"Interesting concept, but the controls really bring it down"

Snafu is one of the Aquarius's not so good games. You play this game against another player. Each player controls a serpent. There are two variations to this game. The first is to cause the other player's serpent to diminish in size until it is gone, and the second game you must trap your opponent, which will cause them to lose size and lose the game. I've really only figured out how to play the first variation on this game so it is the only one I will mention.

In order to make the other player's serpent smaller, you either have to have your serpent eat part of the other serpent by running into it, or you will win by default if the other player runs out of links if he runs into walls. There are various obstacles that if you run into will cause you to lose links of your serpent. Once one player is out of links the game is over.

Graphics
Graphically the game was decent. The animations were a lot smoother than in other games, though they still aren't that great. The shapes were very blocky and not as defined as other games of this time period.

Sound
Unfortunately there was almost no sound in this game. There were a few sound effects here and there, but for the most part this game was pretty barren.

Controls
The controls were terrible. Your serpent could move in eight different directions, however, in order to change directions, you have to cycle through all of the other directions before you get to the one you want. For example, if you were moving up, and wanted to change directions and go down, you would have to start moving, up/right, then right, then down/right, then down, instead of simply changing directions. This is extremely hard to do and get the hang of and really gets me angry when playing.

Game Play
Unfortunately, as I said, I could never figure out how to play the second variation of this game, and the manual doesn't really help to tell me how to do this either. It definitely sounds a lot more interesting than the first variation and more challenging, but I'm sure with the way this game is setup, it wouldn't have been pretty. The variation I did play wasn't very good. The controls were pretty frustrating and the game was just kind of boring.

Final Words
This is definitely not a game worth buying. Though it is an uncommon game, and interesting to have in your collection, it is not really worth playing at all, and is almost sure to disappoint you!

Reviewer's Score: 2/10, Originally Posted: 02/01/06