I feel like snake games have been around since the dawn of time. You move the snake about, you eat so the snake gets longer, you do not get caught in a corner or on your tail. It’s a simple game, so it makes sense that developers continue to innovate and add new aspects and mechanics to the game. SSSPICY! is a snake based puzzle game where you need to eat and then use the food you have to solve little puzzles.
In SSSPICY! you are a little snake who has just discovered the taste of chili peppers. These fiery foods actually blast you backwards, often off the map! You can use blocks to keep yourself from flying off the edge, as long as you have your snake in the right place. This is where the puzzle aspect comes in, you will need to be very aware of where your snake’s body is, so that you can ensure that you are not falling off the edge. When you do eat food in the levels, you also need to move the food against some sort of block wall, otherwise you will just keep pushing them around.
This means you may need to push some foods into place before eating them, so that you then can blast off to the right area. Blasting off, using chilis, can bring you to new islands and push whatever food your body hits with you. At the same time, however, if you are long enough you can fit yourself over gaps without needing the pepper to boost you. Bananas within the game do make you bigger as well, which is quite important when making it through these gaps.
SSSPICY! soon gives you more objects to work with, like ice blocks to push and burn if you eat chilis, changing how you think about the level. It’s an interesting game, that seems to be ever-changing with it’s mechanics. The snake itself is also so adorable, having a little frightened face before they fall off and having a shocked face when they eat the chili!
You can play SSSPICY! for free, in your browser, or download it if you’d like.