I played the addictive new game Slither.io and now I get why it's topping the App Store
The title screen for Slither.io is significantly more plain than what you'll find with Candy Crush or Crossy Road. After selecting your nickname, or leaving it blank, you're ready to slither!
The gameplay is deceptively simple at first, you're just a worm trying to collect gems to grow larger. The controls are intuitive — touching any part of the screen will move your worm in that direction.
But then you learn — by accident in my case — that double tapping the screen puts you into a "boost mode," letting you move faster. The problem is that boosting costs gems: Ultimately lowering your score, and making you physically smaller. This push-pull dynamic adds an extra layer of complexity.
Since it's a massively multiplayer game, you run into other players often. This is where the real strategy comes into play.
Whenever one player collides with another, the player who crashes dies.
After eliminating a player, their gems are officially up for grabs. The bigger the opponent, the more gems they drop.
Boosting can be useful in this case, as it allows you to outmaneuver other players and get first dibs on their gems. Again, this creates a push and pull where you'll need to ask yourself if the boost is worth it. Will you recoup all the gems you spent boosting?
Still, there's something exciting about seeing who can outsmart who...
...as long as you don't try to bite off more than you can chew.
One of my favorite techniques has become completely circling another player using just the right amount of boost.
The most addicting part of Slither.io is that while you're playing, your rank and the game's leaderboard are updated in real time. It's satisfying to see those numbers fluctuate as you put different strategies to the test.
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