I'll admit I wanted to like it really bad. It obviously runs on a cute twist on the genre and while it's kind of flat on the presentation side, it's colorful and decently crafted. Never got around the controls, unfortunately, and dropped it on World 2 or something. Have watched a few playthroughs of people with an impressive mastery of the mechanics, kind of sad I never was patient enough to reach that level.
This game has all the style of a classic Nintendo 64 collect-a-thon, but its execution makes it a pale imitation of the greats from that era. The physics based traversal can create some fun scenarios, but the controls often feel like the true enemy as opposed to the level design. Dying and wiping out collected items feels like cheap difficulty. I'd have prefered a more forgiving checkpoint system, as well as more refined controls.
stres kaynağı
I could not complete this. I tried getting into it, and I really wanted to, but couldn't. The game looks good and that, but I couldn't get into the main gimmick of being a snake. I don't think it was ever a good idea and of course the execution lived up to my expectations. I still wanted to try it because I had hopes (and got it for free with Prime), but ended up dropping it.
A perfect video game without flaw
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
A really cool physics-based platformer/collectathon that's all about slithering around stuff and trying to not fall into the endless abyss.
Very well thought out and unique platformer, it makes you see 3D spaces differently and for that I can't appreciate it enough.
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.
A cute and unconventional puzzle-platformer, but with a control scheme you either learn and master or just give up on and quit the game on the first island.
I'm all up for interesting gameplay and controls, so I liked this game overall, though it's very short and offers not that much after completion. An interesting experience nevertheless.
Also I got it for free.
I'm all up for interesting gameplay and controls, so I liked this game overall, though it's very short and offers not that much after completion. An interesting experience nevertheless.
Also I got it for free.
I could not grasp the controls.. so awkward to be a snake..
frustrating but by choice (maybe)
This hurt my brain but damn the snake is cute.
A cool indie 3D platformer with a unique movement system and cool puzzle design. Due to the slow speed I didnt really feel incentivised to explore levels much and only did the main objective which I was fine with. A solid 2 hour experience you can enjoy if you can grasp the controls and physics
q porra é essa que eu joguei
A fun and cute little puzzle collectathon that's a little too slow and clunky for my taste.
То самое чувство, когда игра кажется хорошей, но на самом деле, является аппаратом по вырабатывания стресса.
Игры должны приносить наслаждение, чего я не могу сказать об этом детище Sumo studios. Основной проблемой является криво работающая механика. Невозможно ни нормально проползти под мостом на шесте, ни чего другого. Управление раздражает, другого сказать не могу. Игра либо для ОЧЕНЬ терпеливых, либо для тех, кто по ошибке или не знанию купил эту игру.
Визуально, игра выглядит приятно, музыка не навязчивая. Крайне на любителя.
Игры должны приносить наслаждение, чего я не могу сказать об этом детище Sumo studios. Основной проблемой является криво работающая механика. Невозможно ни нормально проползти под мостом на шесте, ни чего другого. Управление раздражает, другого сказать не могу. Игра либо для ОЧЕНЬ терпеливых, либо для тех, кто по ошибке или не знанию купил эту игру.
Визуально, игра выглядит приятно, музыка не навязчивая. Крайне на любителя.
remember playing this when it came out and i think this game made me angrier than any other video game and i never beat it
Slithering around and climbing through jungle gyms of worlds is a very novel idea for a video game, however in practice it leaves a bit wanting. The biggest issue comes down to just simply the length of levels, which are so long and you can't save in the middle one so you're stuck between a rock and a hard place if you want to play something else and not lose progress. Still, the unique traversal controls work very well and slowly working your way up the terrain is pretty rewarding if slow.
i love noodle ssso much🐍 he’s ssso cute ☺️ i need a plush of him immediately. the 8 bit version of him is cute too. i love messing with his funny facesss lol im glad they made him cartoony and not too realistic looking its more fun :)
and i love that he’s a vegetarian even though he's a dangerous venomous snake lmao
i have just two words for people who find this game too difficult:
• git
• gud
lol idk i think i have a sssnake brain because this game just came sssso naturally to me lol it gave me what i never knew i needed from platforming. its weird it hadnt been made decades ago…
i love how nonlinear the gameplay is. theres no one way to finish a level and theres no one way to navigate all the obstacles.
i kept thinking the game was getting easier but it was just because i kept doing the difficult side challenges first lol
i slipped on ice and ripped up my knuckle making holding a controller a pain along with cat scratches on my other finger and i still had a great time lmao
it’s hilarious watching negative review videos of this game and people are whining about something being hard or whatever and i can literally see in my head the controller and the buttons this person is not pressing to get through something and its always because theyre not interested in learning how to play. theyre not patiently or carefully slithering around the very helpful poles given to them because they want to run and jump and not slither.
the gameplay is great yall just suck at it lol like sorry i enjoy learning a fun new type of gameplay and i dont just play dumb indistinguishable murder simulators or mediocre pokemon sequels or whatever. if youre not into platformers then okay thats fair. but like idk how anyone who enjoys platformers would not enjoy this if they give it a chance and embrace it for what it is? whatever. their loss lol
my only major issue (and tbh its sort of just a minor issue) with the game was the scenery. i love the jungle temple setting but its got just a little too much detail with the plants & decorative temple shit that the camera gets stuck on or it has plants and stones that cover the camera. and swimming underwater is hard to see with all the seaweed and stone blocks everywhere.
