Looking back in recent memory, I can’t think of a single year that’s more stacked with incredible games than 2017. It felt like both indies and triple A developers were pumping out hit after hit: Breath of the Wild, Cuphead, Nier Automata, Nex Machina, Sonic Mania… we could go on and on. As excited as I was for all of these titles however, there was something even bigger on my mind: the revival of the 3D platformer, my childhood genre. 2017 absolutely delivered in spades, with some instant favorites (A Hat in Time), some flawed yet interesting gems (Skylar & Plux), some daunting reinventions that I played a bit of and didn’t finish for some reason or another (Super Mario Odyssey), and some of the 3D platformers of all time (Yooka Laylee).
In the midst of all of this chaos, was Snake Pass. I’d been following the game from its inception to launch day, and bought it without a second thought at the end of March. You play as a cute happy snake named Noodle slithering your way through abandoned yet breathtaking ruins in the wilderness accompanied by a David Wise soundtrack (which by the way, is probably his most overlooked contribution, please give it some love); how the hell could I possibly dislike this? Yet, I found myself getting filtered within a few days; Noodle just felt a bit too sluggish on the ground, and I couldn’t figure out why I kept slipping and falling from the dangling bamboo poles, constantly respawning and losing all my collectible progress because it wasn’t saved until I manually touched checkpoints. So, I shelved it unceremoniously, and wouldn’t pick it back up until many years later.
Let it be known; 2017 me was an idiot. Snake Pass slaps.
The world wasn’t ready for Snake Pass. I wasn’t ready for Snake Pass. I came in expecting a classic 3D platformer collectathon, with tons of jumping, climbing, and grabbing. I was ready for some combat here and there via tons of scattered minions and flashy boss fights, and of course, was mentally prepared for plenty of gimmick levels in the form of vehicle sections, card/fishing minigames, and maybe a turret or twinstick shooter or two. As is, I think we’ve just taken for granted how formulaic much of the genre has become from its predecessors, and that’s totally fine considering the nostalgia that’s baked into these projects.
What I got instead, was a deconstruction of every convention of the genre as we know it. There’s no “jump” button, because you’re a goddamn snake. Instead, you must rely on three basic forms of movement to cling and glide through various floating isles of peril, filled with spike traps, smoldering coals, illuminative pools, and tons of harrowing gaps of thin air itself. The analog stick controls your head on a horizontal axis relative to the camera (think: moving left and right), the A button tilts Noodle’s head up (while it naturally slumps down due to gravity), and the right trigger moves Noodle forward. The controls are deceptively simple to pick up, but quite difficult to master, and successfully navigating and climbing your way through the separated platform obstacle courses while picking up every collectible and utilizing Noodle’s body to the fullest extent is one hell of a challenge that no other game has ever attempted, much less pulled off.
One of the game’s most well known mottos is “think like a snake;” that is, you can’t approach Snake Pass the same way that you’d approach your classic humanoid mascot 3D platformer. Noodle’s body behind the controllable head is both your greatest strength, and your greatest weakness. See, the body actually consists of 35 connected sphere segments much more similarly to that of a real snake, and the game constantly checks to see if these spheres are in contact with a surface or one another. That’s why the classic S shape slither and curviness of the snake’s body is crucial for maintaining speed. It then follows that as this giant interconnected body, if the head moves in one direction, the body will naturally follow too. As such, the body and the head must be considered in tandem to both move Noodle along platforms/structures and anchor Noodle to contraptions so he doesn’t fall off. The possibilities that stem from this are endless; you can dangle the tail from a rotating pole to collect wisps, you could use your tail to propel Noodle up onto a wall and “slither up,” you could wrap Noodle’s tail around a stationary pole and then slowly extend the head and wrap that head around another pole to complete the transfer, and so much more.
Let me put this all in context with an example to better demonstrate the creativity that Snake Pass’s physics and controls allow for. Consider the following segment made up of a wind tunnel and a bamboo awning in front of the wind tunnel, with the wind currents flowing in the direction towards the bamboo awning. The goal here is to collect the red keystone (one of three) to unlock the portal, but of course, it’s no easy task considering the wind will quickly destabilize Noodle and blow him into the abyss.
So what’s the best approach to take? Do you start slithering on the pole structure and wrap Noodle’s body around the closest vertical pole to the red keystone, slowly extending his head until he contacts the keystone? Do you “climb up” the small ridge to the wind tunnel’s front-left and quickly extract the red keystone from the side? Or, do you take the stylish approach and slither up and behind the wind tunnel, “falling” into the wind tunnel core and being blown into the red keystone and quickly wrapping around one of the poles after exiting the wind tunnel to avoid falling off? I’ve tested all three of these approaches and as it turns out, I've found all three to be completely viable. Simply put, if the problem is collecting wisps, keystones, and coins while successfully exploiting Noodle’s body to avoid falling/dying, then the engine and controls absolutely give the player many forms of viable solutions with little, if any railroading into the “correct” choice.
To add onto the degree of freedom allowed, there are two additional tools that further flip the concept of Snake Pass on its head and allow for even more variety with their own respective downsides. Firstly, the left trigger will cause Noodle to tense up and is referred to as the “grip;” doing so will tighten Noodle’s entire body and make it easier for Noodle to stay anchored to pole structures, especially useful during various parts with rotating pole contraptions where gravity becomes enemy #1. The cost here is that doing so will of course, stifle Noodle’s motility, so figuring out when to hold grip and to let go when moving onto the next obstacles is key to avoid getting too complacent and getting stuck in unfavorable situations.
