Finally, another good game! Let’s see if I can stick to posts about good games without being kicked for inactivity.

Grid-based Puzzle. The D-pad moves your selected snakebird one unit forward, and L/R swap control between the different snakebirds in the level. The goal is to open the portal by eating all the fruit by moving headfirst into them, which increases the snakebird’s length by one tile, then leading all the snakebirds into the portal.

The game is very well-designed and intuitive. Levels will actually make you encounter certain less-than-intuitive mechanics multiple times so you’ll never forget about them when they’re required for a more-tricky level, such as the fact that you can stand on uneaten fruit. If anything, the game might be too easy for too long, but it does have plenty of genuinely challenging puzzles, too, especially once you beat the Primer island and reach the main island. Better yet, it accomplishes this without constantly introducing new stuff! The only part that’s kinda underutilized are the portals that send you from one to the other (as long as you position yourself to fit around the exit), but they still get a fair bit of use throughout the game.

The only real issue it has is that not all levels tutorialize certain interactions well, even though figuring out said interaction is the entire puzzle. For example, one level just needs you to know that moving two snakebirds into each other will straighten them out without pushing them off a small ledge, while another one requires you to know that you can push blocks that you’re also technically on top of, letting both your snakebird and your block move across a spike pit. The worst one was one of the portal levels that seems tricky until you stumble across the fact that if there’s a portal one-unit above you, you can still push up to “jump” into it or push objects through (and this particular interaction is only required for, like, two levels). Still, although these moments were annoying, the really difficult puzzles only require knowledge that has already been conveyed to you in previous levels, and I was able to beat the entire game without having to look up a walkthrough despite the difficulty.

Highly recommended.