Snake Pass

[Twig]

I bought Snake Pass because the Switch is starving for content or whatever and I was desperate(??).

 

 

https://waypoint.vice.com/en_us/article/snake-pass-wants-to-reprogram-your-gamer-brain-and-you-should-let-it

 

This article expresses my opinion for me, so I'll just share that.

 

It's a hard recommend because I know so many people will be put off by the learning curve. Or just be turned off by the gimmick in general. And that's fine! But I also know that now that I have a feel for it, it's so satisfying to slither up and around a series of bamboo poles to get that coin way up high. I adore this game.

 

One big problem: the camera is shit. It's not good. It's my only complaint, but a bad camera in a 3D platformer(?) is a pretty heinous sin.

 

The game is also available on Steam.

[Cleinhun]

I played the demo at Day of the Devs and I really enjoyed it. Unfortunately my computer is old and shitty and I haven't managed to find a Switch in stock anywhere yet. I'm glad to hear that people seem to be liking it though.

[Kolzig]

I've been expecting long time for Sumo Digital to release a proper new game instead of just doing work on porting not interesting games like Crackdown 3 or Forza. I've always liked their older racing games like OutRun 2006: Coast 2 Coast and the Sonic Racing games. Snake Pass seems to have really cool moving controls for the snake how it moves in the levels. I think the price is nice also, just 20 dollars/euros, that will make people easier to impulse buy and experience this game even if they were not at first that much interested in it.

 

It also launches at the perfect time for Switch when there isn't yet much content on the console.

 

I don't have a Switch, so I'll have to think about getting it for PC or I'll wait and get it for Switch in the future.

[RubixsQube]

I bought Snake Pass, and spent about 45 minutes fumbling around with the first level. The game is way, waaaaay more tough to wrap my head around than I had thought. It's pretty straightforward to get the various "required" items they want you to collect in the first area, but ugh, it is not easy to climb out on any of the bamboo structures extending from the main stage to get any of the bonus coins. For instance, here are the button presses required to wrap around some bamboo:

 

- First, you have to kind of get some speed, which requires you to press ZR and then kind of move back and forth with the left stick. 

- Now you gotta get onto the piece of bamboo, so you have to press A to raise the snake head.

- Here is where it gets tough, because now you have to keep holding ZR and rotate the stick juuuuuuust right to start the wrapping process. 

- You also have to release A at just the right time in order to drop the head to continue wrapping.

- Now you are in a situation where you have to kind of juggle between ZR, A, and rotations perfectly, to continue wrapping and moving, and god forbid you come to a joint in the bamboo, or need to turn around, or whatever.

 

If you want to do this all slowly, because you're learning, you can't, because you'll fall off, generally, into an abyss. If you don't do it correctly in any way, you fall off. So, in a very annoying piece of level design, they encourage you to learn how to do something completely new and weird in a situation that punishes you with death and respawning on the first level. In typical Nintendo-designed games, they give you a new power-up, or ability, or whatever, and encourage you to experiment in an environment where failure is only very slightly punished. It made me so frustrated trying to go out and grab some coin and dying, and dying and dying, on the first level of Snake Pass. 

 

I assume that I just have to keep at it, but man, I have no idea how I am going to play this if this is the level of challenge from the outset. I have watched videos of other people playing the game and describing how it's done, and I understand I have to "git gud", but it's like watching any type of video tutorial in the modern age: people often assume an understanding that the viewers do not have, which means complete neophytes are not well served. Bah. 

[Twig]

You don't need the coins! 100%'ing games is for fools!

[dartmonkey]

I've played about half an hour and did the first two levels. I found myself holding A when I didn't want to but otherwise I think the controls are magic. I want to get back and practise. Mind you, I left most of the coins behind. It feels very Viva Piñata-y and the music's great 👍 

[Twig]

Yeah I either end up holding A or ZR a lot when I should stop, 'cause I'm so focused on other things. I'm getting better over time, though.

