This military-themed pixel art defence shooter brings back a classic ‘80s arcade trope. To wit, you’re the last line of defence against an entire army determined to bring your beloved country to its knees. Rather than playing as a muscular clone of either Schwarzenegger or Stallone, as seen in such arcade classics as Mercs and Total Carnage, we’re instead thrust into the knee-high boots of various dainty anime girls. A sign of the times, perhaps. How they’re able to carry the game’s assortment of supersized sniper rifles and grenade launchers is a mystery.
One thing that instantly stands out about Snezhinka is its immediacy. It isn’t dissimilar from an ‘80s arcade game at all, throwing you into the action with just a couple of button presses. The story mode, with two branching paths, takes just under an hour to finish. If you’re looking for an even quicker fix there’s a choice of two harder challenge modes where the odds are stacked higher and runs can end abruptly. Meshing all this together are the collection screens on the main menu, with an emphasis on unlocking every playable character and fully populating item collections by selecting them at least once throughout play.
Suffice to say, the pace here is swift. You’re tasked with defending an object – be it the outskirts of an army base, a rolling tank, or a powerplant – and must shoot down waves of enemies by aiming with the analogue stick, occasionally venturing forward a few yards to tackle slower hostiles. Waves last 15-20 seconds, and at the end of each, you’re able to pick a perk from a randomised selection of three, improving arsenal, fortifying defences, placing turrets and blockades, hiring a helper character, and so on.
Weapons have a durability factor to monitor, meaning if you don’t switch them out regularly, you’ll be left with the basic pistol – a decent way to get players to experiment with the entire arsenal. The military grades your performance constantly, dishing out a meagre pay cheque that’s just enough to get by. You’ll always have enough cash for an upgrade, but not always enough for the most expensive item offered.
The goal in story mode is to survive for 100 days, with the path chosen impacting the storyline – told with pixel art cut-scenes. Every ten days or so you’ll retire to the ramshackle bunker, home to your helper characters that can be interacted with. It’s also here you can gain a bonus stat by choosing an action, such as…cleaning the toilet. Backdrops change every so often, and occasionally the action is switched up a tad, especially when reaching day 90. Mostly though you’re up against familiar waves of mechs and drones that don’t change a great deal. All of this is accompanied by an electro-pop musical score with a lot of energy.
When I first went into Snezhinka I knew I was in for something arcade-like – it’s a side scrolling shoot’em up, after all – but I never expected it to be quite so fleeting, erring on casual. I was certainly quite surprised when my first run through the story mode ended in under an hour, and even more so on my second run when I finished easy mode without a retry. The challenge mode lives up to its name though, and it seems that there is some friendly competition within the online leaderboards – which, annoyingly, take a long time to load.
So, who will enjoy Snezhinka? It’s quite modern in its approach and theme, so perhaps not retro diehards, but certainly those looking for an instantly gratifying defence shooter that’s teetering on the more casual and lighter side of things. It lacks a lot of the features we’ve come to expect in a roguelike, such as the ability to create ‘builds’ and balance offence with defence. It’s possible to place turrets and other ordinance, but the whereabouts of where they’re dropped isn’t too important, as battles are over in the blink of an eye. Snezhinka isn’t made with long-haul gamers in mind, but for the few hours it lasts, it’s reasonably entertaining. The fast pace makes it hard to look away from the screen for even a second, and the desire to constantly improve your arsenal makes it quite compelling too. Providing you don’t expect it to wholly consume, it’ll scratch that shooter itch for a while.
hinyari9’s Snezhinka is out now on consoles. Published by PLAYISM. A PC version is also available.