Snood 2: On Vacation

Say “stop” if you have heard this before. This puzzle platformer has a foul line and a launcher/cannon on the bottom of the screen …

STOP!

Ok, but wait a second. Across the top in the 2D game is a series of little balls that have sticky edges and bare a variety of icons in the center. They are staggered and in various groupings …

STOP!!

Just wait a second, Ok? You launch a random ball and try to link three of the same …

STOP!!!

Geesh, I take it you have heard this before, then. Snood 2: On Vacation is not the most original game to hit any platform, even the Game Boy Advance. The idea of this Gavity-I/Destination Software title is simple – you link three or more and they disappear. Any balls that are hanging from the linked balls fall down and you have to clear the screen before they advance, albeit slowly, downward. You have to clear it all before they cross the foul line.

But before you think that the entire game is nothing more than that, think again. There are eight modes of play that offer variations on the theme. Snood Ball has the balls, heretofore called Snoods, are in a circle in the middle of the screen, you have to bank off the walls and if you miss the grouping, and your Snood falls below the foul line, it is game over – well, not exactly, you get to try again, with a limited number of continuation lives.

Snood Sideways has the Snoods on the left side of the screen, advancing to the right. Snood Grab has you using a grappling hook to grab a Snood to launch back into the field. Snood Stack puts the cannon on the right side of the screen and the Snoods are on the left. World Tour offers 10 levels, with national themes sporting backdrops and jingles based on the country depicted. There is Classic Snood (pre-determined arrangements), Puzzle Snood (32 screens of crafted arrangements), Snood Journey (five level based on the difficulty settings) and Armageddon (in which the danger bar builds up and once full the Snoods start to advance).

The cannon is stationary, but you can use the D-pad to aim it and the walls to bounce the Snoods off and angle to the target. If this sounds like Bust-A-Move, you are right.

While the motion of the Snoods is decent, the game has other problems that can be attributed to the size of the display more than anything else.

The faces on the Snoods are tiny and some bear a similar look, making it tough, at times, to distinguish between them. The music is something that should be turned off. The gameplay is decent, but the music is repetitious and when you hear songs that have some semblance to national anthems rendered out in elevator jingle style, it gets old very fast.

The game is simple to play and has several different challenges that will offer up a varied experience. It is not the type of game that will have players addicted for hours on end, but it is the type of puzzle title that will allow 10 minutes here, 10 minutes there of entertainment.

Gameplay: 6.5
The load times are incidental, the game mechanics are simple and the controls are intuitive.

Graphics: 5.0
The animation is decent, but the small faces can make this a ‘squint’ game. The backgrounds are merely Ok.

Sound: 4.0
Jingle themes can get repetitious and annoying.

Difficulty: Easy/Medium
Five difficulty settings ramp up the challenge, but the game is more a matter of aiming as opposed to a cerebral challenge.

Concept: 5.0
While there are different game styles, there is really not a lot of originality.

Multiplayer: N/A
The game does allow for link play, but that was unavailable to test.

Overall: 6.0
While not a bad title, this is a borrowed concept that has a few problems because of the screen size and the game play is not overly compelling. It’s a been-there, done-that game that has some variation and is an average game that will entertain for short periods of time.