As you’ve probably noticed our pal Shaun has been out for most of the week, and that means the SwitchArcade Round-Up has been on hiatus as well. Shaun is a bit under the weather so if you would please join me in sending the goodest of vibes in his direction with the hopes that he is feeling better soon. In the absence of the aforementioned SwitchArcade, this little bit of Switch news caught my attention since it involves a game I enjoy very much, so while there is certainly no possibility of filling Shaun’s shoes I thought I’d at least dip a toe into his sneaker and share this with you all myself. Developer Noumenon Games in partnership with publisher Astra Logical has announced they’re bringing their two Snakebird puzzlers, Snakebird and Snakebird Primer, to the Nintendo Switch later this month together as one package titled Snakebird Complete.
In Snakebird you are somehow both bird and snake and your job is to make it to the exit in each of 120+ levels of logic puzzling. In all honesty you’re much more snake than bird here, and by snake I actually mean the Snake video game all us old folks remember playing on our first cell phones. You do move in that same fashion, though not automatically but rather square by square, and you can increase the size of your snakebird by eating fruit. Also, despite supposedly being part bird, you can’t fly, so one of the tricky parts of this game is figuring out how to grasp onto a piece of solid ground while defying physics and lurching out into the open air solve whatever problem is currently in front of you.
I mention the game is tricky, but that’s not entirely accurate: The original Snakebird is stupid hard. Some people love that sort of thing, while some people are turned off by it. This is what led to the release of the follow-up title Snakebird Primer, which featured slightly altered mechanics and an ever so slightly adjusted difficulty to provide a more approachable version of the Snakebird formula. It’s still not easy! But I think it’s a nice compromise of being more forgiving without losing the core of what makes Snakebird so special. Despite coming out second, you can certainly start out with Snakebird Primer first before tackling the more challenging original Snakebird.
And hey! You will have that option with Snakebird Complete, because it includes both games in one package! The original Snakebird first launched on PC back in 2015 before coming to mobile and knocking our socks off the following year. Snakebird Primer came along in early 2019 and we liked that one a lot too, but sadly it is no longer available on the App Store anymore. The original Snakebird is, but hasn’t been updated since its release in 2016. So really, this forthcoming Switch compilation might be the most trustworthy way to ensure you can play these two Snakebird games into the future given how volatile the world of mobile gaming preservation is. Anyhoo, the Snakebird games are awesome, and you can pre-order the switch compilation on the eShop right now for $14.99 with the launch for Snakebird Complete set for later this month on November 24th.
