Don’t Pass On Snake Pass
When I first saw Snake Pass, the new puzzle-platformer from Sumo Digital, it appeared to be right up my alley given my love of the genre and the vibrant art style. With a $30 Canadian price tag, though, I was initially hesitant to pull the trigger. I caved after 2 hours of staring at it in the eShop.
With that said, I figured it was worth sharing some quick impressions of Snake Pass as well as some fresh gameplay which you can check out below.
Snake Pass is actually pretty cool and I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how much enjoyment it’s brought me. The physics are not only impressive to watch in action but equally fun to play with. Sometimes I find myself just slithering around a course aimlessly for the heck of it because the Snake’s movement is so satisfying. Controls are easy to learn but difficult to master and are quite intuitive. Right trigger to slither forward, left and right on the analog to gain momentum, a face button lifts your head for vertical climbing and the left trigger is used to tighten your grip.
Each environment’s puzzles and obstacles have been challenging but fair. I’ve certainly had a few frustrating deaths but that frustration is mostly directed at myself as each death has been avoidable and caused by careless mistakes.
Checkpoints are easily Snake Pass’s biggest weakness. Far too many are just poorly located, causing a few tough obstacles to be repeated which can be painful after a few tries.
Visually it looks a little soft on the Nintendo Switch (the version I’m playing) and a few effects are missing when compared to the other console and PC builds but the environments are lush and very colorful so I got over the resolution issues quickly. It’s still an attractive title overall filled with personality. The music is great too, coming from industry veteran David Wise who also worked on Banjo-Kazooie, Donkey Kong Country, and the upcoming Yooka-Laylee.
If you’ve been playing Snake Pass, I’d love to hear what you think of it so drop a reply in the comment section below!
Snake Pass is available now on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC and Nintendo Switch.
