Snood (video game)
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Snood is a puzzle video game created in 1996 by David M. Dobson. Today, versions exist for Windows, Mac OS, Palm OS, and other systems, including the TI-83 and TI-84 calculators. It is also a downloadable cell phone game to (at least) Virgin Mobile, Cingular, and Sprint Nextel customers. Snood is a clone of the arcade game, Bust a Move. To quote the instructions, "Snood is a puzzle game which emphasizes thought rather than reflexes."
The pieces in the game are called Snoods. Each turn, the player launches a Snood of randomly-selected color into the playfield. If the Snood lands adjacent to two or more Snoods of the same color, all connecting Snoods of that color vanish and any pieces left unattached beneath the vanished Snoods drop down. The player's score increases with the number of Snoods eliminated. With each Snood launched, a danger meter increases and when it reaches the top, all the Snoods in play lower a level. If the Snoods drop past the lowest level of the playing field, the game is over. Releasing Snoods reduces the "Danger Meter."
The game is extremely simple, but many players also find it to be frustratingly hard at times. Unlike Bust a Move, there is no conventional time limit in Snood; however, players must eliminate snoods efficiently enough to prevent the gradually descending ceiling from crushing them. Many levels also require Snoods to be ricocheted off of walls in order to get them in the appropriate spot, which can be tricky. Snood requires considerable hand-eye coordination and strategy.
Snood is considered to be a difficult game that requires a lot of skill. Despite the fact that it involves no time limit or bloodshed, many of its fans find it highly addictive and competitive.
The different levels of snood are;
Child, (the easiest level, on which the player is allowed to use an aimer), Easy, Medium, Hard, Evil, (the hardest level of the lot), Puzzle, (a different way of playing, instead of finishing when you complete a level you go on to another one which are designed to be challenging) and Journey, (start at child and when completed continue on to easy until you make it to evil which is repeated until you lose).
Snood has been modified in its latest release, to include an "Armageddon" level which adds the element of time to the puzzle. This newest level has added a higher level of difficulty to the game.
Jupiter Media Metrix did a study in 2001 to find the most played games and Snood placed ninth with 1.5 million unique users. This is most notable because most of the games on the list were those that came with various versions of Windows (such as the top ranked game, Solitaire, with 46.7 million users).
A sequel was released on the Nintendo DS and Game Boy Advance in late 2005.
Other games that use the Snood characters include What's New and Snoodoku.
