Snowball Saves Summer

I'd visited Twitch streams of the dev programming and testing out this game and so my expectations from seeing it in action were very high. When the day finally arrived that the game was out, I'd tackled it in the store immediately. With my hands on the controls, I'd experienced the feel of them for myself. They're incredibly smooth and the gravity on the character feels spot on! A nice weight to him, not too slow and even the ability to make him shoot ahead even faster with the space key! Not to mention that the subtle manipulation of trajectory allowed by the WASD keys really made landing some of the trickier jumps a bit easier. You also get two jumps to correct mistakes and reach higher platforms. But that doesn't mean there isn't a challenge. No! This game is so sweet and simple with enough in it for higher level play that anyone can pick it up, but the challenge can be found! The stages have plenty of hazards and timing and accuracy based jumps that will test your gravity platforming skills! Some of them I'd had myself a bit of a panic as I'd just missed shots by a hair... or an entire horse. Sometimes I'd have myself a jump from the tension in some stages! Especially the mid to later ones! And a sweet surprise to me was that I'd found the water levels in this game to be very enjoyable, unique and relaxing! You know, those levels you usually want to drown yourself after playing? Well, this game doesn't have one of those nightmares! Which brings up the next bit I have to say! A major point of the charm for the game that I'd personally been enthralled with all the while playing it is the atmosphere it has. From the very beginning the opening cinematic gave off a very nice and simple charm to it that is even a bit reminiscent to a storybook. Then after a brief chat with Santa that I'd found comical, the first level begins. It's cold and mysterious with a dark gloom and shining glimmers here and there. The music compliments this scenery perfectly! It sounds like a grand adventure awaits just outside of the caves you explore at the start! The very following stage, you get hit in the face with charm as you leap about the snowy tundra and a super catchy tune which calls to mind something you'd hear in a Mario title begins to play! Even in just writing this review I'd opened up the game to experience these stages so I could describe them to their best and I'd easily gotten caught up playing through the first level and found it tough to let it be and get back to writing. Not to mention too that I'd started humming along to the soundtrack a few times myself both now and in the past. I'd easily gotten caught up playing this game through nearly twice over and I'm looking forward to sharing it with my sister and her family. I have a feeling my Mario and Kirby adoring nephew is going to just love to try Snowball out for himself. Then after I'll likely hear him chatter on about Snowball again and again! I'm betting this is going to be a great game to play with them and we'll have ourselves plenty of laughs as we watch each other fail at those tricky jumps! This game really is such a nice callback to the feeling of playing a Mario or Kirby game but with its own unique twist given the special controls featured where you fling the snowball all about the map rather than have a free run to and fro. Maybe a bit like Kirby Canvas Curse in presentation, but still, that doesn't quite cover it. I'd highly recommend giving it a swing for yourself just to see what I'm talking about! As for the settings, you get to see an icy tundra, a beach side full of bombs and even a factorial setting! But I'd definitely recommend seeing the surprises you'll have later on for yourself! The extra stages were the places where the real skills needed to be busted out! Not to mention that the bosses appearing at area endings were quite snappy and quick. Some keep you on your toes very well! Some are even surprisingly eerie! It's like a mix between winter, summer and Halloween given those moments! Which also brings up the sprite work! Really nice and charming with something like an SNES aesthetic to it. You got yourself some wandering demon types that work as the main mooks at the start, then you even have some shuffling penguins that bounce you about and off of platforms if you're not careful! Some spiders grab poor Snowball and tug him up to the ceiling! There is a nice variety overall to the tone, sound and environments you traverse! Really, the only real downer I can see is that I want to play even more! I'm looking forward to an expansion to this game in the future and I hope that wish will become a reality. Even then, I want to play another Snowball title someday in the future which improves even further upon the already stellar mechancis utilized here. If this was the 90's where Sega did what Nintendon't, I'm betting Snowball would absolutely fit in with the likes of the platformer mascots you'd seen then. And for certain, he'd be one that you'd remember the face of anywhere! That's Snowball! What good memories! To get across my opinions on Snowball: this game is so worth getting for yourself and it's an experience you should really bask in. Have fun with it like the games from the good old platformer days! I absolutely say go for it and give it a play!