Snake Rattle n Roll (NES) Playthrough
199A playthrough of Nintendo's 1990 isometric platformer for the NES, Snake Rattle n Roll.
At the NES's peak, Rare was making games for seemingly every publisher under the sun at breakneck speed. I have no idea how they managed it with such short development cycles, but the great majority of them turned out to be "good," and several became beloved classics.
Snake Rattle 'n' Roll sits firmly in the classics category for me. Isometric graphics were an exotic novelty on the NES, but the game's action and stage designs put the format to good use. Your goal as Rattle (and Roll in the 2P co-op mode) is to reach the summit of a mountain that has been split into eleven stages. In most areas, you'll be eating pellets to extend the length of your body, and once you're heavy enough, hopping on a scale will unlock the exit, allowing you to move on.
It controls a lot like Rare's NES adaptation of • Marble Madness (NES) Playthrough crossed with the platforming mechanics of • Solstice (NES) Playthrough , with a heavy focus on speed and physics. It might take some effort to adjust to d-pad controls, but once you've got them down, the gameplay is smooth as butter, and the game waits to get its hooks into you before cranking the difficulty level through the roof. Rare was known for "Nintendo hard" games, and make no mistake: Snake Rattle n Roll is a proud card-carrying member of that club. That's what makes it so satisfying to play, though, and why finishing it feels like such an accomplishment.
The excellent graphics and music don't hurt the game's appeal, either, and I love that your enemies include a hyperactive toilet seat and a psychotic severed foot.
Like many of Rare's better NES titles, Nintendo published Snake Rattle n Roll under their own label. That fact alone should tell you how worthwhile a game it is.
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