Snakebird is, despite its colourful appearance and charm, one of the hardest puzzle games on Steam, if not one of the hardest games.

I'm going to start this review by telling you to watch the first trailer provided for this game, as it explains the basic mechanics better than any text can do, and also highlights how incredibly complex such a simple game mechanic can be.

In terms of production quality, Snakebird is absolutely fantastic. The art is done with an incredible attention to detail[noumenongames.com] and perfectly reflects the outward simplicity but underlying complexity of the puzzles themselves. Every object in the environment is meticulously designed and work together perfectly to create a cohesive minimalist design.

The music is done by Carl Karjalainen, and isn't too eye-catching (ear-catching?) - but this is probably a good thing, as if you're planning on completing Snakebird you're going to hear all of the tracks a lot of times.

But these are mostly besides the point - I don't know many people who buy a puzzle game for its soundtrack, so you're probably reading the reviews to find out what the puzzles are like. To be extremely blunt: if you don't enjoy feeling stupid, don't buy this game. It is INCREDIBLY difficult, to the point where even 10 levels in (out of slightly more than 50) it's already harder than the final levels of most other popular puzzle games. By the mid-game each step requires 50 steps of planning ahead to make sure you're not going to move yourself into a corner, and there's virtually no room for error with nearly every puzzle requiring nearly exact moves to complete it correctly.

It should be noted that this difficulty is NOT arbitrary or forced. The developers aren't making deliberately obtuse or tedious puzzles just to drag out the runtime, and every single puzzle makes complete sense once you work it out, using the relatively limited set of features in extremely clever ways.

Personally, I think that this game is fantastic, both in its production quality and in its fiendish difficulty, but it's definitely not for everybody. You have to absolutely love difficult puzzles to enjoy this game, and you'll get frustrated extremely quickly if you aren't used to that kind of challenge. If you are, though, there's basically no better option for training mental acuity.

Snakebird is, despite its colourful appearance and charm, one of the hardest puzzle games on Steam, if not one of the hardest games. I'm going to start this review by telling you to watch the first trailer provided for this game, as it explains the basic mechanics better than any text can do, and also highlights how incredibly complex such a simple game mechanic can be. In terms of production quality, Snakebird is absolutely fantastic. The art is done [url=http://noumenongames.com/the-art-of-snakebird/]with an incredible attention to detail[/url] and perfectly reflects the outward simplicity but underlying complexity of the puzzles themselves. Every object in the environment is meticulously designed and work together perfectly to create a cohesive minimalist design. The music is done by Carl Karjalainen, and isn't too eye-catching (ear-catching?) - but this is probably a good thing, as if you're planning on completing Snakebird you're going to hear all of the tracks a [i]lot[/i] of times. But these are mostly besides the point - I don't know many people who buy a puzzle game for its soundtrack, so you're probably reading the reviews to find out what the puzzles are like. To be extremely blunt: if you don't enjoy feeling stupid, don't buy this game. It is INCREDIBLY difficult, to the point where even 10 levels in (out of slightly more than 50) it's already harder than the final levels of most other popular puzzle games. By the mid-game each step requires 50 steps of planning ahead to make sure you're not going to move yourself into a corner, and there's virtually no room for error with nearly every puzzle requiring nearly exact moves to complete it correctly. It should be noted that this difficulty is [b]NOT[/b] arbitrary or forced. The developers aren't making deliberately obtuse or tedious puzzles just to drag out the runtime, and every single puzzle makes complete sense once you work it out, using the relatively limited set of features in extremely clever ways. Personally, I think that this game is fantastic, both in its production quality and in its fiendish difficulty, but it's definitely not for everybody. You have to absolutely love difficult puzzles to enjoy this game, and you'll get frustrated extremely quickly if you aren't used to that kind of challenge. If you are, though, there's basically no better option for training mental acuity.