Snake Pass (PS4, XOne, PC & *Docked* Switch) Sumo Digital

[Badnik Mechanic]

So every now and again I get a tweet notification from Sumo Digital telling me how great Snake Pass is... so I figured I'd look into it... and... it doesn't look too bad. In fact it looks like it could be a lot of fun.

Essentially, you play as a great big snake and you have to guide it through a stage, solving puzzles and collecting snake eggs. Other small bit of trivia, it started off life as an internal Game Jam product.

There's not been much press attention on the title, but what little there has been is very positive. 

http://www.mirror.co.uk/tech/egx-2016-trying-avoid-mass-8898549

http://vgfirst.com/snake-pass-hands-on-egx-2016-highlight/

 

I think this looks like it could be a lot of fun and a big sleeper hit. Anyone else?

[Your Vest Friend]

It's nearly 2 O'clock in the morning, I'm tired, and I read the topic title as Snake Piss and wondered if Hogfather had lost the plot entirely.

I'm off to bed. 

[Diogenes]

Looks like it could be fun, so long as the controls make sense and feel good. Reminds me a bit of Grow Home (or, less charitably, QWOP) where you have more fine control over your character's body compared to traditional controls where you just activate specific moves, with the added twist of not being humanoid so you have even less of a reference for how to do things.

[Indigo Rush]

Looks creative and colorful! I've been wanting to see Sumo attempt a... platformer...? Is this a platformer? 

I wanna play it, tho. 

[Badnik Mechanic]

2 hours ago, Indigo Rush said:

Looks creative and colorful! I've been wanting to see Sumo attempt a... platformer...? Is this a platformer?

Well there's a great big snake slithering on a platform what more do you need? More platforms!?

Also, and it was alright.

 

And I want to play as the great big snake too.

[Badnik Mechanic]

New trailer,

 

Still looks stunning.

[TheOcelot]

Snake Pass launches on March 28th in NA & March 29th in Europe for Nintendo Switch, Steam, PS4, Xbox One and Windows 10.

https://blog.eu.playstation.com/2017/02/15/snake-pass-slides-onto-ps4-and-ps4-pro-on-29th-march/

Quote

A big hello once again to the PlayStation community. James here from Sumo Digital, ready to bring you some fang-tastic news about our upcoming platformer, Snake Pass. It gives me great pleasure to announce that Snake Pass will be slithering on to PS4 on 29th March!

Jungle Beats

That’s right, our serpentine adventure, accompanied by a meticulously crafted original soundtrack composed by none other than audio legend David Wise, is set to launch on PS4 at the end of next month. This will be one of the first times players have been challenged to truly ‘Think Like A Snake’ as they take on the role of hero, Noodle. Accompanied by his best friend Doodle the Hummingbird, players will be setting out on a puzzle filled adventure where it’s up to them to solve the mystery that has beset the ancient land of Haven Tor.

Sssupercharged!

But wait, there’s more! I’m also excited to announce that Snake Pass will feature PS4 Pro enhancements on release day. Ever since we showcased Snake Pass at the PlayStation Experience back in December and had the chance to see PS4 Pro in action ourselves, it quite quickly became a no-brainer for us. As we know many agree, Snake Pass is already a visual pleasure to witness, but adding PS4 Pro support has given us a chance to add another level of depth to the vivid and lush world of Haven Tor.

For those of you on a 4K monitor, your PS4 Pro will let you take full advantage of all the sights and sounds that Snake Pass has to offer. Don’t worry, we didn’t forget about you guys on standard high definition displays. Viewed on a 1080p monitor, Snake Pass will feature a whole host of performance and improvements that make the game stand out so much more. Those of you that have invested in HDR televisions will instantly notice the world *pop* just that little bit more, it’s honestly a sight you need to witness yourselves.

P.S We love you xoxo

Since our unveiling last year, we never in our wildest dreams expected to receive as much support from the community as we have done to date. For those that came to hang out and meet the team at PlayStation Experience – THANK YOU. We hope you love the game as much as we have loved making it.