The second additional tool comes in the form of Noodle’s companion, a hummingbird named Doodle. Pressing the Y button will cause Doodle to pick up Noodle’s tail, which is extremely useful in a jam when you need to reduce the weight of Noodle’s body for movement or elevate the tail onto a platform or pole. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve successfully had Doodle do this to avoid slipping off of platform edges and successfully slither back onto safe ground. The con here is that by taking away the active weight of Noodle’s tail, you won’t be able to use Noodle’s tail as an anchor to remain attached to pole structures or as a coil/pedestal to propel Noodle up walls and ledges. Thus, this push and pull through Snake Pass’s physics and various “safety nets” forces players to think critically of how to best control and exploit Noodle’s movement to successfully navigate the dangerous environments.
I’ve joked about this in the past with friends, in that I consider Snake Pass to be the ideal streaming game; that is, I've always found this game to be interesting to both play and stream. When players pick up the controller for the first time, it’s an often frustrating (and admittingly pretty funny) experience. They constantly find themselves sliding off of poles due to not properly anchoring the body onto structures, or bonking the head onto walls and poles while climbing up & down and slipping into the abyss, or perhaps reflecting my aforementioned annoyance at how slow Noodle seems at first if you’re not actively utilizing the slither pattern on the ground. I’m not going to pretend that the game is perfect either; I understand the obsession for wanting to collect every single thing in the stage and losing progress over and over to deaths (even if upon my replays, I did find that checkpoints are not spaced as far apart as I remember and there’s no real benefit to collecting everything at once; Snake Vision to quickly point out collectibles is unlocked after beating the game initially), and mastering the controls and methodology to the climbing and gripping is definitely a hefty endeavor.
Having said that, once I did get a hang of the controls and problem solving of snagging collectibles without untimely doom, I became really affectionate towards the experience itself. It’s really hard to put down what “good” gamefeel is like, but once it finally clicked, the fluidity and sheer absurdity of what I was able to do with Noodle brought upon this visceral satisfaction that I honestly can’t say many games have been able to match. The closest comparison I can bring to mind is finally figuring out how to “fall” into everything in Gravity Rush Remastered rapid-fire or the sheer number of tricks I was able to successfully perform while sliding and skating around in Jet Set Radio Future. If you're curious, just take a quick look at some of the insane shit they're able to pull off in a speedrun back in 2018. Even the game leans into this, with much of the replay value coming from 100%ing by snagging all the collectibles, as well as an unlockable speedrun mode and arcade mode to further put your execution to the test. As trite as this sounds, there’s really no other game that does what Snake Pass accomplishes, and while the learning curve may be steep, I think there’s real value in niche games like this that are easy to pick up yet difficult to master.
So please don’t make the same mistake that I made. Snake Pass is a bold and radical reinvention of everything the 3D platformer stood for, and in many ways was and still is one of the biggest shocks the gaming industry has ever had. It’s a perfect example of how subtraction can lead to innovation, of how satisfaction can stem not just from speed but also from mastery, and as a calculated and focused product compared to many of its peers, it's an emblematic example of how trying to do something different yet realized is exactly the kind of shake-up that we never knew we needed, but absolutely should desperately want and support.
We don’t deserve Snake Pass, but for what it's worth, I'll always be grateful that we have it.
Sources referenced:
How Snake Pass Works
Snake Pass Biology: Getting Technical
The Story of Snake Pass
Snake Pass - Nitro Rad
The Story of Snake Pass' Origin from Creator Seb Liese
Snake Pass - How to Play
Game Analysis | Snake Pass - Reinventing Locomotion
In the midst of all of this chaos, was Snake Pass. I’d been following the game from its inception to launch day, and bought it without a second thought at the end of March. You play as a cute happy snake named Noodle slithering your way through abandoned yet breathtaking ruins in the wilderness accompanied by a David Wise soundtrack (which by the way, is probably his most overlooked contribution, please give it some love); how the hell could I possibly dislike this? Yet, I found myself getting filtered within a few days; Noodle just felt a bit too sluggish on the ground, and I couldn’t figure out why I kept slipping and falling from the dangling bamboo poles, constantly respawning and losing all my collectible progress because it wasn’t saved until I manually touched checkpoints. So, I shelved it unceremoniously, and wouldn’t pick it back up until many years later.
Let it be known; 2017 me was an idiot. Snake Pass slaps.
The world wasn’t ready for Snake Pass. I wasn’t ready for Snake Pass. I came in expecting a classic 3D platformer collectathon, with tons of jumping, climbing, and grabbing. I was ready for some combat here and there via tons of scattered minions and flashy boss fights, and of course, was mentally prepared for plenty of gimmick levels in the form of vehicle sections, card/fishing minigames, and maybe a turret or twinstick shooter or two. As is, I think we’ve just taken for granted how formulaic much of the genre has become from its predecessors, and that’s totally fine considering the nostalgia that’s baked into these projects.
What I got instead, was a deconstruction of every convention of the genre as we know it. There’s no “jump” button, because you’re a goddamn snake. Instead, you must rely on three basic forms of movement to cling and glide through various floating isles of peril, filled with spike traps, smoldering coals, illuminative pools, and tons of harrowing gaps of thin air itself. The analog stick controls your head on a horizontal axis relative to the camera (think: moving left and right), the A button tilts Noodle’s head up (while it naturally slumps down due to gravity), and the right trigger moves Noodle forward. The controls are deceptively simple to pick up, but quite difficult to master, and successfully navigating and climbing your way through the separated platform obstacle courses while picking up every collectible and utilizing Noodle’s body to the fullest extent is one hell of a challenge that no other game has ever attempted, much less pulled off.
