion in just 19 minutes.

The game boasts “full controller support,” a noted plus for the few players who engaged with it. The primary criticism levied by the community was the game’s slow default speed, a flaw that could have been mitigated with a simple options menu slider. The achievement system, with 36 items, provides a meta-goal for completionists, with some requiring out-of-game actions like clicking on menu items, a quirky touch that adds to the game’s idiosyncratic charm.

World-Building, Art & Sound

The world of AppleSnake2 is a minimalist digital diorama. The visual direction is defined by its functional simplicity. The aesthetic is basic 2D, with a fixed/flip-screen perspective. The snake is a segmented line, apples and animals are simple sprites, and the environments are unadorned grids. This is not a game that strives for artistic flair; its visuals exist solely to service the mechanics. It is the epitome of the “programmer art” style prevalent in countless micro-indie projects.

The sound design follows the same philosophy. The “relax music” promised in the description is likely a simple, looping MIDI or chiptune track designed to provide a neutral auditory backdrop. The sound effects—the “crispy” destruction of animals, the collection of apples—are equally basic. Yet, in its totality, this austerity creates a specific and consistent atmosphere: one of pure, unadulterated focus. There are no visual or auditory distractions from the task at hand. The world-building is not in the details of the environment but in the mechanical reality of the challenge Snapple must overcome.

Reception & Legacy

AppleSnake2 was not a critical or commercial success. It exists in a void of official critic reviews; no major outlet covered its release. Its user reviews, primarily from Russian-speaking players on platforms like Steam and RAWG, number in the single digits. The consensus among those few players was mildly positive, praising its casual, arcade feel and noting it was a worthy diversion, especially at a discount, while criticizing its slow speed and simplistic graphics.

Its legacy is not one of influence but of existence. AppleSnake2 is a perfect representative of the “long tail” of indie gaming—the thousands of titles that sell a handful of copies to a niche audience. Its legacy is cemented in its role as the second chapter in a bizarre, hyper-specific micro-franchise that includes Halloween Adventures and Christmas Story. It influenced no subsequent games, but it perfectly illustrates the dynamics of digital storefronts in the late 2010s. It is a game preserved not for its greatness, but for its representativeness. It is a footnote, but an important one, in the history of a medium that encompasses both blockbuster masterpieces and humble, curious oddities like this.

Conclusion

AppleSnake2 is not a good game by conventional metrics. It is not a bad one either. It simply is. It is a functional, albeit rudimentary, execution of a known formula. Its narrative possesses an unintentional, almost zen-like purity, and its gameplay offers a brief, undemanding distraction. As a historical object, it is infinitely more interesting than it is as a piece of entertainment. It is a snapshot of a specific moment in time, a product of a developer learning their craft publicly, and a testament to the fact that anyone can bring a game to market. AppleSnake2‘s definitive place in video game history is as a speck of dust on the grand mosaic of the industry—a tiny, forgotten, but perfectly formed example of the sheer volume and variety of creative expression that the digital age has enabled.