Such a curious little platformer. Innovating the genre by making you play as a character that can neither jump nor run, you have to maneuver the body of Noodle the snake through hazardous elemental jungle gyms; wriggling over hill and dale, diving through labyrinthian ponds, avoiding dazzling magma pits and first and foremost fasten his body around every bamboo stick the developers could muster.
Moving Noodles head around feels really snappy; wrapping around the level structure and pulling his body after him just to find a safe hold on those wacky constructs you encounter, before already thinking about your next move, transferring from a stoney elevator to a bamboo Ferris wheel over a fiery pit or better, nothing but the endless abyss of the cloudy sky below you, feels unbelievably exhilarating.
Mastering the movement in “Snake Pass” can be quite the challenge, but thankfully the developers give you a very helpful ability to ease you into the gameplay loop: You can just strengthen the grip on Noodles body by the press of a button, making it easier to organize traversal over the more dangerous parts of the Gameworld as you don’t have to think as much about the gravity trying to pull on the weight of your character. Even so, holding the button down continuously makes Noodle quite reluctant to keep moving, so that you must find a rhythm in which you press and release the “grip”, “head lifting” and “going forward” buttons to successfully climb and wrap to the goal.
The more I played, the safer I felt to just ignore the existence of that “grip” ability, to just dance around those obstacle courses with ease, reaching the most difficult to get to collectibles without a sweat and cherishing the mastering of these unique platforming skills.
And although the sloppy camera can make maneuvering around from time to time a bit more of a hassle than it should be, even if and when you mastered the movement of Noodle, and the tension building story is ending in an absolute cop out, leaving me surprisingly disappointed on the narrative front, I really adore this twist on the platforming genre and hope to see many more developers try to innovate in the same vein as “Snake Pass” in the future.
Moving Noodles head around feels really snappy; wrapping around the level structure and pulling his body after him just to find a safe hold on those wacky constructs you encounter, before already thinking about your next move, transferring from a stoney elevator to a bamboo Ferris wheel over a fiery pit or better, nothing but the endless abyss of the cloudy sky below you, feels unbelievably exhilarating.
Mastering the movement in “Snake Pass” can be quite the challenge, but thankfully the developers give you a very helpful ability to ease you into the gameplay loop: You can just strengthen the grip on Noodles body by the press of a button, making it easier to organize traversal over the more dangerous parts of the Gameworld as you don’t have to think as much about the gravity trying to pull on the weight of your character. Even so, holding the button down continuously makes Noodle quite reluctant to keep moving, so that you must find a rhythm in which you press and release the “grip”, “head lifting” and “going forward” buttons to successfully climb and wrap to the goal.
The more I played, the safer I felt to just ignore the existence of that “grip” ability, to just dance around those obstacle courses with ease, reaching the most difficult to get to collectibles without a sweat and cherishing the mastering of these unique platforming skills.
And although the sloppy camera can make maneuvering around from time to time a bit more of a hassle than it should be, even if and when you mastered the movement of Noodle, and the tension building story is ending in an absolute cop out, leaving me surprisingly disappointed on the narrative front, I really adore this twist on the platforming genre and hope to see many more developers try to innovate in the same vein as “Snake Pass” in the future.