One of the game’s most well known mottos is “think like a snake;” that is, you can’t approach Snake Pass the same way that you’d approach your classic humanoid mascot 3D platformer. Noodle’s body behind the controllable head is both your greatest strength, and your greatest weakness. See, the body actually consists of 35 connected sphere segments much more similarly to that of a real snake, and the game constantly checks to see if these spheres are in contact with a surface or one another. That’s why the classic S shape slither and curviness of the snake’s body is crucial for maintaining speed. It then follows that as this giant interconnected body, if the head moves in one direction, the body will naturally follow too. As such, the body and the head must be considered in tandem to both move Noodle along platforms/structures and anchor Noodle to contraptions so he doesn’t fall off. The possibilities that stem from this are endless; you can dangle the tail from a rotating pole to collect wisps, you could use your tail to propel Noodle up onto a wall and “slither up,” you could wrap Noodle’s tail around a stationary pole and then slowly extend the head and wrap that head around another pole to complete the transfer, and so much more.
Let me put this all in context with an example to better demonstrate the creativity that Snake Pass’s physics and controls allow for. Consider the following segment made up of a wind tunnel and a bamboo awning in front of the wind tunnel, with the wind currents flowing in the direction towards the bamboo awning. The goal here is to collect the red keystone (one of three) to unlock the portal, but of course, it’s no easy task considering the wind will quickly destabilize Noodle and blow him into the abyss.
So what’s the best approach to take? Do you start slithering on the pole structure and wrap Noodle’s body around the closest vertical pole to the red keystone, slowly extending his head until he contacts the keystone? Do you “climb up” the small ridge to the wind tunnel’s front-left and quickly extract the red keystone from the side? Or, do you take the stylish approach and slither up and behind the wind tunnel, “falling” into the wind tunnel core and being blown into the red keystone and quickly wrapping around one of the poles after exiting the wind tunnel to avoid falling off? I’ve tested all three of these approaches and as it turns out, I've found all three to be completely viable. Simply put, if the problem is collecting wisps, keystones, and coins while successfully exploiting Noodle’s body to avoid falling/dying, then the engine and controls absolutely give the player many forms of viable solutions with little, if any railroading into the “correct” choice.
To add onto the degree of freedom allowed, there are two additional tools that further flip the concept of Snake Pass on its head and allow for even more variety with their own respective downsides. Firstly, the left trigger will cause Noodle to tense up and is referred to as the “grip;” doing so will tighten Noodle’s entire body and make it easier for Noodle to stay anchored to pole structures, especially useful during various parts with rotating pole contraptions where gravity becomes enemy #1. The cost here is that doing so will of course, stifle Noodle’s motility, so figuring out when to hold grip and to let go when moving onto the next obstacles is key to avoid getting too complacent and getting stuck in unfavorable situations.
The second additional tool comes in the form of Noodle’s companion, a hummingbird named Doodle. Pressing the Y button will cause Doodle to pick up Noodle’s tail, which is extremely useful in a jam when you need to reduce the weight of Noodle’s body for movement or elevate the tail onto a platform or pole. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve successfully had Doodle do this to avoid slipping off of platform edges and successfully slither back onto safe ground. The con here is that by taking away the active weight of Noodle’s tail, you won’t be able to use Noodle’s tail as an anchor to remain attached to pole structures or as a coil/pedestal to propel Noodle up walls and ledges. Thus, this push and pull through Snake Pass’s physics and various “safety nets” forces players to think critically of how to best control and exploit Noodle’s movement to successfully navigate the dangerous environments.
I’ve joked about this in the past with friends, in that I consider Snake Pass to be the ideal streaming game; that is, I've always found this game to be interesting to both play and stream. When players pick up the controller for the first time, it’s an often frustrating (and admittingly pretty funny) experience. They constantly find themselves sliding off of poles due to not properly anchoring the body onto structures, or bonking the head onto walls and poles while climbing up & down and slipping into the abyss, or perhaps reflecting my aforementioned annoyance at how slow Noodle seems at first if you’re not actively utilizing the slither pattern on the ground. I’m not going to pretend that the game is perfect either; I understand the obsession for wanting to collect every single thing in the stage and losing progress over and over to deaths (even if upon my replays, I did find that checkpoints are not spaced as far apart as I remember and there’s no real benefit to collecting everything at once; Snake Vision to quickly point out collectibles is unlocked after beating the game initially), and mastering the controls and methodology to the climbing and gripping is definitely a hefty endeavor.
Having said that, once I did get a hang of the controls and problem solving of snagging collectibles without untimely doom, I became really affectionate towards the experience itself. It’s really hard to put down what “good” gamefeel is like, but once it finally clicked, the fluidity and sheer absurdity of what I was able to do with Noodle brought upon this visceral satisfaction that I honestly can’t say many games have been able to match. The closest comparison I can bring to mind is finally figuring out how to “fall” into everything in Gravity Rush Remastered rapid-fire or the sheer number of tricks I was able to successfully perform while sliding and skating around in Jet Set Radio Future. If you're curious, just take a quick look at some of the insane shit they're able to pull off in a speedrun back in 2018. Even the game leans into this, with much of the replay value coming from 100%ing by snagging all the collectibles, as well as an unlockable speedrun mode and arcade mode to further put your execution to the test. As trite as this sounds, there’s really no other game that does what Snake Pass accomplishes, and while the learning curve may be steep, I think there’s real value in niche games like this that are easy to pick up yet difficult to master.
