Snack World The Dungeon Crawl Gold - Review

If you’re familiar with Level 5 then you might be aware of a 3DS game and anime series that came out in Japan a few years ago called Snack World. Sadly it didn’t show up here. It was looking like it may not come here at all, but lucky for us not only did it get localised but it’s also out now!

You wake up in the kingdom of Tutti Frutti with no memory of who you are. That doesn’t matter though, the King needs your help! Princess Melonia needs the finer things in life and you’re the chump chop that’s going to have to do it. Throughout the chapters you’re introduced to an expanding cast of characters who I can only assume play a greater role in the anime. Most notably you’re joined by Chup and his crew of adventurers, the main characters from the anime series. Initially it feels like every chapter consists of hunting down something the Princess wants. Over time you’re introduced to the villainous Sultan Vinegar. The steaks get bigger than finding a sold out beauty cream, if you don’t do something Dungeon Crawler the world is at steak (yes I used the same food pun twice)

Something you’ll notice almost immediately is that Snack World doesn’t take itself very seriously. They're constantly poking at the 4th wall, and every character and enemy is based on a pun or twist on a fantasy trope. What I didn’t expect was as much crude humour as there is regularly on display, despite it being included the games ratings. Early on I have up on taking screenshots of every innuendo-filled conversation, there’s just so much and it’s hard not to get a chuckle sometimes. The setting and tone that Snack World sets works well and made it more bearable in some of the more drawn-out stretches of the game.

You are a Dungeon Crawler by trade, aptly describing what you’ll be doing through the chapters as you roam the continent helping out others and stopping the Sultan. It feels similar to playing an Action RPG like Diablo, and there is most definitely a focus on loot. Most of the chapters have a three quest arc, starting with travelling and fighting your way to the dungeon. By the end you’re wrapping it up with a dungeon crawl and boss battle to see the chapter out.

Despite spending most of the time sticking to the three quest formula, the story and world around it keep it from really getting tired. Should you ever need a break from the story quests there’s also quests given by NPC according to your DC rank. These quests are important for helping you build up your levels and acquiring loot. You can get by for a while without these, but you’ll eventually hit a wall later in without them.

The quests themselves are pretty straightforward: ‘get to the next warp point’, ‘beat the dungeon and defeat the boss’ or ‘hit these cute yetis so hard they are flung out of the area and back to safety’. Many of the set ups for the quests are funny, and some of the endings are even better. The Snack World localisation team have had a field day with this game, it is overflowing with puns and bizarre situations and it all adds to its charm.

Jaras are your weapons. They initially look like little keyring trinkets, but they are very deadly weapons when used. You can carry six on you as you explore, and they come in a variety of swords, axes, spears, bows, wands and shields. Unlike other games of this genre, there isn’t constant incremental stat increases on the Jaras you find. In fact finding a Jara is fairly rare. It's not even a given getting the end of quest reward as Jara. You can buy them and you can obtain them by chance, if you really want to boost your Jara’s strength you’ll be stuck grinding so you can feed any doubles into fortifying it.

Because quest rewards aren’t a sure thing, it makes the bonus booty ‘booty call’ at the end of the quest a little more nerve wracking. It’s not made clear on any given quest what actions will increase the chance of the main prize. You get chests for not needing to be revived, or finishing the last enemy off with a power move, or not using any healing potions. Yet the checklist only shows what you got them for, not how to get the ones you missed and even when you get the rarer chests it’s still not a definite thing.

Jaras also come with enemy types it works well against and often other passive abilities. They also come with different heavy attacks and built up attacks, these will be different even amongst duplicates. The Jaras are limited in how much you can use them, every one of them has a durability rating. There’s also a Jara Power meter that shows how long until the Jara is temporarily weakened. This encourages you to swap around your Jaras in combat, so you’re not left waiting for any to recharge while in a pinch. Juggling through six Jaras isn’t an easy task so thankfully the game will let you hit a button to auto select the most effective weapon for the enemy you’re targeting. The auto system does get a bit confused when there’s several different enemies around, but overall it makes juggling Jaras a manageable experience.

