Snack World Dungeon Scouts it is not an IP that can be considered, properly speaking, new. The title, in fact, is part of a multimedia project conceived by Level-5 in 2015 and which included a title for Nintendo 3DS, an animated series in CGI, a manga series and, of course, a line of interactive toys that, similarly to the amiibo, offered a more "solid" alternative to the more common microtransactions. The excellent reception given by the Japanese public towards the new creation of Level-5 led the developers, in 2017, to readjust, for the newborn Nintendo Switch, Snack World to guarantee it a longer life cycle than that offered by the famous laptop of the colossus of Kyoto. Now, three years later, the developers have finally decided to import their solid, and demented, Dungeon Crawler also in western soil, albeit orphaned of all the collateral projects related to the brand, trying to conquer new users. Unfortunately, however, Snack World Explorers of Dungeon begins to feel the weight of the years and, we anticipate it immediately, the final result of this transposition has turned out to be less brilliant than 5 years ago.
Welcome to Tutti Frutti!
Analyzing the topics covered in the history of Snack World Dungeon Explorers is not an easy task. The title, in fact, looks like a great parody of all the clichés typical of role-playing games. It all begins, as usual, with an editor for the creation of our virtual alter ego which, with a range of options that is not overly full-bodied, will allow us to create our protagonist and introduce us to the game world. Our adventurer will wake up, without memory, on the shore of the city of Tutti Frutti. Brought to the presence of the eccentric King Papaya, our hero will begin to get to know the various characters that populate the game world, starting with the spoiled and mischievous princess Melonia.
The latter, constantly, will request the most absurd things from the poor King who, succubus of his daughter, will send us to the most remote areas of the kingdom to satisfy the requests of the spoiled princess. This basic opening will lead the way to events that will take place in the approximately thirty hours that Snack World Dungeon Explorers will require you to complete. Although the various characters, all characterized in a disengaged and convincing way, manage to be overall convincing, through surreal dialogues and demented situations, undoubtedly a basic knowledge of the animated series dedicated to the title would make the experience more understandable in its many nuances but Level- 5 has included some content in this Gold edition of Snack World Dungeon Explorers that we will not anticipate so as not to spoil the surprise but turn out to be a welcome addition to immerse yourself more in the game universe.
Another detail that we have been able to notice, but that will not in any way afflict those who have never had the opportunity to enter the world of Snack World, is that in the face of an excellent localization in Spanish, and an inevitable censorship in the design of some characters, the entire production has undergone a sort of general "sweetening" in its contents. Where in the original the double meanings, the pungent humor and the surreal situations, could have different meanings based on the user who benefited from the title, in the western version of Snack World Dungeon Explorers the dialogue has been rewritten, making the entire gaming universe more childish and demented, as if to indicate a given target audience to which the production of Level-5 in the West is directed. Obviously, as mentioned above, if you have never had anything to do with Snack World you will not notice this difference but a greater courage would certainly have revealed, even in the West, the reasons behind the success of the brand.
Any censorship, or re-adaptation of the dialogues, however, does not in the least affect the excellent gameplay and the fun game mechanics that make Snack World a Dungeon Crawler able to entertain at any age. The title, in fact, moves on the tracks of the most famous productions of the genre: moving within the walls of the city of Tutti Frutti, which serves as an impressive central hub, you will be able to get new missions, improve your equipment, choose your teammates (who are none other than the protagonists of the animated series) and consult your Pix-e-Pod (a sort of multifunction Smartphone) in order to enhance your own statistics and read up on what happens in the game universe. Once ready, you can choose one of the available missions, divided between main and secondary, and dedicate yourself to the exploration of the Dungeons which, as usual, will vary in the structure of the map and in the disposition of the enemies, at each of our visits.
Pocket dungeons
Regarding the level design, unfortunately, we note the "3DS title" nature of the original production and, although the various settings are well characterized and diversified in their appearance, their redundant repetition during the multitude of missions available makes them come soon to get bored, especially if he devotes himself to long farming sessions. On the other hand, the management of the repositioning of enemies and objects during each of our visits is excellent, even following a game over, which manages to postpone the slutty stylistic variety of the maps, instilling a strong desire to explore and look for new loot in the player. As for the objectives related to the various missions, Snack World Explorers of Dungeon, does not move from the canons of the genre. It goes from the more classic reaching a specific point on the map, to the search and collection of objects, to the elimination of a given number of enemies up to the clashes with Bosses of wisely varied sizes and types. The lack of depth in the objectives, however, does not represent a negative point as everything in Snack World is designed to offer the player the possibility to constantly "farm" the missions in order to obtain loot of increasingly rare value.
