It’s rare to find a game like Snakebird nowadays. With a market saturated by randomly generated levels and Metroidvania RPGs Snakebird is a feels like a throwback to the days when indie games focused on doing one thing, and doing it exceptionally well. Much like Portal or Braid, Snakebird is a puzzle game centered around a few core rules which are then built upon through the level design. The player is given a simple task and simple tools to work with: move the snakebird (they’re cuter than they sound I promise) one space at a time, get all the fruit in the level, and exit through the rainbow portal. From there the game adds spikes, movable blocks, and multiple snakebirds to manage, and by level 20 Snakebird turns from a seemingly simple, cute, and even kid friendly game into a mind bending war of endurance to get past the game’s 50+ levels. Accompanying the player will be the Snakebirds themselves, along with all of their cute reactions to the levels they inhabit.
Snakebird is available on iOS, Android, and PC, and while the game made it’s debut on the latter it was clearly designed for the former two. The options menu could be considered lacking, but I didn’t feel that way as I played it. The game runs well in both windowed and full screen, and the visuals scale well without creating any problems. I was introduced to Snakebird through a Youtube video and bought not long after finishing it. At $7 I found the game hard to resist on PC, and even harder to resist on iOS where it goes for $4 with the first 10 levels being free. The game’s difficulty means it’s not for everyone, but if a brutal yet fair puzzle game is something you’re interested in then Snakebird won’t disappoint.
Douglas Rysdyk 