So please don’t make the same mistake that I made. Snake Pass is a bold and radical reinvention of everything the 3D platformer stood for, and in many ways was and still is one of the biggest shocks the gaming industry has ever had. It’s a perfect example of how subtraction can lead to innovation, of how satisfaction can stem not just from speed but also from mastery, and as a calculated and focused product compared to many of its peers, it's an emblematic example of how trying to do something different yet realized is exactly the kind of shake-up that we never knew we needed, but absolutely should desperately want and support.
We don’t deserve Snake Pass, but for what it's worth, I'll always be grateful that we have it.
Sources referenced:
How Snake Pass Works
Snake Pass Biology: Getting Technical
The Story of Snake Pass
Snake Pass - Nitro Rad
The Story of Snake Pass' Origin from Creator Seb Liese
Snake Pass - How to Play
Game Analysis | Snake Pass - Reinventing Locomotion
Suggested by @Drax for this list.
A while back I did a review of Ty the Tasmanian Tiger. I specifically pointed out that one level featured no jumping, which I said was ridiculous for a 3D Platformer. Removing jumping in a game focused on 3D movement is a bold choice. Jumping is the players main and usually only way to interact with the Z-Axis in a 3D Platformer. Removing that interaction is a decision that the developers of Ty made rather flippantly.
By comparison, Snake Pass feels much more deliberate. In a genre about moving around in 3D spaces, the simple act of moving forward can take some conscious effort. In the game, ground movement is fastest when you move in a zigzag pattern as opposed to simply moving forward. While not hard, it’s certainly more conscious to wiggle the control stick back and forth rather than just push forward. This mirrors real life, as many snakes themselves move in this zigzag pattern. This philosophy applies to the whole game, with the important note that it’s still a fantastical setting. Snakes can’t jump. They can do quick attacks that may look like jumps, but there’s nothing to attack in this game. The most vertical distance you can gain in this game is raising your head a small amount. As such, all platforming is done by climbing things. Wrapping around protruding surfaces and using them as foundation for more movement, extending from a platform to get a collectible or maybe take a slither of faith hoping you land on another nearby platform. Your other tools aside from slithering and lifting your head are a button to hold your grip and a bird friend that will lift your tail. That last one may sound a little overpowered, but the bird can lift only the tail, and it also results in no counterweight to the head when you’re dangling off of a pole or the like. It’s all fairly simple, but it allows for a decent amount of varied platforming and a little nuance. It’s almost puzzle-like in how it works, as often there’s multiple ways to tackle a challenge, but experimentation can find one particular way that works really well.
One interesting element of the level design is that the complexity of platforms actually decreased as the game went on. Earlier on, there were wooden structures with several protrusions one could use to pull themselves up with, but by the end, platforms had much less support. This isn’t to say the level design became lazy, it was consistently solid throughout. The game has a linear progression of levels, but the levels themselves are non-linear, and you can collect the three gems needed to proceed in any order. The first set of levels is pretty tame, which makes sense considering how unconventional this game is, but in due time you’re dealing with more and more moving platforms and diagonal structures. I was worried early on that the checkpoint system would create issues. It’s basic, with no lives and the simple system of respawning at the last checkpoint and losing all item progress. Generally I’m fine with this ’’’’outdated’’’’ system, but considering this game is all-or-nothing in terms of health and a movement system that could make excessive backtracking annoying, I was kinda worried. However, the game thankfully positions checkpoint near the most challenging segments, optional or not.
While I think the level design is good, it definitely feels a little monotonous to an extent. While the latter three worlds do feature at least one main mixup, the implementation of these is mixed. This game features some pretty solid sections in the water level, for example. However, the third world just introduces lava, which doesn’t really do anything the previous established threats of pits and spikes couldn’t. The last world’s gimmick is by far the most consistently present, being wind. It requires you to be very careful in many cases, but in others it allows for more speed and freedom than ever before. While we’re on problems, there’s these switches that you have to pull to activate platforms and the like. While pulling these switches with your snake body is initially novel, the utilization of these switches remain the same from start to end. More could’ve been done to add more unique environmental interaction here.
The problem of monotonous theming extends to the visuals as well. The game’s world are themed around grass, water, fire, and air. Already this is pretty underwhelming, but the individual worlds just look very similar. The most stark difference are just lighting and skybox changes. This comes with the tradeoff of very polished visuals. The wider game has a jungle ruins theme, and it’s all very bright and colorful. However I still feel the lack of visual variety is worth mentioning. We have some great music here though. That’s because the composer was David Wise, known for the first two Donkey Kong Country games, composed for this game too. I’m not sure if his soundtrack here is as strong as those two, but it’s great regardless. It fits the tone and theme of the game and is just generally very good.
This is probably one of the shorter reviews that I’ve done for this list, but Snake Pass is a pretty simple game. It knows exactly what it is and doesn’t bog itself down with unnecessary fluff. No combat, No pointless diversion, and little story. However, it’s also a very novel game throughout its short length. In that spirit of brevity, I’m gonna end it here. This was a very good game, and one of the better 3D Platformers I’ve played. 7/10, honestly close to an 8.
