Ever since Blizzard released Diablo 3 for Switch, I’ve realised that the Switch is THE perfect console for dungeon-crawling action-RPGs. While Snack World: The Dungeon Crawl – Gold has very little in common with Diablo 3 beyond the genre, both games feature similar gameplay and mechanics, camera angles and systems. However, Snack World is much easier to pick up and play for beginners and younger players, who are clearly the target audience.
Snack World is a game that has trouble focusing. It’s hyperactive and colourful. It’s showing you something but then quickly distracted by something shiny it just spotted.
It’s a mess of jumbled ideas, mechanics and characters and although it kind of comes together, it’s still a bit of a mess. Albeit, a fun one.
Snack World Review
You create your own, amnesia suffering hero in Snack World, something the game pokes fun at, and get to work helping the Kingdom of Tutti Frutti while witing to regain your memory. You do this by exploring randomly generated dungeons and levels filled with Snacks (enemies) and loot.
There’s a kind of ‘rock, paper, scissors’ element to battle as certain weapons will deal additional damage to certain enemies. However, you needn’t learn each one. Snack World prompts you to press ZR quite regularly as it switches you to the most appropriate weapon for each enemy you face.
Over time, you collect these Snacks and can add them to your party or put them in your pocket to use later. While in your party, they act autonomously and fight alongside you. In your pocket, they can be called on and take your place for a time. There are tonnes of Snacks to collect, so you’ll have plenty to choose from.
As with other action-RPGs, Snack World includes crafting and fortification of items. This is where a bulk of the gameplay comes to a head. All of the loot and materials you’ve been collecting can be used here to create new items, weapons or armour or to upgrade the ones you’ve already got.
There’s a lot of RNG to contend with when it comes to collecting the right loot. Thankfully though, being a port of a 3DS game, Snack World is designed to be played in short bursts for quick rewards.
Levels generally only take 2-5 minutes, although dungeons tend to average more of the 10-minute mark. This fast pace never makes Snack World feel like too much of a grind. The gameplay too is simple and fun, making it all too easy to kick back and lose a few hours. Sadly, Snack World isn’t without some issues.
Visually, it looks rough. As a 3DS port I wasn’t expecting it to blow me away. However, sometimes Snack World is just downright ugly. Character models, textures and even the framerate are inconsistent and bafflingly bad. I mean, it’s not going to make your eyes bleed but it certainly isn’t a game you’ll appreciate for its artistic merits.
Tonally, Snack World is all over the shop. One minute it’s a silly kids game poking fun at itself and the tropes and cliches of the RPG genre. The next, it’s swinging wildly and making strange and out of place jokes about trans and gay people. Tonal whiplash is the only word to describe it.
It’s a real shame that these odd moments are even in Snack World because, for the most part, it’s benign, silly fun. It can’t help but sour what is an otherwise decent game and experience for both young and old players alike. It helps that you can skip and fast-forward all cutscenes and interactions.
You’ll want to anyway. The story is barely there and after you’ve heard the first few puns, you won’t need the rest.
As a fun, dungeon crawling, loot collecting action-RPG, Snack World is pretty good. It’s not as deep or engaging as Diablo and it definitely doesn’t look as good as Darksiders Genesis, but it has its own charms.
Punching down with off-colour jokes isn’t one of them. That being said, if you skip the dialogue and cutscenes, you’re not likely to encounter it and will enjoy the game far more.
Snack World: The Dungeon Craw – Gold was reviewed on Switch using a digital copy provided by Nintendo.
PowerUp! Reviews
Game Title: Snack World: The Dungeon Crawl - Gold
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Food puns are dumb but also pretty funny - 9/109/10
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Quick burst dungeon crawling, great for on-the-go - 9.8/109.8/10
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Lazy stereotypes and hurtful characterisations - 1/101/10
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Lots of game to play for a long time - 9.5/109.5/10
