Snack World has been around in the East for a fair few years now. It even has its own anime series and toy line, but this is the series’ first appearance in the West. If you haven’t heard of it before, the game is an action RPG that focuses on dungeon crawling, looting, and silly humour. Players must explore randomly-generated dungeons on the lookout for chests, treasures and even new equipment, defeating any enemy or boss that gets in their way.
After a brief character creation, Snack World begins with your character being found unconscious at the gates of Tutti-Frutti. When you awaken, you have absolutely no memory of who you are – classic. You quickly learn that the Kingdom is in turmoil, as an evil Sultan is planning to resurrect a Deodragon to eat up the Kingdom and everyone in it! Of course, that’s where you come in: King Papaya has ordered you and the other heroes of Tutti-Frutti to stop that from happening.
As you explore Tutti-Frutti, you will encounter interesting characters, many of which will offer you quests to take on. These will either be side-quests or story quests, usually requiring you to retrieve specific items or defeat a certain enemy. As repetitive as these quests can eventually become, they’re still a hell of a lot of fun. I only wish that the story had a little more depth to it. There was no point that I felt enticed into any plot – as someone who loves a good story, that would have made the game perfect.
Whilst exploring dungeons and completing quests, you will be on the lookout for loot – and boy is there a lot of it. Killing enemies has a high chance of dropping loot, and you will also come across many chests throughout your travels, including upon completion of each level. This loot takes the form of new weapons, armour, potions and various foods – it isn’t called Snack World for nothing.
The combat in Snack World is intuitive and charming. Weapons, potions, and utility colognes are called “Jaras” – all 200+ of these can be mixed and equipped to your liking when collected. As well as standard attacks, every weapon has its own special attacks; hammers, spears, staffs, axes, and more have two charged attacks that do considerable damage. These tend to recharge pretty quickly, making them helpful in boss fights or when facing off against tougher enemies. In addition to this, each piece of equipment has its own colour attribute; finding out which colours deal more damage to which enemies is vital to your success.
Sadly, one negative about Snack World is its camera angles when manoeuvring around the game’s dungeons. When moving around corners you are able to pan the camera, but at a certain point, it won’t budge any further, making it finicky to see what’s lying in wait. Sometimes, no matter how much you move the camera there will still be blind spots, and I would have preferred a camera that automatically followed my movements.
Snack World also features crafting. You are able to craft your own Jaras, clothing, and armour by combining a set of materials together, although finding these materials can prove quite difficult as item drops are pretty random. That said, you can buy certain materials from merchants, or even purchase your gear if crafting isn’t your thing.
Perhaps my favourite feature of Snack World is the Snacks. No, not those kinds of snacks! Snacks are monsters or characters encountered throughout the game that can be captured or rewarded. You can then use those Snacks during quests to assist you in battle. Each Snack has its own stats, abilities and rarity – finding the perfect balance of them can be vital to your success in a mission, and with over 200 to collect, there are many combinations to be had.
Snack World also offers local and online co-op to make the dungeon crawl even more hectic. Playing online was smooth, lag-free, and a hell of a lot of fun, so it’s definitely worth checking out with friends. Also, I’m not sure whether it was a coincidence, but I seemed to unlock better and rarer loot when playing with others.
In addition, the game also features various little systems that you can access through your character’s phone-like device, including an encyclopedia for items and monsters, settings to adjust the soundtrack, and the Pix-e Portal, which allows you to receive in-game items during events or by entering codes. Cool, but sometimes unnecessary.
Snack World features a chibi-like art style that is quite simply stunning. The character designs are fantastic and unique, and with the number of monsters, bosses and NPCs there are, that is quite difficult to achieve. A lot of blood, sweat and tears has gone into creating this game – and it shows.
SNACK WORLD: THE DUNGEON CRAWL - GOLD £39.99
Summary
Snack World: The Dungeon Crawl – Gold offers plenty of content without taking itself too seriously, and the mix of quirky humour and looty goodness is delightful. Although the story could have been more captivating, I still enjoyed every second.