A while back I did a review of Ty the Tasmanian Tiger. I specifically pointed out that one level featured no jumping, which I said was ridiculous for a 3D Platformer. Removing jumping in a game focused on 3D movement is a bold choice. Jumping is the players main and usually only way to interact with the Z-Axis in a 3D Platformer. Removing that interaction is a decision that the developers of Ty made rather flippantly.
By comparison, Snake Pass feels much more deliberate. In a genre about moving around in 3D spaces, the simple act of moving forward can take some conscious effort. In the game, ground movement is fastest when you move in a zigzag pattern as opposed to simply moving forward. While not hard, it’s certainly more conscious to wiggle the control stick back and forth rather than just push forward. This mirrors real life, as many snakes themselves move in this zigzag pattern. This philosophy applies to the whole game, with the important note that it’s still a fantastical setting. Snakes can’t jump. They can do quick attacks that may look like jumps, but there’s nothing to attack in this game. The most vertical distance you can gain in this game is raising your head a small amount. As such, all platforming is done by climbing things. Wrapping around protruding surfaces and using them as foundation for more movement, extending from a platform to get a collectible or maybe take a slither of faith hoping you land on another nearby platform. Your other tools aside from slithering and lifting your head are a button to hold your grip and a bird friend that will lift your tail. That last one may sound a little overpowered, but the bird can lift only the tail, and it also results in no counterweight to the head when you’re dangling off of a pole or the like. It’s all fairly simple, but it allows for a decent amount of varied platforming and a little nuance. It’s almost puzzle-like in how it works, as often there’s multiple ways to tackle a challenge, but experimentation can find one particular way that works really well.
One interesting element of the level design is that the complexity of platforms actually decreased as the game went on. Earlier on, there were wooden structures with several protrusions one could use to pull themselves up with, but by the end, platforms had much less support. This isn’t to say the level design became lazy, it was consistently solid throughout. The game has a linear progression of levels, but the levels themselves are non-linear, and you can collect the three gems needed to proceed in any order. The first set of levels is pretty tame, which makes sense considering how unconventional this game is, but in due time you’re dealing with more and more moving platforms and diagonal structures. I was worried early on that the checkpoint system would create issues. It’s basic, with no lives and the simple system of respawning at the last checkpoint and losing all item progress. Generally I’m fine with this ’’’’outdated’’’’ system, but considering this game is all-or-nothing in terms of health and a movement system that could make excessive backtracking annoying, I was kinda worried. However, the game thankfully positions checkpoint near the most challenging segments, optional or not.
While I think the level design is good, it definitely feels a little monotonous to an extent. While the latter three worlds do feature at least one main mixup, the implementation of these is mixed. This game features some pretty solid sections in the water level, for example. However, the third world just introduces lava, which doesn’t really do anything the previous established threats of pits and spikes couldn’t. The last world’s gimmick is by far the most consistently present, being wind. It requires you to be very careful in many cases, but in others it allows for more speed and freedom than ever before. While we’re on problems, there’s these switches that you have to pull to activate platforms and the like. While pulling these switches with your snake body is initially novel, the utilization of these switches remain the same from start to end. More could’ve been done to add more unique environmental interaction here.
The problem of monotonous theming extends to the visuals as well. The game’s world are themed around grass, water, fire, and air. Already this is pretty underwhelming, but the individual worlds just look very similar. The most stark difference are just lighting and skybox changes. This comes with the tradeoff of very polished visuals. The wider game has a jungle ruins theme, and it’s all very bright and colorful. However I still feel the lack of visual variety is worth mentioning. We have some great music here though. That’s because the composer was David Wise, known for the first two Donkey Kong Country games, composed for this game too. I’m not sure if his soundtrack here is as strong as those two, but it’s great regardless. It fits the tone and theme of the game and is just generally very good.
This is probably one of the shorter reviews that I’ve done for this list, but Snake Pass is a pretty simple game. It knows exactly what it is and doesn’t bog itself down with unnecessary fluff. No combat, No pointless diversion, and little story. However, it’s also a very novel game throughout its short length. In that spirit of brevity, I’m gonna end it here. This was a very good game, and one of the better 3D Platformers I’ve played. 7/10, honestly close to an 8.
Cool concept, the art style and music are great, but it gets very frustrating very fast. The game is too punishing when you die, removing all of the collectibles you've gotten since the last checkpoint, most of which feel very repetitive and pointless to re-collect. The checkpoint system as a whole feels outdated, and would've been improved using something like Celeste where as soon as you're on safe ground the collectible is saved. The difficulty continues to increase and the main objectives of the levels start to be pretty challenging later in the 2nd world, and that's around where I stopped. I feel like most of my deaths were due to the controls not doing what I was trying to do, when I knew exactly what I had to do to in that spot, which is very frustrating. Unfortunate, as it's a neat game and I really wanted to like it.
This is the game that I think Stray wanted to be but it is obviously a snake and not a cat. You are a snake, man. What more do you expect? But, here's the thing, please consider this. Platforming, but as a snake.
Everything about this game, from the tiny details, to the balls to the walls platforming is completely built around the fact that you are a snake, no ifs, ands, OR buts, bucko. You might think that is dumb as bananas, but where I come from we slurp up the crumbs of unique gameplay like it's the last bit we're gonna get for years. (Because it is.)
This game should have won 2017 Game of the Year, and you know it.
Everything about this game, from the tiny details, to the balls to the walls platforming is completely built around the fact that you are a snake, no ifs, ands, OR buts, bucko. You might think that is dumb as bananas, but where I come from we slurp up the crumbs of unique gameplay like it's the last bit we're gonna get for years. (Because it is.)