also doodle the hummingbird was annoying af always flying in front of the camera i just wanted to violently swat it away. using doodle for help is sorta of like bumpers in bowling. like most often i could do the whole levels without doodle and i just used it out of laziness at times wanting to climb up faster because it was offered lol but like as a last second savior i didnt really need it because this game just came very naturally to me. but i wish it was a dragonfly (even if thats kind of copying sparx the dragonfly from spyro lol) but like i just wanted something smaller and less intrusive on the camera. its even worse when you switch to the 8 bit cosmetic skins and its just a big block in front of the screen -_-
there was a moment where i got a collectable only because i cheated and climbed up a decorative statue that i shouldnt have been able to climb on . if the setting was designed with a little less decorations it wouldnt have been a problem. theres nothing wrong with a little editing guys. the primary appeal here is the gameplay you dont need to do so much to sell it with the art design...
also the decorative floating islands you cant get to needed a different design to better show that theyre not meant to be accessible. they have skull warning signs on them but its not enough because i dont always see them and sometimes end up wasting a minute trying to figure out how to get to a decorative island thats not supposed to be accessible so it makes it confusing where ive been and where i need to go. and theres tops of structures with nothing on them and im like ? why is this here? idk some of it may be a place they put the fruit in arcade mode? i didnt play that too much really tho so i wouldnt know. like its fine tho thats just nitpick it didnt ruin the game.
the checkpoint system was a tiny issue when i forgot what stuff id collected and id think id gotten something then turns out i died during that life lol some of my post game 100% completion task to finish it was just re-collecting stuff id already gotten but forgot to recollect after dying. but it wasnt like bad and only happened a few times. i guess it just should have always saved the collectables whenever youre fully on a flat grass area and leave the checkpoint respawn stones only for a place to go after you die. thats just another little nitpick tho its nothing that frustrating really lol and it only matters if youre a weirdo completionist like me. if youve done all the challenges you care to do and dont care to 100% the game it doesnt matter.
the game works best if you go through all the levels first just focusing on the keystones then do the bubble and coin collectables in the post game for more challenges.
the intro is kinda weird having noodle already on these floating islands? its an odd start like do they live there? lol
like it doesnt matter really. its not a flaw and im not asking for a story to this game (cringe) because thats not the appeal here. but a little cutscene of noodle and doodle arriving at a portal that teleports them up to the floating islands wouldve made more sense to me. but i guess since noodle is a vegetarian he doesnt need to hunt animals if he lives on the floating islands lol whatever.
the 4 elements theme to the 4 worlds is cute. the names of the gods of each world are funny :p
i wish theyd utilized the elements more for each world because its sorta just art design and doesnt affect the gameplay very much.
i like that theres no villians or dumb boss fights or conflicts of any kind. its just lighthearted platforming fun :) it makes the challenges more relaxed. theres no dumb timers or anything to stress you out.
the soundtrack was done by the guy that did the donkey kong country soundtracks so of course thats a plus. i love the water world music. its so groovy and chill :P
the last level had several glitches where id die while sitting idle on grass ? or the hummingbird would throw me off a cliff instead of transporting me to another platform? it fixed itself when i reloaded the level but still it was odd…
i like that the game gives you the sssssuper ssssspecial sssssnake vision post game to find missing collectables easier so you never have to look up anything online. i hate when a game requires or inspires outside help to complete it. a game should always make it clear what you have to do within the game itself. it should always be a self contained experience.
the arcade mode and time trial modes are kinda boring to me. i never understood the appeal of speed running? whatever. happy for ppl who enjoy that but idgaf.
i waited 2 years to buy this on sale and ended up only paying $1.50 for it because of the sale and an added discount from buying other eshop games lmao but i wouldve gladly bought it full price.
so yea this was definitely one of my top favorite gamesss :)
as cynthia harrell would say in beginning of the theme song to metal gear solid 3 sssnake eater:
"what a thrill..."
🐍
✌🏻
and i love that he’s a vegetarian even though he's a dangerous venomous snake lmao
i have just two words for people who find this game too difficult:
• git
• gud
lol idk i think i have a sssnake brain because this game just came sssso naturally to me lol it gave me what i never knew i needed from platforming. its weird it hadnt been made decades ago…
i love how nonlinear the gameplay is. theres no one way to finish a level and theres no one way to navigate all the obstacles.
i kept thinking the game was getting easier but it was just because i kept doing the difficult side challenges first lol
i slipped on ice and ripped up my knuckle making holding a controller a pain along with cat scratches on my other finger and i still had a great time lmao
it’s hilarious watching negative review videos of this game and people are whining about something being hard or whatever and i can literally see in my head the controller and the buttons this person is not pressing to get through something and its always because theyre not interested in learning how to play. theyre not patiently or carefully slithering around the very helpful poles given to them because they want to run and jump and not slither.