Snake Pass will be available for PlayStation 4 on 29th March in Europe. We’ll be providing pricing details very, very soon!

Switch footage:

 

[PC the Hedgehog]

David Wise is composing the soundtrack.

David "Donkey Kong Country" Wise.

So, yeah, sold.

[JaidynReiman]

Definitely buying.

[Mando-Whirl-Wind]

Will be playable on Switch at GDC!!!!!

https://www.unrealengine.com/blog/experience-everything-unreal-at-gdc-2017

Quote

Snake Pass by Sumo Digital - When the tranquility of Haven Tor is interrupted by a mysterious interloper only the unlikeliest of heroes can save the day. Meet Noodle the Snake and his hyperactive best friend, Doodle the Hummingbird, who together must reunite the missing Keystones with the magical gates that give the city its mythical power.

Snake Pass, shipping next month for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC, is a physics-based puzzle platformer that challenges players to ‘think like a snake’ as they tackle precarious puzzles as only a snake can. Slither through long grass, coil around bamboo and climb out of trouble in the latest game from award-winning independent studio Sumo Digital. Play it on Nintendo Switch exclusively in the Unreal Engine booth at GDC!

 

[Badnik Mechanic]

First Review is in.

http://www.pocketgamer.co.uk/r/Switch/Snake+Pass/review.asp?c=73461

Spoiler

8/10

 

[Blue Blood]

Downloading for the Switch as we speak. Been looking forward to this one!

EDIT: Played the first level which is little more than a tutorial, and mucked about a bit in the second before deciding that u actually really need to go to sleep. But I'll say this - the game is absolutely delightful. You can't help but smile when you see the world and how Noodle moves.

Does anyone know what resolution the Switch version runs at in handheld? It looks like it's below 720p. 

[Badnik Mechanic]

22 hours ago, Blue Blood said:

Does anyone know what resolution the Switch version runs at in handheld? It looks like it's below 720p. 

Play it docked. On handheld mode it's... quite bad, although the Switch version is very noticeably weaker than the other versions. That's not to say it looks awful or plays badly, it plays fine if you view it as an indie title, but.... yeah the switch version is still the poorest.

Apparently when docked it's locked to 30fps on the switch and resolution is at 720p, some people who have the Switch version have noticed it improves a lot when docked.

 

•  Solid 30fps on both platforms.
•  Some frame-pacing issues on Switch (docked and undocked).
•  Sub-native resolutions on both platforms (1536 x 864 on PS4 and 1200 x 675 [docked] ~844x475 [undocked])
•  Shadow maps reduced and water caustics and ripple shaders missing on Switch.
•  PS4 Pro runs 1080p/60FPS (multiple resolution options).
   

At 4:10 of the video, you can see a switch side by side comparison of the docked and undocked mode... yeah undocked is not the way to go with this one!

[Blue Blood]

This is exactly the sort of game I want to play in handheld mode, and I'm honestly not at all fussed about the obviously superior graphical fidelity on other platforms. I'd get it on PS4 or PC if I was. The portability aspect totally sold me. But it honestly, when I saw how blurry it was, my first thought was that it looked like the Wii U tablet. Eww

I don't get why it's so bad in handheld mode. The only hardware difference between docked and handheld mode is clock speed, and that's only to save on battery (plus the potential to run up at up to 1080p in docked). If it's 720p in docked, why is handheld so poor? I'd be interested to see what Sumo says, or thoughts from techies. Breath of the Wild is 30fps 900p docked, and 30fps 720p handheld. Unsurprisingly, it's actually more a bit more stable in handheld mode.

[Badnik Mechanic]

It's probably because it was ported so quickly.

Kinda like how Sega decided to port Bayonetta over to the PS3 with... what was it 3 or 6 months before release? Yeah it ran but... yeah lots of issues. 

 

Frankly it's quite amazing that Sumo managed to port it to the Switch so quickly and get it running to the state they did. Goes to show just how talented the guys there are.

.... ... ... A thought... if anyone with a PS4/Vita this... what's remote play like on this game via a Vita?

