App Name: Save The Snails
Developer: Alda Games
Market: Google Play
Cost: Free
Review:
The object of Save The Snail is self-explained in the title of the game. The goal is to protect snails from harmful objects including hazardous sunrays and cascading pebbles by strategically dropping common, miniature, everyday items to create a makeshift barrier for the snails. The game features 24 levels and three modes of difficulty ranging from easy to hard. Perfect timing, careful precision and quick thinking are needed to excel in this simple yet mind-bending game.
This game will not give you a beginner’s tutorial upon your first time playing, but it does have a help section that is accessible once you enter a level to show you basic instructions on how to play. The instructions will show you what to do for the first two levels. Afterwards, you will be left on your own to figure out the uses for the numerous other objects you will be given to lead the snail to safety through trial and error. This could be advantageous to users who love logic-based games and like to test their critical thinking skills, but disadvantageous to those who don’t like to be left in the dark.
For a strategy game like this, tutorials are needed for every new aspect that is introduced in the game for the average player to fully understand how they could to beat each level and to reduce any frustration and/or confusion while playing the game. Even I had to take a few restarts to figure out what each item is best used for. Although the game doesn’t show extensive tutorials, the snails in each level will give you subtle (and sometimes obvious) hints to beat each stage.
While the lack of tutorials is not a deal breaker, the short gameplay is a big downside. It had taken myself about an hour before surpassing all 24 levels, even with the learning curve of limited tutorials within the game. Since there are no in-game achievements or local leaderboards, the only reason to replay any of the levels is to achieve a three-star perfect score in the game, similar to Angry Birds.
Overall, Save The Snail is a fun and challenging strategy game with easy-to-use controls. Save The Snail is free in the Google Play store and is only 42MB large to download.