This game should have won 2017 Game of the Year, and you know it.
Pros: this really actually feels like what it would be like to be a snake.
Cons: being a snake blows
Cons: being a snake blows
I'm weirdly attached to this game and I can't say I understand why. Its therapeutic in a sense and going for 100% completion is a simple, satisfying affair: No obnoxious backtracking, no excess of cutscenes, no required powerups, just you in a world with collectibles to go get
Also you're a snake and the controls are funny but cool :)
Also you're a snake and the controls are funny but cool :)
Being a snake is more fun than I would've thought
more like snake AS[i am taken out back and shot]
it’s a cool physics based 3d platformer but i don’t think the core mechanic sustains its fun over an entire game
it’s a cool physics based 3d platformer but i don’t think the core mechanic sustains its fun over an entire game
An extremely innovative game that I am bad at playing. That music from David Wise tho!
God, I wish I could purge this game from my memory and play it all again. Mostly because then I might find the motivation to 100% again after losing my save file to the void.
Adding on that that I'm not a big platformer guy, but this absolutely hooked me. The controls are so unique and cool!
Adding on that that I'm not a big platformer guy, but this absolutely hooked me. The controls are so unique and cool!
Cute "platform" game. Very interesting movement mechanics (you can't jump at all and you have to move just like a snake does). Reminds me of N64-era Rare games, both in terms of design and visuals. Definitively not as difficult as some reviews out there claim, the game just doesn't hold your hand.
If you are remotely interested in snakes and games with the charm of early 3D platformers (with modern sensibilities), it's definitely worth playing.
Jogo de plataforma bonitinho. Mecânicas de movimento muito interessantes (você não consegue pular e você precisa se mover da mesma forma que uma cobra). Lembra os jogos da Rare da época do Nintendo 64, tanto em termos de design quanto de visual. Definitivamente não é tão difícil quanto algumas resenhas por aí afirmam, o jogo simplesmente não segura sua mão.
Se você é remotamente interessado em cobras e jogos com o charme de plataformers 3D iniciais (com sensibilidades modernas), definitivamente vale a pena jogar.
If you are remotely interested in snakes and games with the charm of early 3D platformers (with modern sensibilities), it's definitely worth playing.
Jogo de plataforma bonitinho. Mecânicas de movimento muito interessantes (você não consegue pular e você precisa se mover da mesma forma que uma cobra). Lembra os jogos da Rare da época do Nintendo 64, tanto em termos de design quanto de visual. Definitivamente não é tão difícil quanto algumas resenhas por aí afirmam, o jogo simplesmente não segura sua mão.
Se você é remotamente interessado em cobras e jogos com o charme de plataformers 3D iniciais (com sensibilidades modernas), definitivamente vale a pena jogar.
Very well thought out and unique platformer, it makes you see 3D spaces differently and for that I can't appreciate it enough.
someone smarter than me is good at this game i’m sure
I actually loved this game but it's just too darn short. Evidently they ran out of Snek-platforming ideas.
Too clunky for me to enjoy it, but can understand the appeal
I mean, before even playing the game, you know that Snake Pass will be very good, you get to control a cute, friendly snake! The fact that actually playing the game is also wonderful is just a bonus. The control scheme of Noodle is a really interesting one that is particularly effective at making you entirely rethink how to approach even the most basic of platforming challenges, replacing thoughts of jumping to new areas with understanding how to slither up the bits of environment surrounding you. It ends up having a dynamic more akin to a puzzle platformer than a more traditional one, where almost every obstacle's challenge stems from working out how to approach something as opposed to the execution of that approach itself.
It's not as if the game doesn't require good execution at all either though, since the control scheme is initially pretty tough to wrap your head around all the intricacies of, particularly the careful balance you often need to strike between being very meticulous and being fast. The level design plays into this very nicely as well, with a lot of sections being built in such a way that you're able to bypass a lot of seemingly difficult challenges if you fully come to terms with the nuances of your movement, leading to an experience that feels rife with discovery that largely feels self-motivated. It goes a long way in making you feel like you're beginning to understand the unconventional methods you need to take to accomplish basic traversal without feeling directly enforced either, leading to a unique experience in a way that isn't as immediately apparent as the fact that you're playing as a snake.
The presentation elevates things that bit further as well, with the beautiful, lush environments and fantastic soundtrack making it pretty pleasant to exist in these levels even if you're stuck at a particular section for an extended period of time while you're further refining your movement. One thing I think would've been nice is something to have added a bit more variety to the individual stages though, as while what the 15 levels here have still make for a fun time, it does begin to wear out its welcome a tiny bit by the final couple, and I think it's just because of the lack of real variety beyond a couple of clever obstacles that still didn't feel like quite enough to differentiate one level from the next. It's definitely not a dealbreaker since there's some appeal in coiling around the various poles and platforms to reach greater heights even after you've done it countless times, but some more unique stage elements would definitely elevate this further. Even with that said though, this is great, would highly recommend for people to play this if they're interested in seeing a rather fresh take on collectathons.