At the end of each mission, in fact, King Papaya will take care to evaluate your performance, judging factors that go from the amount of damage inflicted, up to your ability not to run into alterations of status. Each positive result you achieve will provide you with a chest, the content of which will be completely random, which will allow you to obtain the "Super Reward", different for each mission, which is normally represented by a piece of equipment characterized by highly performing characteristics. It goes without saying that to improve your equipment, in such a way as to face the higher level Dungeons, you will find yourself grinding the same missions over and over again, praying in the benevolence of the Goddess Fortune. To counterbalance the obsessive farming, however, we find well-structured gameplay that is easy to learn and fun to master as you continue on your adventure. The protagonist, in fact, will be able to count on three fundamental elements, the paraphernalia, the armor and the snacks, on which the totality of the game mechanics present in Snack World rotates.
Snack, Jare e armature
The armor, as per tradition, is characterized by specifications designed to improve the resistance of your character to certain changes in status, strengthen its health and improve some aspects dedicated to the offensive. In addition to being able to find pieces of clothing at the end of the various missions, or buy them from merchants, you can devote yourself to the creation of your battle outfits, researching projects and materials, during your exploration phases. In a similar way, it will be possible to find, or forge, the various types of weapons which, through the different types of offensives at their disposal, will lay the foundations of the Snack World combat system. Each weapon, in fact, in addition to having two unique special attacks, will prove to be more, or less, effective against the various types of monsters that will populate the game maps, an intelligent system of graphic suggestions will also allow you to know if you have in your inventory a more efficient weapon providing you with a sort of help that will prove useful in the early stages of the game to learn more quickly the various weaknesses and affinities of the various weapons. It goes without saying that the ability to equip, and trade freely during missions, up to six "Jare" (this is the name of the iconic pendants capable of turning into weapons at will) will allow you to refine different strategies, study synergies between the various weapons and offer a range of varied play styles that can be tailored around the type of combat to which the player will want to orient himself.
Finally, the Snacks are nothing more than the creatures that we will face in the various Dungeons that, with the continuation of the story or in a purely random way during the missions, can be captured, tamed and used as companions in arms at our side. Once we have collected a Snack, we will be able to decide whether to equip it as a member of our team, controlled by the CPU, or assign it as a Summon in such a way as to be able to impersonate it, once the dedicated bar is loaded, in place of our adventurer in situations of need. This simple but layered system allows the player to build parties of colorful characters that will further stratify the gaming experience. A little curiosity comes from the Japanese version of Snack World which included a series of pendants, statuettes and collectible cards, depicting Jare and Snack, which could be imported into the title, in a similar way to Nintendo's amiibo, to be able to take advantage of additional weapons and minions. For the Western market, at the moment, there is no release of these collectible toys but, if you are interested in buying them directly from the land of the Rising Sun, we can confirm full compatibility with the Western version of the title.
All these elements converge in a gameplay that, although skilfully layered, reveals itself very dynamic, easy to learn and damn fun. Our hero, through a very basic series of commands, will be able to dodge, attack, interact with the surrounding environment and recall weapons and minions in a streamlined and intuitive way. Furthermore, the dungeons, with their compact and essential structure, will allow you to decide whether to dedicate yourself to short hit and run sorties on the move or to long farming sessions to improve your equipment. To complete the offer we find a multiplayer sector, which at the time of our analysis we could not test in depth due to the opening of the latter on February 14th, which promises to make you complete the most complex missions together with three other players (from your friends list or chosen randomly). Ultimately, Snack World presents itself as a solid and well-packaged Dungeon Crawler that, once you have willingly accepted the disengaged issues, can guarantee hours and hours of solid fun, obviously if you are akin to the genre you belong to.
Snack World… 5 years later
In purely technical terms, as we mentioned at the beginning of this analysis, Snack World Explorers of Dungeon shows the side with a technical sector not up to the level of current productions. Don't get us wrong, the polygonal models are still convincing thanks to their minimal and exaggerated style in characterization, but the character animations, the scarcity of setting details and the general glance, show the nature of a "title for 3DS" for the which was originally conceived. Localization in Spanish is great in every part, the lines of dialogue are permeated by a subtle and wisely adapted irony and the constant desire of the title to parody the stylistic features of fantasy role-playing games, constantly breaking the fourth wall, it works and will tear you more than a smile in multiple occasions.
