Snake Pass

Under the surface, and besides its outdated graphics, you'll discover a great puzzle platformer.

Snake Pass is a deceptively difficult game that's perfect for gamers who crave challenging new experiences. It may have an ultimately frustrating and unvaried campaign but what's here is still promising and definitely worth checking out.

A fiddly one to get to grips with, stick with Snake Pass and everything will eventually click. When it does, it's a decent platformer that should raise a smile or two. [June 2017, p.82]

With a much better camera and less of a fondness for gratuitously fussy challenges - and a tendency not to combine the two - this could have been a minor classic. [June 2017, p.96]

Snake Pass lets you play as snake in a colored but uncompromising 3D world where you need to slither, climb and be curious. Despite its childish and lovely graphics, the game feels demanding and the camera system will make you mad, so buy it only if you are patient.

Snake Pass reminds us of the Nintendo 64 era of three dimensional platformers, but with a unique gameplay twist. The game is original, super upbeat and fun to play, but it could have been much more.

While Snake Pass looks and sounds like a 3D platformer of old, the ‘think like a snake’ idea that the gameplay is built around makes it a game that will influence platformers of the future. The puzzle is the movement, and since that movement is so fun and engaging, it makes for enjoyable experience, even if the unreliable camera makes it more frustrating than it should be.

Snake Pass delivers a fresh, challenging puzzle experience that unfortunately doesn't last too long.

Snake Pass is a good game, but not one that we can recommend to everybody due to his particular controls. If you have patience, it's a unique take on the platformers genre but it could be more polished.

At times, then, Snake Pass can be a wonderfully relaxing journey through some beautiful habitats. The late game switches into an engaging and challenging puzzler, requiring some deft flicks of the left stick, but one that can feel immensely gratifying when you elegantly slalom your way over a narrow assault course that's suspended over lava. It's the middle third, when the game expects too much of you far too soon, that causes the momentum to stutter. Nevertheless, Snake Pass is a quirky puzzler that innovates while simultaneously evoking memories of your favourite platformers of yesteryear--just don't expect to grow into your new skin overnight.

A great concept with a perfect mix of retro modern gameplay and aesthetics, even if the idea never evolves to have real legs.

For all of its flaws, Snake Pass represents an admirable attempt at blending the past and the present. Its anthropomorphic characters, jubilant worlds, and atmospheric soundtrack all scream of eras past, yet its movement system and excellent controls are things of the future. Those willing to slither past the checkpoint and camera issues will find an enjoyable and heartwarming nostalgic adventure. Snake Pass shall pass.

The implementation of realistic snake physics is commendable, and may even be what snagged Snake Pass a green light in the first place, but it’s also what drags down what could have otherwise been a phenomenal platforming experience.

A unique and endearing game idea that isn't quite matched by the structure of its challenges or worlds. [June 2017, p.76]

Snake Pass is a competent and boldly innovative take on the classic 3D platformer, but the game suffers from an overly fiddly control scheme that doesn’t match the inviting, pick-up-and-play fun of the genre.