It's not as if the game doesn't require good execution at all either though, since the control scheme is initially pretty tough to wrap your head around all the intricacies of, particularly the careful balance you often need to strike between being very meticulous and being fast. The level design plays into this very nicely as well, with a lot of sections being built in such a way that you're able to bypass a lot of seemingly difficult challenges if you fully come to terms with the nuances of your movement, leading to an experience that feels rife with discovery that largely feels self-motivated. It goes a long way in making you feel like you're beginning to understand the unconventional methods you need to take to accomplish basic traversal without feeling directly enforced either, leading to a unique experience in a way that isn't as immediately apparent as the fact that you're playing as a snake.
The presentation elevates things that bit further as well, with the beautiful, lush environments and fantastic soundtrack making it pretty pleasant to exist in these levels even if you're stuck at a particular section for an extended period of time while you're further refining your movement. One thing I think would've been nice is something to have added a bit more variety to the individual stages though, as while what the 15 levels here have still make for a fun time, it does begin to wear out its welcome a tiny bit by the final couple, and I think it's just because of the lack of real variety beyond a couple of clever obstacles that still didn't feel like quite enough to differentiate one level from the next. It's definitely not a dealbreaker since there's some appeal in coiling around the various poles and platforms to reach greater heights even after you've done it countless times, but some more unique stage elements would definitely elevate this further. Even with that said though, this is great, would highly recommend for people to play this if they're interested in seeing a rather fresh take on collectathons.
The controls aren't bad, you're bad.
I can't do it. I have no idea what I'm doing, and the snake just goes all over the place. It's like trying to piss when you're sloshed.
Filled to the brim with snake-based gameplay, Snake Pass has some of the most immersive snake action you'll find in the world of video games. You very much walk a mile in the shoes of a snake here; you will learn what a snake is worried about when it's slithering thirty feet up in the limbs of a tree. A good snake pass player will figure out how to secure themselves for further snake-manuevering. The best game with a snake since Metal Gear Solid 2
Platformers with unconventional movement systems are hard to come by in a world where everyone is trying to be the next Banjo-Kazooie, but rest assured because Snake Pass has you covered. I picked this game up several years ago after I heard a former LittleBigPlanet creator worked on it and was not disappointed. It's a unique experience that totally delivers on its concept, even if it's not exactly a home run.
Gameplay:
In Snake Pass, you play as a snake, and thus, you move like a snake. The gameplay involves you slithering around the environment and using your noodle-like body to wrap around and climb obstacles. The game pulls this off decently well. You hold the right trigger to slither forward, push a button to raise your head, and use the left stick to move your head around to direct yourself. Gravity does the rest of the work. It's got a learning curve, but luckily, the game has a fairly balanced difficulty throughout to let you improve naturally. Can it be frustrating? Yes, but the fun of playing with the physics can be its own reward... sometimes... There are some parts of the gameplay that feel off though. I swear the button that supposedly helps you hang onto things better does not help at all. I don't know what it is about dying in a pit of spikes/lava, but it just feels so awkward and bad (which is probably the weirdest thing I'll ever say in a review, but I promise it makes sense when you're playing the game). This is undoubtedly the most nitpicky of my complaints, but falling off of ledges feels really bad and I always mentally wince whenever it happens. But hey, I may complain and nitpick, but I do still absolutely have to give the developers props for pulling off the movement system to begin with. To my knowledge, it hadn't been done before and I don't think it has been done since.
The gameplay loop sees you climbing through levels and collecting three main collectibles in each, oftentimes doing some light puzzle-solving along the way. It's a little monotonous, but luckily, the game's many levels are always throwing new challenges at you to test your slithering skills to varying degree of success... Oh my GOSH the lava area drives me NUTS. I just have to say it. I have nightmares about the levels in that section. Anyway, the game also gives you a nice amount of side objectives to pursue. There's several blue orbs throughout the levels, often placed in risky locations. They make for a nice way to add some extra challenge. Same goes for the three hidden gold coins throughout each level, though they tend to be more annoyingly obscure. There's also extra modes like a time trial mode and an arcade mode which both change the way you play the game. Safe to say this game has a pretty decent amount of content.
Visuals:
This game looks really good. The environments are ridiculously vibrant and gorgeously designed. The UI matches the game's beauty quite well. I do have one small complaint, and it's that the character models look a little weird, especially the lighting on them. The snake's is pretty good at least, but the fact that its mouth is entirely a shade of light pink in the model doesn't look very polished. (The cutscenes being unskippable is also super annoying)
Conclusion:
Though it definitely has its iffy areas, Snake Pass is an overlooked game worth checking out, especially if you're a fan of unconventional movement systems. It's an experience you can't really get anywhere else. I'd recommend it to anyone who enjoys 3D platformers.
Gameplay:
In Snake Pass, you play as a snake, and thus, you move like a snake. The gameplay involves you slithering around the environment and using your noodle-like body to wrap around and climb obstacles. The game pulls this off decently well. You hold the right trigger to slither forward, push a button to raise your head, and use the left stick to move your head around to direct yourself. Gravity does the rest of the work. It's got a learning curve, but luckily, the game has a fairly balanced difficulty throughout to let you improve naturally. Can it be frustrating? Yes, but the fun of playing with the physics can be its own reward... sometimes... There are some parts of the gameplay that feel off though. I swear the button that supposedly helps you hang onto things better does not help at all. I don't know what it is about dying in a pit of spikes/lava, but it just feels so awkward and bad (which is probably the weirdest thing I'll ever say in a review, but I promise it makes sense when you're playing the game). This is undoubtedly the most nitpicky of my complaints, but falling off of ledges feels really bad and I always mentally wince whenever it happens. But hey, I may complain and nitpick, but I do still absolutely have to give the developers props for pulling off the movement system to begin with. To my knowledge, it hadn't been done before and I don't think it has been done since.
