Straight to the point: Cobra Rush is a starting step of 105 ms that tightens as you eat, playable in your browser right now. It is tuned for quick runs, honest difficulty, and controls that make sense the first time you touch them.
The snake moves in fixed steps; each pellet eaten adds length and slightly tightens the interval, so the game gets harder the better you do. Walls and your own tail both end the run instantly. The a starting step of 105 ms that tightens as you eat, and the ramp is tuned so mid-game still feels fair.
The loop is deliberately compact: one round takes minutes, improvement is visible, and the next run is one tap away. That makes it a reliable filler for short breaks - and an easy game to recommend to someone who 'does not really play games'.
Grow the longest snake without touching walls or tail.
There are 21 close relatives of Cobra Rush in the catalogue, which is unusual here. Comparing it with Snake Blitz takes about a minute and tells you more than any description.
It is rated 4.4 out of five in our notes, and the number is held up mostly by how quickly it can be restarted rather than by how clever it is.
The companion game to try afterwards is Snake Blitz: same family, different emphasis, and together they show what the Arkad Shelf is actually good at.