[Blue Blood]

You really are a big fan of Sumo, aren't you? It shows in the way that you talk about them. Not that they're not deserving of it. They've got lots of titles to be proud of, including the freshest take on the karting genre since Super Mario Kart created it 25 years ago.

Snake Pass is very cool, but I've not played any more of it since last night. I'm just really let down by how duff it is in handheld mode. Hopefully they'll be able to cobble together some decent patches for it. I've heard that they're already patching out some very loud HD rumble. 

That makes me wonder... How many developers are going to use HD rumble in meaningful ways instead of just whacking it on full blast? Sumo aren't the first to do just that, and the system had only been out for a month. 

[Badnik Mechanic]

19 minutes ago, Blue Blood said:

You really are a big fan of Sumo, aren't you? It shows in the way that you talk about them. Not that they're not deserving of it.

Well I did work there for a short while =p

But... Yeah it's annoying because I'm not sure if I can talk about it or not but, they had a thing in the works a few years back and had it been released it would have made a lot of people very happy. And if it really did run at the specs I was told, it would have probably been a game that we judge others against.

[Mando-Whirl-Wind]

They've said they are going to release some more refinement upgrades on Switch. Though personally I plan to get it on Switch, and I'll probably do it in handheld mode. Then again I still play my N64 and Saturn(and Gamecube) on regular basis so I have high resolution tolerence

[Blue Blood]

So how is everyone finding this game after a few days? I'm enjoying it, but it's very frustrating and I still am only a few levels in. The camera is responsible for much of the difficulty here. In the very first level, there's a coin hidden in some bamboo underneath the level. Getting to it wouldn't be so hard if the bamboo wasn't so close to the ceiling, thus allowing for a camera that would automatically pan down to give you a better feel for what's going on. As Noodle is weighed down by his tail, one false move will send him plummeting. It's pretty rough. Try to get the angle and direction that you're going for is really hard if you can't accurately judge depth...

Which brings me to my other major issue - the grip ability. I just don't feel like it does very much. If you're already coiled around something, the grip will let you reach out Noodles head a bit without moving much, but doesn't actually fix his tail in place. It also doesn't seem to let you make tight coils, so you still end up being so loose that you fall off I keep wanting to get to a point where I tie Noodles tail to something, and then use the remaining length of his body for maneuvering.

All in all, the controls are actually far more intuitive than I'm probably making them sound. This game is a really good effort and I appreciate the originality. Even though it needs a fair bit of refinement, it's definitely worth your money.

[Thrippa]

If the grip is where (on Switch) the bird is saying 'press ZL' then I haven't figured out what it does other than run the rumble.  I only started playing today and got to level three before having to do something else.  I think it'll be fun once I've got a chance to play, but I agree the camera is sometimes difficult. 

[JaidynReiman]

Weird, I didn't know this was by Sumo Digital. Not that I care, I plan to get it on Switch anyway. But its still nice to know.

[Thrippa]

Grip really ought to make the back part of the snake grab onto things.  The load screen keeps telling me to think like a snake - well, 40 years of dealing with wild and tame snakes says that any snake extending it's neck/upper body while hanging on a pole, will whip its tail around said pole and hang on tight with the last third of it's length (and for a big snake that's pretty tight!).  This is why I keep ending up with Noodle's back half pulling the rest of him off into space even while I'm squeezing the grip button hard.

Is there an efficient way to twine around a pole without the tail half dragging me to my death?  Just having my tail held up isn't the solution.

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

That reminds me. If this is also on the Switch, why doesn't the thread title mention it, considering how Hogfather is prone to change up thread titles often if the Sonic Forces thread is anything to go by?

[Blue Blood]

1 hour ago, Jovahexeon Joranvexeon said:

That reminds me. If this is also on the Switch, why doesn't the thread title mention it, considering how Hogfather is prone to change up thread titles often if the Sonic Forces thread is anything to go by?

Does it matter? Blimey.

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

Just now, Blue Blood said:

Does it matter? Blimey.

Eh. Just wondering for info's sake.