The gameplay loop sees you climbing through levels and collecting three main collectibles in each, oftentimes doing some light puzzle-solving along the way. It's a little monotonous, but luckily, the game's many levels are always throwing new challenges at you to test your slithering skills to varying degree of success... Oh my GOSH the lava area drives me NUTS. I just have to say it. I have nightmares about the levels in that section. Anyway, the game also gives you a nice amount of side objectives to pursue. There's several blue orbs throughout the levels, often placed in risky locations. They make for a nice way to add some extra challenge. Same goes for the three hidden gold coins throughout each level, though they tend to be more annoyingly obscure. There's also extra modes like a time trial mode and an arcade mode which both change the way you play the game. Safe to say this game has a pretty decent amount of content.
Visuals:
This game looks really good. The environments are ridiculously vibrant and gorgeously designed. The UI matches the game's beauty quite well. I do have one small complaint, and it's that the character models look a little weird, especially the lighting on them. The snake's is pretty good at least, but the fact that its mouth is entirely a shade of light pink in the model doesn't look very polished. (The cutscenes being unskippable is also super annoying)
Conclusion:
Though it definitely has its iffy areas, Snake Pass is an overlooked game worth checking out, especially if you're a fan of unconventional movement systems. It's an experience you can't really get anywhere else. I'd recommend it to anyone who enjoys 3D platformers.
A really cool physics-based platformer/collectathon that's all about slithering around stuff and trying to not fall into the endless abyss.
This game made my fingers feel like a pretzel. It feels like a modern-day rendition of QWOP, but this time with lush environments, an extremely catchy soundtrack by David Wise, and an adorable cartoon snake.
The game's main draw is its unorthodox control scheme, and how the levels are built around being a snake. All of the levels are inventive in their own way, and all have a smattering of collectibles to find along the way. Unfortunately, many of the later stages really felt like they began to overstay their welcome, and there's only 15 levels on top of that, so the game is simultaneously too short AND exhausting to play.
I'd say this game is still worth a shot, but I can tell it won't click with a lot of people. I still enjoyed myself though.
The game's main draw is its unorthodox control scheme, and how the levels are built around being a snake. All of the levels are inventive in their own way, and all have a smattering of collectibles to find along the way. Unfortunately, many of the later stages really felt like they began to overstay their welcome, and there's only 15 levels on top of that, so the game is simultaneously too short AND exhausting to play.
I'd say this game is still worth a shot, but I can tell it won't click with a lot of people. I still enjoyed myself though.
snek goes brrrrrrrrrrrrr
Lot of fun, very rewarding to get good at! (Some bs with collectibles notwithstanding)
This game has totally the Rare's spirit from the early 00's: a platform game with side collectibles to get, starring a charismatic animal duo traveling through levels.
Innovating in the genre with the mechanics to pass through platforms (maybe weird at first, but sure one of the best points).
The bad thing is that it's too short. Also too short for its price.
Innovating in the genre with the mechanics to pass through platforms (maybe weird at first, but sure one of the best points).
The bad thing is that it's too short. Also too short for its price.
Really unique puzzle-platformer involving twisting and coiling around poles to traverse chasms and climb towers. Had some decent fun with this, mainly for how enjoyable it is to control Noodle for the most part. I wish they had either introduced some new mechanics to the game, or spiced things up even further past World 4. Once you get the hang of wrapping around poles, you've kinda got the game figured out, and I hit that point around World 2. Good game, glad it exists and that I played it.
Pros:
+ Insanely interesting and creative platforming
+ Fun to 100%
+ Groovy music
+ Funny characters
+ Fascinating world design
+ While the game is on the smaller side, it's a great proof of concept and doesn't cost much
Cons:
- Lighting - especially in the sunset levels - can make the game look really ugly and basically remove the nice cel-shading -like effect from the rest of the game
- While the controls do work, it does feel like the character's game feel could still use a bit more polish (maybe by adding hurtbox balls inside the snake's movement rail)
- 100%:ing the game is fun, but it comes with no reward at all
+ Insanely interesting and creative platforming
+ Fun to 100%
+ Groovy music
+ Funny characters
+ Fascinating world design
+ While the game is on the smaller side, it's a great proof of concept and doesn't cost much
Cons:
- Lighting - especially in the sunset levels - can make the game look really ugly and basically remove the nice cel-shading -like effect from the rest of the game
- While the controls do work, it does feel like the character's game feel could still use a bit more polish (maybe by adding hurtbox balls inside the snake's movement rail)
- 100%:ing the game is fun, but it comes with no reward at all
Perhaps the last of the great streamer bait titans, right before the genre switched from endearing one-trick-pony memes into grating merchandise clowns obsessed with their own neverending, crappy lore. Once again, there's only the one joke/trick going on here - but it's a solid enough one to make this feel almost like a diet Yooka-Laylee/Banjo Kazooie when it's at its best. The snake's a cute character, and the intentionally rage-inducing controls feel complicated enough to be funny but good enough to feel natural. Fun, lightly innovative, and has personality but - like most of these - nothing you'll feel like picking up too often after a few days with it.
weirdest 3d platformer I have ever played, and I love it for that.
Successfully controlling Noodle the Snake is a challenging endeavor but a satisfying one; however, the slow, precise gameplay and a serious lack of variety means the game becomes less engaging over time. Still, who can say no to that cute snake face. Oooh I just wanna kiss him.