Legendary classic 'Snood' arrives on Xbox One, Windows 10 via the Microsoft Store

Snood on Xbox One
Snood on Xbox One (Image credit: Daniel Rubino/Windows Central)

What you need to know

  • Snood was released for PC in 1999.
  • The simple match-bubble game has a cult following.
  • Thanks to Project Centennial it can be played on PC and Xbox.

If the name Snood caused a flashback of the late 1990's sitting in front of a clunky box PC, then you'll be happy with today's news. A few weeks ago, the classic game, which hit PCs back in 1999 (it was initially on Mac OS in 1996), arrived in the Microsoft Store with the ability to work on PC and now Xbox.

Based on Puzzle Bobble (1994), Snood went to win a 2004 Shareware Industry Award and has been one of the most popular timewasters since Solitaire.

The concept is simple. Like Puzzle Bobble, users shoot a randomly generated "snood" at a group of other snoods. When three or more snoods come into contact, they disappear, letting the user clear the board. Unlike similar games of this genre, there is no time limit, but a brick wall will slowly crush you if you do not clear enough snoods and let the danger meter get too high. The game has garnered a cult following, and even Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak considers it one of his favorites from the era.

Source: Daniel Rubino/Windows Central (Image credit: Source: Daniel Rubino/Windows Central)

Snood has been ported to the Microsoft Store through Project Centennial and joins F.lux, CrystalDiskMark, Paint.net amongst some old school software on modern systems. The fact that users can also now play it on Xbox is just icing on the cake.

While the retail price is a jaw-dropping $20, the game is on sale for the next month for just $5. Considering you can play it on all your devices that's not a bad deal to relive some of the glory days of PC shareware. While the game currently does install on Windows 10 on ARM, it unfortunately crashes. The company is looking into a fix.

Bonus trivia: Did you know that the snoods had names? They are Jake (Blue), Midoribe (Green), Mildred (Grey), Spike (Purple), Zod (Red), Geji (Light blue), and Sunny (Yellow).

Daniel Rubino
Editor-in-chief

Daniel Rubino is the Editor-in-chief of Windows Central. He is also the head reviewer, podcast co-host, and analyst. He has been covering Microsoft since 2007, when this site was called WMExperts (and later Windows Phone Central). His interests include Windows, laptops, next-gen computing, and watches. He has been reviewing laptops since 2015 and is particularly fond of 2-in-1 convertibles, ARM processors, new form factors, and thin-and-light PCs. Before all this tech stuff, he worked on a Ph.D. in linguistics, watched people sleep (for medical purposes!), and ran the projectors at movie theaters because it was fun.