Retro Unknown – Snake Rattle ‘n’ Roll (NES)

by Beeslo

(sometimes ya gotta rock or you gotta roll…)

Digging back into the vault I found yet another NES gem from my childhood, Snake Rattle ‘n’ Roll. Developed by the then still young Rare, Inc., Snake Rattle ‘n’ Roll featured a 3D isometric playing field (one of the first of the time) and is considered one of the hardest games ever released for the Nintendo Entertainment System.

Let me tell you, this game was hard. But that hardly detracts from how fun the game was. You and a friend played as two snakes who’s ultimate goal is to reach the top of a mountain and collect a flag. Why a flag? I have no idea, but let me tell you…it is extremely hard to make it to the flag. In order to advance to the next level you must eat as many colorful balls in the level as you can so that you weigh enough to trigger the scale which in turn, opens the exit door. However, not only are these balls hard to catch (they fly, bounce, swim and roll all over the place), but you will be twarted by spikes, sharks and bigfoots (not the mythological creature…but literally “big foots”).

Probably the best feature in this game was the ability to play head to head with a friend, munching up as many balls as you could and coming out with the highest score in the end. But even with a competing friend, this game was still hard as shit to play.

Its only flaw was that it had some rather wonky controls that not only would be ultra sensitive at times but it got confusing as to which direction your snake would travel on the isometric playing field in relation to the direction you pressed on the D-pad. But all of this is forgiven due to the still great replay value and incredibly fun and addictive soundtrack.

I highly recommend that you find this one and I hope that one day, it will grace the Virtual Console.

It’s unfair how quickly this guy plays this game…it took me hours to get to the end and even then, I couldn’t beat it….too damn hard!!! And don’t even ask me what that ending was about, me thinks Rare was smokin’ some pretty heavy stuff that day.

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