SnipperClips Archives | Broken Joysticks

To say Nintendo had a strong year in 2017 would be an understatement. The launch of their new handheld-meets-home-console-hybrid not only brought newfound success for a company whos previous foray into the living room underperformed, but it brought arguably one of the strongest launch year lineups for a game console — ever. But when I look back at the Switch’s legendary 2017, it’s not Splatoon 2, ARMS, Super Mario Odyssey or even The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild that I was most impressed with – not to take anything away from those titles, which are all incredible in their own way.

It was the charm of a small puzzle game called Snipperclips that left the largest impression on me. It’s one that might have fallen to the side in terms of coverage due to it launching the same day as the Hylian goliath, but Snipperclips is the first game I always find myself recommending to anyone who picks up a Switch for the first time.

The basic concept in Snipperclips is simple – you have to cut shapes of 2-4 characters in order to accomplish your goal, whether that be matching a shape or getting an object from one side of the stage to another (to name a few). The entertainment comes in the communication it encourages when you play through with friends – and the hilarious scenarios that result from miscommunication. It’s a ton of fun and extremely satisfying when you manage to finally accomplish your goal as a team.

One of the main things that makes Snipperclips one of the best games I played in 2017, however, was simply how approachable it is for gamers both old and young, experienced and new. The game is playable with the Joy Cons that come with the Switch console and the controls are so simple that just about anyone can pick the game up and have fun with it. As games become more and more complicated with layers-upon-layers of different systems in them, it’s quite nice to find a game that manages to entertain as well as Snipperclips does with an easy learning curve.

Snipperclips provides enough entertainment to easily justify it’s small cost. Levels can get quite challenging later on, but those who spend time working together with the game are sure to enjoy figuring them out. Those looking to extend the fun for even longer can check out the PLUS DLC for even more stages to tackle.

The Switch has blown away all expectations I had when it comes to its appeal to gamers of any age and experience level. When you find yourself needing a break from an epic journey through Hyrule, or an intense match in Splatoon 2, do yourself a favor and give Snipperclips a shot – especially if you are interested in playing with friends and family. There’s even a demo available!

SnipperClips is a physics puzzler designed for multiplayer co-operation for the Nintendo Switch. Despite that rather generic sounding description, it seems to be a stylish and charming co-op puzzler with a unique premise – the ability to modify the shape of your co-op partner to solve puzzles. Despite the game not having any elements that are unique to the Nintendo Switch it looks like the perfect game to play with close friends are family and the Switch’s portability lends itself to games like SnipperClips.

During the 5 hour Tree-house live-stream two Nintendo employees attempt to take on a handful of stages from SnipperClips. It starts out adorably enough with the pair of shapes – one yellow & one purple – forming a heart together and progresses from there. Basically when player 1 overlaps player 2 a button can be pressed to cut out the material from the other player. Throughout the course of the 12 minute demonstration we witness the partners work to sharpen a large pencil, attach a paper elephant to a balloon and score a three pointer thanks to a well placed basketball net. It is unfortunate that the pair gave up one particular puzzle that – at least to me – appeared to have more than one solution.

So what audience is perfect for SnipperClips? Well indie game aficionados? Yup check, folks who love indie games will gobble up this game but there is also one important audience that Nintendo helped bring to the gaming space along with smartphone companies – casuals gamers who wouldn’t otherwise be interested in the Nintendo Switch. For some reason, gods know why, the Big N decided that they should oppen their conference with “1… 2… Switch”, a game that doesn’t require players to look at the television or Switch screen at all.

They instead relegated SnipperClips to an end sizzle reel where if you’d blink you’d miss the like three seconds of gameplay shown at the end of the conference. “1..2.. Switch” simply confused people, and at one point more than one friend of mine thought the reveal of “1…2..Switch” was in fact a live action reveal for Red Steel 3, until further into that game’s debut trailer. Nintendo’s reason for spending so much time on a glorified party game with very little traditional game elements instead of a title like SnipperClips which while not making the best use of the new technology, offers a compelling gameplay experience that is easily understood and immensely adorable and would have resonated well with casual gamers in my opinion.

What are you thoughts? Sound off in the comments.

Tag Archive

The Best Games We Played 2017: Snipperclips

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