Hey, Let's All Play Snailiad

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.