Snake II

A tiny monochrome screen was enough to start a global habit.

Bundled with the Nokia 3310 in 2000, Snake II refined the formula Nokia had introduced on the 6110 three years earlier. There was nothing to buy or install. The game was already inside a phone people carried every day.

Players steered a growing snake across the screen, chasing food while trying not to trap themselves. Snake II gave that simple idea more room to vary, with maze-like stages and other twists that changed how each attempt unfolded without making the game harder to understand.

That accessibility, combined with the enormous reach of the 3310, helped make playing games on a mobile phone feel ordinary long before smartphones and app stores.

Its legacy was putting mobile play into ordinary pockets at vast scale.