[RubixsQube]

Ok, so I played more of this game, and it's clicking a liiiiiittle bit better, but it's still frustrating. The second world is a lot more straightforward and offers lower pressure opportunities to climb up various bits of bamboo. Also, it's nice that the hummingbird kind of shows you an option for winding your way up and around. I went back and forth between the two different control methods (in "easy", you don't press ZR to go forward, but push forward on the stick), and I think that I'll stick with the classic even if it means that I have to tap ZR if I want to move forward slowly. You really have very little control over speed otherwise, which I suppose is because of how they've actually modeled the snake muscles in Noodle. Which is cool, but it means that everything can go to pot so, so quickly. I'll keep at it, it's a pretty cool game, even if my brain has to rewire in a way that you both have encountered, when it comes to holding buttons when you don't need to. 

[Twig]

It's definitely a hard game. It's got a learning curve steeper than anything I've encountered in a long long time. I'm glad you didn't give up, 'cause I think it's something special.

 

I will say that as I get deeper and deeper in the game, I really wish going Fast was easier to do, haha. Usually it's not a big deal, but I've gotten really good at climbing things at this point, and climbing feels so much faster than slithering on flat ground that it's... weird.

 

Looking at the percentages as I progress, it seems like a fairly short game, but I've been spending a lot of time hunting down coins Barring one level where I couldn't find the last dumb glowing sphere, I've gotten everything up through level 10. Or was it 11? Something like that.

[Laco]

I've been playing on Switch too, and I love it. Platformers(?) have become more complex over the decades, but this is both incredibly simple and extremely nuanced, the kind of organic system that was impossible to simulate in early games so the whole industry has basically ignored forever.

 

I like how all the collectibles aside from the three you need to finish each level are totally meaningless. Why blue spheres and golden coins? Why not! Also that the game tracks your progress within each level so you can go back later and collect only what you missed the first time.

 

Re: Switch specifically, I picked up Snake Pass on release day and the HD rumble was totally over the top. The motor noise made it unplayable in a quiet room. But they released an update that fixed it just a couple of days later! That's so unlike my experience of any Nintendo or other console, I hope this says good things about the ease of the update process.

[Twig]

I've finished Snake Pass. 100%'d it even!

 

Real quick, here's what happens if you collect everything:

 

Coins - an "8-bit" skin for Noodle

 

Glowy Sphere Things - an "8-bit" skin for... Doodle? What's the bird's name??

 

It just makes 'em look real blocky, like Minecraft animals tend to look. Looks kinda bad, but hey.

 

 

Here's what happens when you beat the game:

 

You get snake vision, which lets you see all the orbs hidden behind things. Typical detective vision shit. Maybe coins, too? I had all the coins, so.

 

No major spoilers (if anything in this game can even be called a spoiler), but basically collecting everything doesn't unlock more levels or anything, so don't worry about that if that's the sort of thing you worry about. For me, collecting those things was a significant part of the fun (and a SIGNIFICANT part of the challenge).

 

Game gets hard. I sorta felt like it was consistently hard throughout, as I grew better at the game at the same rate it threw new challenges at me? I found myself screaming with frustration at falling off into the void multiple times at certain challenging towers or obstacles, and laughing out loud with joy after conquering them.

 

Last post, I mentioned that I'd gotten really good at climbing towers. That remains true. Quickly wrapping myself around poles and slithering my way up a tower is so much fun, and so satisfying! Slithering on the ground similarly remained weirdly difficult for me. If I were to change one thing about the controls (besides the camera, which is shit), I'd find a way to make that easier. Not sure what it would be. Maybe just changing the top speed in general would be enough. Most of my deaths, I bet, were going off the edge trying to catch a pole, but not going fast enough so I just didn't hit it in time. Falling into the void.

 

I cannot state enough how fucking good it felt to successfully climb towers. By the end, I'd managed to get a handle on letting go of A or ZR or ZL just the right amount of time to wrap around a pole just enough in just the right way. GOD. DAMN.

 

 

 

 

I saw one review that had the word "relaxing" in the headline. HAHA WHAT?? OKAY.

[plasticflesh]

I'm loving this game. Like wow man.