By Lewie Procter on July 6th, 2011 at 2:57 pm.
I’m a bit of a sucker for 8-bit inspired Metroidvanias. This one has snails in it too, so I was helpless to avoid clicking on “Play”. Snailiad is the name of the game, and you play as brave Snaily Snail, the hero of Snail Town, on a quest to rescue the missing snails. Sound snaily, no? But are you snail enough? I think I have said “snail” too many times.
Snailiad doesn’t really deviate too much from the backtracking, power-up hunting, formula of the giant’s whose shoulders it’s standing on, but it does have a couple of tricks up it’s sleeve. Being a snail, you get to climb up walls and ceilings, so you’ll have to explore both horizontally and vertically. The menus and HUD are all appropriately pixelated, but bits of it are very nicely animated too (the map screen in particular). The dialogue between the inhabitants of Snail Town isn’t quite laugh out loud funny (snails have a reputation for taking things a bit too seriously) but I definitely tittered more than once.
The music matches the 8-bit aesthetic, with lovely bleepy bloops that somewhat remind me of sounds from planet Funkotron. The OST is available as a free download here, isn’t that kind?
It’s a nice bit of fun. Simple enough, but with enough charm sprinkled throughout that it’s worth your time on a lazy Wednesday afternoon.
If you get stuck, there is a map/upgrade guide here.
06/07/2011 at 14:58 poop says:
i cant think of any snail puns help
06/07/2011 at 15:03 Tyrmot says:
You just need to come out of your shell
06/07/2011 at 15:10 RakeShark says:
No need to pour salt on him.
06/07/2011 at 15:18 sonofsanta says:
Stick at it, you’ll soon come up with some s(ub)lime puns. It can be a hard slug but if you’ll lettuce help, you’ll slowly get there.
06/07/2011 at 15:22 Jim Rossignol says:
Groan. I can see this comment thread expanding at a snail’s pace.
06/07/2011 at 15:24 Arona Daal says:
Damn, that was my pun, too slow again…
06/07/2011 at 15:30 Rush Ton says:
Grow some molluscs boy.
06/07/2011 at 15:32 Hedgemonster says:
You snailed it!
06/07/2011 at 15:35 amateurviking says:
That sounds ghast(ropod)ly…
06/07/2011 at 15:37 Bfox says:
Don’t trust these commenters! They are a slimey bunch!
06/07/2011 at 15:47 Nighthood says:
I get the feeling the puns ship has already snailed.
06/07/2011 at 15:51 Vagrant says:
Aye, this is spiraling out of control.
06/07/2011 at 16:38 icupnimpn2 says:
These bad puns are ovotesting my patience
06/07/2011 at 16:53 frenz0rz says:
I wouldnt go to Snail Town if I were you. My mate went there last year and escargot nicked.
06/07/2011 at 19:19 Namos says:
I thought of combining “assailed with puns” with snail for another pun, but thought better of it.
I’m sure you’ll figure it out.
06/07/2011 at 20:04 Kefren says:
Let me whisper in your shell-like: the second Snailaid link just goes to RPS. Get it fixed before someone slugs ya!
07/07/2011 at 12:05 jymkata says:
Epic Snail
06/07/2011 at 15:32 Gotem says:
Don’t worry, I think you’ve (s)nailed it
06/07/2011 at 15:36 identiti_crisis says:
What a load of mollusc! We’d better all put our best (only) foot forward and mantle out of this hole we’ve dug for ourselves…
EDIT: Ooh, double fail.
06/07/2011 at 15:39 Coffeespoons says:
Ooh, an excuse for this one?
A man goes to his mate’s fancy dress party with nothing but a naked girl on his back. “So what on earth are you supposed to be?” the host asks. “I’m a snail.” The man replies. “What a load of rubbish!” spits his host. “How can you be a snail when all you’ve got is that naked girl on your back?” “That’s not any naked girl, mate,” the bloke replies, “that’s Michelle.”
06/07/2011 at 15:43 somini says:
Incredibly Lame Pun. I loved it.
What kind of accent do you need to read it correctly as My Shell?
06/07/2011 at 15:49 Nighthood says:
Non-southerners would say “my shell” as “me shell”.
06/07/2011 at 15:49 itsallcrap says:
In a sort of “working class” English accent, the word ‘my’ is often substituted with ‘me’.
06/07/2011 at 23:38 Jake says:
Would work well in an Aussie accent too.
06/07/2011 at 15:46 itsallcrap says:
“Snail”
Am I still saying that right?
It seems to have lost all meaning…
06/07/2011 at 16:17 drewski says:
I kind of wanted this to be The IIiad with snails.
06/07/2011 at 16:28 Tom De Roeck says:
..is lewie the new quinns now then?
06/07/2011 at 16:29 Lewie Procter says:
Nope!
06/07/2011 at 16:43 Tom De Roeck says:
Dont take this in the wrong way, but hooray! More new is better. Carry on.
07/07/2011 at 00:51 Gabe McGrath says:
I’ve always wondered if Lewie was the new Ben Elton?
(seperated at birth?)
06/07/2011 at 17:12 Ian says:
Shoulda called it Snail’d.
07/07/2011 at 00:37 amishmonster says:
This game is about physics-bending quad-bike racing, right?
07/07/2011 at 00:37 amishmonster says:
Drat, Ian beat me to it. Always remember to reload and check for new comments…
07/07/2011 at 00:50 MrBeats says:
These comments are just oozing with personality!
07/07/2011 at 01:09 Lewie Procter says:
So no one played the game huh?
07/07/2011 at 02:28 lurkalisk says:
Actually played it on kong before reading about it here. Thoroughly amusing game, this one.
That’s really all I have to say about it. Thoroughly amusing.
07/07/2011 at 15:18 Berzee says:
I didn’t play it, but that’s just because I rarely enjoy these “metroidvania” games very much. Usually I stop reading about a game as soon as that term comes up =)
I like my *worlds* to be open but my *dungeons* (and platforming levels are basically a kind of dungeon) to be linear.
08/07/2011 at 02:00 SackManDoo says:
The music is very nice indeed… and I was having decent fun until the birds of prey came in. They can chomp right on my dick.
(yes i just suck)