Snake Mechanic

Hello

I would like to achieve a snake like movement (not the traditional snake)..... in which i can simply control the movement of the head, and the body will naturally follow behind. Also taking into consideration that it's also in a zero gravity situation as well and flying around a ball.

Exact example of the mechanic:

[SUPER MARIO BOSS: GobbleGut][1] [1]: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UUp2okPdB4

Ive tried 2 ways of doing it:

1) Hinges, character joints + rigid body

However the body seems to get out of control and the physics system flops the snakes body around "un-snake-like".

2) The traditional snake method using arrays and positions, and bumping the position of the body parts down the array.

However ive discovered that the snake must move exactly one unit of distance every time, in order to achieve the affect. Any slow or faster, and the body will clump up or spread apart.

3) Then i tried some funky Maths... but that failed too :(

Would like to ask what would be the best approach i should look into to achieve that mechanic. And to be able to keep the snake in one long body instead of multiple pieces would be a plus too!

Thanks!!