How your gear works is also different than what you might be used to. It's not just a matter of strength and magic ratings, it’s also about fashion. Jaras and wearable gear all have colours, styles and brands attached to them. Every real time day, the ‘in’ style, colour and fashion is broadcast to give you a boost should you be equipped in the most fashionable stuff. This means that it’s not just about having the best stats, you need to amass a variety of different gear and brands of Jara. When you auto equip before embarking on a quest, it will always try and equip you with as many fashionable items as possible. I’m glad the auto equip exists because it never feels fully explained, it can be just as hard to obtain the gear in the first place.

Snacks are the name of the members in your party. They take two different forms; Party Snacks and Pocket Snacks. Throughout the quests you build up a collection of allies and enemies that can be snapped with the Pix-e pod, turning them into a snack to fight alongside you.

Any of the Snacks in your collection can be used as a party member. Their levels are shared with yours so you’re not having to level up different Snacks constantly. When enough time passes you’re able to use a Pocket Snack, which morphs you into the chosen Snack for a limited time. It’s also handy as it gives you a new health meter if you’re in danger of getting wiped out. The Snack system is a good way to keep you from being alone when tackling quests solo, you always have a party even if it’s AI pals. The AI can alternate between competent and useless as you lay there hoping one will come over and resuscitate you.

Jumping into the quests with friends is surprisingly seamless. At any time in Tutti Frutti you can start a party or join one, either through a local party or an online one. Unfortunately you can’t play through the story quests with someone else, but you can play through side quests. Some are made much more manageable with an extra person, you can also just go into one of the areas where you can just kill enemies until you get tired of it. While it’s a missed opportunity to have friends unable to tackle the story together, doing side quests are still plenty of fun. It’s also a good way to help grind levels and materials, which then helps out a great deal when you’re back to soloing the main story. Once you’ve finished off the story, there is plenty more for you and your friends to tackle. The only downside is it’ll take around 30 hours before then.

In dungeon crawls, if you take too long a reaper called The Popsickle will show up to kill you in one hit. As a courtesy they give you a minute head start. A few hours into the game and a few floors into a dungeon I found out the time before they announce their arrival can be random. While it does throw an element of urgency to the quest, it feels a bit unfair when it happens after less than a minute. It’s not uncommon for a mechanic like this to appear in games like this or mystery dungeon games. Personally, it felt counterintuitive when text kept popping up to explore every corner of the dungeon, the pressure to get to the next floor was always there.

The Snack World was originally a 3DS game, and they’ve definitely made everything look nicer in bringing it to the Switch. The visuals are cartoony, and I’m guessing everything beside your character is also in the anime so there’s a lot of distinguishable characters. There’s also the added bonus of designing your own characters look, mostly drawing from what Dragon Ball character you want to look like. Be aware that while you can make an older looking character, you’ll always have a weird kid size body. I spent the majority of my game time with a head that looked like an anime Geralt of Rivia on a kid body, it never stopped looking out of place.

After playing through over 30 hours of Snack World, it’s safe to say that I still very much have the opening song/theme in my head. Even though it’s entirely skippable half the time, I don’t want to! it’s catchy and silly and a good up front representation of what you’re in for with this game.

The framerate is choppy on and off. It might just be it’s more noticeable in places as you run around the town, yet it never felt like a problem when running around a dungeon. Ultimately it doesn’t impact the game unless some choppiness in inconsequential areas really bugs you. When you have three party members with you and there’s a bunch of enemies on the field it holds up just fine, which is when it matters.

We never saw the 3DS original version of this game so there’s no real way of telling if it’s a big step up or just looks nicer, or even how much this Gold version adds. Along with 30ish hours of story, there is post story content that could stretch it out even further depending on how willing you are to grind. I didn’t find out how much extra quests there are, but the stage is set for much more dungeon crawling and looting to do.

The Snack World manages to make standard dungeon crawling fun, largely helped by the entertaining and bawdy humour throughout. It was nice not having to spend the whole time sorting through your loot while inching your way through a dungeon. When the game demands that you grind quests to be tough enough for boss battles, then fun wanes a bit. At least the quests never drag too long and before you know it there’s a new chapter to liven things up.

Snack World is an entertaining adventure with some interesting weapon and armour mechanics that feel fresh, compared to the constantly comparing your loot in the inventory found in other games. Level 5 fans who have been waiting for this game should be relieved to know that Snack World was worth the wait. For anyone else curious and into dungeon crawlers there’s plenty here for you too.