the gameplay is great yall just suck at it lol like sorry i enjoy learning a fun new type of gameplay and i dont just play dumb indistinguishable murder simulators or mediocre pokemon sequels or whatever. if youre not into platformers then okay thats fair. but like idk how anyone who enjoys platformers would not enjoy this if they give it a chance and embrace it for what it is? whatever. their loss lol
my only major issue (and tbh its sort of just a minor issue) with the game was the scenery. i love the jungle temple setting but its got just a little too much detail with the plants & decorative temple shit that the camera gets stuck on or it has plants and stones that cover the camera. and swimming underwater is hard to see with all the seaweed and stone blocks everywhere.
also doodle the hummingbird was annoying af always flying in front of the camera i just wanted to violently swat it away. using doodle for help is sorta of like bumpers in bowling. like most often i could do the whole levels without doodle and i just used it out of laziness at times wanting to climb up faster because it was offered lol but like as a last second savior i didnt really need it because this game just came very naturally to me. but i wish it was a dragonfly (even if thats kind of copying sparx the dragonfly from spyro lol) but like i just wanted something smaller and less intrusive on the camera. its even worse when you switch to the 8 bit cosmetic skins and its just a big block in front of the screen -_-
there was a moment where i got a collectable only because i cheated and climbed up a decorative statue that i shouldnt have been able to climb on . if the setting was designed with a little less decorations it wouldnt have been a problem. theres nothing wrong with a little editing guys. the primary appeal here is the gameplay you dont need to do so much to sell it with the art design...
also the decorative floating islands you cant get to needed a different design to better show that theyre not meant to be accessible. they have skull warning signs on them but its not enough because i dont always see them and sometimes end up wasting a minute trying to figure out how to get to a decorative island thats not supposed to be accessible so it makes it confusing where ive been and where i need to go. and theres tops of structures with nothing on them and im like ? why is this here? idk some of it may be a place they put the fruit in arcade mode? i didnt play that too much really tho so i wouldnt know. like its fine tho thats just nitpick it didnt ruin the game.
the checkpoint system was a tiny issue when i forgot what stuff id collected and id think id gotten something then turns out i died during that life lol some of my post game 100% completion task to finish it was just re-collecting stuff id already gotten but forgot to recollect after dying. but it wasnt like bad and only happened a few times. i guess it just should have always saved the collectables whenever youre fully on a flat grass area and leave the checkpoint respawn stones only for a place to go after you die. thats just another little nitpick tho its nothing that frustrating really lol and it only matters if youre a weirdo completionist like me. if youve done all the challenges you care to do and dont care to 100% the game it doesnt matter.
the game works best if you go through all the levels first just focusing on the keystones then do the bubble and coin collectables in the post game for more challenges.
the intro is kinda weird having noodle already on these floating islands? its an odd start like do they live there? lol
like it doesnt matter really. its not a flaw and im not asking for a story to this game (cringe) because thats not the appeal here. but a little cutscene of noodle and doodle arriving at a portal that teleports them up to the floating islands wouldve made more sense to me. but i guess since noodle is a vegetarian he doesnt need to hunt animals if he lives on the floating islands lol whatever.
the 4 elements theme to the 4 worlds is cute. the names of the gods of each world are funny :p
i wish theyd utilized the elements more for each world because its sorta just art design and doesnt affect the gameplay very much.
i like that theres no villians or dumb boss fights or conflicts of any kind. its just lighthearted platforming fun :) it makes the challenges more relaxed. theres no dumb timers or anything to stress you out.
the soundtrack was done by the guy that did the donkey kong country soundtracks so of course thats a plus. i love the water world music. its so groovy and chill :P
the last level had several glitches where id die while sitting idle on grass ? or the hummingbird would throw me off a cliff instead of transporting me to another platform? it fixed itself when i reloaded the level but still it was odd…
i like that the game gives you the sssssuper ssssspecial sssssnake vision post game to find missing collectables easier so you never have to look up anything online. i hate when a game requires or inspires outside help to complete it. a game should always make it clear what you have to do within the game itself. it should always be a self contained experience.
the arcade mode and time trial modes are kinda boring to me. i never understood the appeal of speed running? whatever. happy for ppl who enjoy that but idgaf.
i waited 2 years to buy this on sale and ended up only paying $1.50 for it because of the sale and an added discount from buying other eshop games lmao but i wouldve gladly bought it full price.
so yea this was definitely one of my top favorite gamesss :)
as cynthia harrell would say in beginning of the theme song to metal gear solid 3 sssnake eater:
"what a thrill..."
🐍
✌🏻
Lot of fun, very rewarding to get good at! (Some bs with collectibles notwithstanding)
fun but the lack of a proper save system is baffling
someone smarter than me is good at this game i’m sure
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.
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.
Cute little puzzle game where you play as a snake. Fun for the while I played but not fun enough for me to stick with it through all of its levels.
A cute indie 3D puzzle game with unorthodox controls that mostly works in what it tries to do but it can become understandably frustrating. The world textures and the tropical are also quite notable.
Mecânica insana
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