Snakebird Primer is a friendly follow-up to the cute puzzler
Tubular birds
As much as I liked what 2015 puzzler Snakebird was trying to do, bending birds up and around and through levels like avian contortionists, it was a bit beyond my ken and my patience. So huzzah, here comes Snakebird Primer, an easier follow-up pitched as being "for the entire family" - that's adults, grandparents, children, and spinster aunts who get frustrated when required to think more than three moves ahead. Released today, Primer looks far more on my level so heck yes I will flex this fowl.
Snakebird Primer is once again about twisting the Snake-like segmented bodies of colourful birds to cross levels, squeezing through tight spaces, gobbling fruit to grow, and trying not to stuck in a shape or location where they can't reach the exit. That will make more sense once you watch the trailer.
See? These tubular birds can scootch forwards and bend at right angles between segments, an ability that can let them navigate levels in anatomically improbable ways but also ruin their own chances. It's a bit like Snake in that respect, but with goals and levels and teleporters and other surprises. And birds. Hence the name. It gets trickier with multiple birds too, but not too tricky, not this time.
"Suitable for children, from 4 years and up," developers Noumenon Games say, which is about my level. Maybe Primer will even help build me up for a return to the original Snakebird, I say rhetorically because you might find it a useful extended tutorial but mate I'm a born quitter and I will not go back to be HUMILIATED by those damn birds again.
Snakebird Primer is out now for Windows, Mac, and Linux. It costs £5.79/€6.59/$7.99 on Steam. It's coming to pocket telephones too (Android now, Apple once it passes) but I wouldn't know anything about that.