Snake? Snake! Snaaaake!

There are games that have bad controls, and then there are games that are about hard controls, like QWOP or ... Drunken Fist.

Snake Pass is the latter; actually, quite a bit friendlier than its peers, as it eases you into the game's slithering and climbing mechanics with a cute cartoony snake, bright colorful collectibles, and a friendly hummingbird who ... narrates.

But make no mistake: this is a game about overcoming awkward controls. I had some fun learning how to move and maneuver the snake, but at a certain point that learning turned into foolishly throwing my body at obstacles over and over.

It isn't just the movement controls - which make it infuriatingly easy to try coiling in one direction, only to end up un-coiling in the opposite direction - but also the camera, which is manually controlled except when it isn't. And since Snake Pass builds a lot of verticality into its levels, chances are very good that the camera will rotate behind a tree or other obstacle, spontaneously blocking your view.

I appreciate what Snake Pass tried to do, and I even enjoyed playing its first few, easier levels. But after that, it became clear that the game's challenge would come from retrying, retrying, and frustratingly retrying an obstacle until the stars had very precisely aligned, and that's when I lost patience for it.

Progress: Made it to level 6, I think?