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Snails
.: By:
Corn Bread :: Device
used:
iPAQ H3650
:: February 20, 2002 ::
Buy this game :.
One of the most highly anticipated games for
the Pocket PC ever, Snails managed to attract a strong following even way back
in its beta stages, with the promise of being able to play a Worms clone on your
Pocket PC being extremely hard to resist. I knew that
Snails would be a great
game, but I never expected to be completely blown away by the awesomeness of the
final retail version!
If you’ve ever played either of the PC games,
Worms or
Scorched Earth, you’ll be able to play
Snails in no time since they share very
similar gameplay styles and have the same basic rules. For the uninitiated,
however, Snails is a turn based game where two groups of soldiers (in this case,
snails) blast each other to kingdom come with an array of wacky and deadly
weapons. The battle is to the death, and the last snail standing wins.
No need to read any manuals to start killing
the enemy - simply move your snail to a favorable location, prepare an
appropriate weapon of destruction (my personal favorite is the Napalm Gel...
good stuff!), aim your weapon at an enemy snail (being sure to check the wind
direction first) and fire. You can choose from a wide variety of backdrops and
terrains on which to wage your battles: hop from the Great Wall of China to a
smelly junkyard, or to a futuristic space station.
All of the stages have different types of
obstacles and elevation and in order to achieve victory, you will need not only
need a good aim and a precise trigger-finger, but also the ability to take into
account the different types of terrain you find yourself on and to react
accordingly. Of course having the right weapon in the right situation is a help,
too. The AI of the computer controlled opponent is adequately challenging. It's
neither too smart nor too dumb, but good enough to give you a beating every now
and then.
There are basically three game modes available, Mission mode, Deathmatch mode
and two player "versus" mode. In Mission mode, you get to play out scenarios
involving each of the battling group of snails, the Moogums, Lupeez and Noogins.
By completing each of the scenarios in Mission mode, you'll find that more
powerful weapons will be unlocked in the game (which you can also use in
Deathmatch and two-player games), allowing you to kill enemy snails in yet more
unique and satisfying ways.
The Mission mode also teaches you the
background behind the game and the reasons why the snails are waging war with
each other - these snails aren’t simply shooting each other for the fun of it. I
won’t give away the plot here, but lets just say hidden treasure and lots and
lots of root beer is at stake here. The story is not only very good but
very humorous, too, and it's one of the reasons why I played the game right to the
finish... I just had to know what happened next. I enjoyed playing the Mission
Mode to such an extent, however, that I found it too short - it would have been
nice if they could have included more missions.
The two player mode, as you would expect,
allows you to pit your wits against a fellow human. Currently, the two-player option
involves both players sharing the same Pocket PC, but the
Snails team
have emphasized that they will be adding IR, TCP/IP and WiFi multiplayer
capabilities in the near future. The Deathmatch mode is very similar to the
two-player Mode, but instead of fighting a human opponent, you play against the
computer.
The action is viewed via landscape mode and
control is made possible by the use of the stylus; there's no need to use the
hardware buttons. The controls are very intuitive as the menu and commands are
laid out in a straightforward and non-confusing manner and, as a result, controlling your group of snails seems like second nature. You can also tweak
the game settings to best suit your playing style, enabling auto-heal,
bouncing/exploding snails, as well as being able to adjust the orientation of
the screen for left-handed players. These are just a few of the many
customizable aspects of the game.
As if the addictive gameplay wasn’t enough, the graphics are mind-numbingly
gorgeous. From the beautiful backgrounds to the special effects,
Snails is a
visual tour-de-force. You can’t help but love the cartoony feel of the game -
it's graphics like these that make me proud to be a Pocket PC owner, as they can
surely rival any Gameboy Advance game on the market. Who would ever have imagined that snails could
be so darned cute!
The music and sound effects in this game are
some of the best ever witnessed on the Pocket PC. Every bit of ambient sound
fits perfectly into the game, and the audio-visual combination is a match
made in heaven. Humor is also one of the principal elements that makes
Snails so
enjoyable to play. During the battles, for example, each of the snails will come
out with funny one-liners and insert witty remarks at every shot fired. Added to
that are the various cute and entertaining facial expressions and movements of
the snails... this is a game that never ceased to amuse me! The humor alone makes this
game stand out from every Pocket PC game ever made.
To sum up, this is a game with great graphics and great music, is
totally addictive, easy to get into, and includes a bucketful of attitude and humor.
Snails will have you hooked for hours to come. Here’s one game that is a
“must have” for all Pocket PC owners, and it's pretty obvious that
Syntact has
shown great care and commitment in developing this game as they even made sure
that it look and performs exceptionally well even on a
Jornada
525. In addition,
there was an announcement recently that additional mission packs will soon be
made available and all registered members will get the upgrade for free. I
strongly urge you to visit the Snails website and try out the demo of the game
and, if you decide to buy it, you’ll be quite surprised to find out that you can
have this game for a very affordable price of $11.95!
Snails is available for all major Pocket PC's
and can installed in either the main RAM or onto a storage card. 3.9MB of
storage space is required.
Pros:
Cons:
|
PocketGamer.org
score: |
 |
.: Game category:
Action
& Arcade Games :: Reviews
Index ::
Buy this game :.
Editor's Note:
Please note that I (site
editor, Mike) helped in a small way with the game's initial beta-testing.
In addition, the game's sound and humour man, Jason Surguine, is a
reviewer for the site. The reviewer, Corn Bread, however, had nothing to
do with writing the game as far as I'm aware! :-) |
