Though shedding its original title, Sneaky Snakes is a spiritual follow-up to Rare's NES classic Snake Rattle 'n' Roll. It has the same general premise of playing a hungry snake who has to traverse platforming levels while consuming enough food. Though this time its a sidescrolling platformer on GameBoy.
The levels themselves are relatively short and unchallenging, but reaching the end of them is not the point. On the way you have to gobble up enough pellets, which spawn endlessly from their dispensers. These will fly away or run off or start bouncing, you never know with these little bastards. You give chase, eat them, and this adds more segments to your body. Then at the end of the level there's a scale. If you weigh enough, the door opens and you can finish. If not, you have to go back and eat even more!
This is made tricky because the segments also represent your health. While the platforming itself is forgiving and the enemies simple, each little hit they get in sets you back. Jump too high and hit a stalactite? Sure hope you didn't need that health to open the door! This makes moving away from a dispenser a serious consideration. Maybe you have enough to beat the stage, but do you have enough to permit yourselves a mistake or two along the way? If not, do you have the time to come back.
Because there is a timer in play here. You have a limited time to eat your fill and get out. Once this timer runs out, a super enemy spawns that will relentlessly chase you down and obliterate you instantly. It's not a certain death sentence, but does make it impossible to keep eating at your leisure. You have to move!
Its premise is certainly cute, but Sneaky Snakes does retain some issues from its predecessor. First and foremost, it just kinda sucks that food only spawns from 1 place. Rather than a Yoshi's Story-like experience where you explore levels for food, here you just find the machine and then sit around it for as long as possible. You don't have to move much, you just wait and eat. It's not engaging, not interesting. And yet it's the activity you'll be doing for 80% of the runtime. Everything else is just filler you rush past so you can get to the food machine.
This boring core gameplay loop also amplifies other frustrations. Movement is finicky, particularly when it comes to your tongue. You have to be very precise or you'll miss your prey entirely. This is then made extra annoying by the hubcaps, which bounce you up whenever you press the lick button on them. It's often unavoidable that you have to stand on one to have a chance at grabbing your meal, so have fun with that. Sneaky Snakes also loves to get cheap hits in on you. Power-ups turn into bombs at the last second and even food can suddenly reveal itself to be a bomb. Their blast radius is small, but it always felt lame when it happened.
Also annoying is how things cease to exist the moment they leave your screen. If a food pellet moves weirdly or is launched far, it's probably useless trying to go after it. If it goes beyond the edge for a split-second, it's gone. Trying to prevent the inevitable will probably just put you at risk of taking damage. So just sit back and do more waiting. It's what you've been doing for the entire rest of the game, so what's a few more cycles?
Sneaky Snakes was an alright game to play through once, but I don't see myself ever wanting to revisit it. It's a short game that hinges on its novelty and charming graphics. Except the ideas that make it stand out don't translate to fun gameplay very well. Once you realize how much of the game is just waiting, that charm wanes quickly.
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