Snezhinka is a short, arcade shooter focused on an oppressive government and comradery between soldiers. Its anime aesthetics make it stand out compared to more realistic shooters, and its short gameplay bursts offer fast fun. Snezhinka offers a bit of replayability in its short run time, giving you just the right amount of what it has to offer, making for a great, bite-sized shooter.
Snezhinka
Developer: hinyari9
Price: $12
Platforms: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S (reviewed), Nintendo Switch, and PC
An Xbox code was provided by the publisher for review
Fast-Paced Combat and Roguelite Mechanics
Snezhinka is a fast-paced, 2D shooter, focused on small anime girls fighting for their authoritarian country as part of a private military group. That description really encapsulates what a specific, and in some cases, strange game Snezhinka is, but it’s a delightfully short experience with some replayability. It doesn’t exactly knock it out of the park in most aspects, but it offers a ton of fun for a couple of hours it wants you to play.
The story mode follows a pretty similar flow to the challenge modes but with the inclusion of story moments. Snezhinka, the main character, joins a PMC to try and find her sister, who went missing in combat. You must fight against waves of mechs using your firearm, earning pay for each wave defeated. The waves are all bite-sized, giving you a short burst of action before you can buy your next upgrade. These upgrades can be small stat boosts, a coworker to help you fight, or a new weapon. These weapons will break after a number of waves, forcing you to think ahead about how you spend your upgrades.
Snezhinka is basically a roguelite, and the shooting is incredibly simple, but it’s satisfying in short bursts. It’s 2D, so you shoot off to the right of the screen, fending off mechs or stopping bombs from hitting your objective. Some rounds take seconds and move incredibly fast, so your reaction time is the biggest factor. You can also get turrets and cooldown abilities, like a rocket launcher, to help out in tough situations. It’s the type of gameplay that couldn’t sustain for minutes on end but works excellently in the bite-sized moments Snezhinka throws at you. After a few days, you return to your base, where you will get some story from the company leader, as well as your current coworker.
A Bleak but Engaging Experience
In the story mode, coworkers offer two functions. They assist in combat, with different weapon types depending on their specialty. For the story, their backstory colors your relationship, and it impacts the ending, offering multiple endings for replayability. The story itself is dark but is focused far more on the atmosphere than the plot. The mission locations vary a bit, with a few different gameplay inclusions like a tank that assists, or a small hallway that enemies squeeze through.
The environments feel oppressive, like the dingy base you return to, and the mechs feel so faceless that it’s unclear who the enemy is. The government is cartoonish in its authoritarian regime, treating its civilians and military so poorly is a shock anyone still works for them. It doesn’t provide much in the way of a conclusion, but it does provide a strong mood for the game.
The challenge modes follow the same gameplay loop, except without the story bits or changing environments. There are two levels, and the goal is to survive as long as possible to get a high score. Removing the plot elements means that this mode moves at an incredible pace, making it easy to try again if you fail. You can unlock the other characters to use their weapon specialties, adding a bit of variety to the mode. There is a nice variety of enemies, including a few that require you to shoot them in specific ways, breaking up the point-and-shoot of most waves.
A Short but Satisfying Shooter
Seeing most of Snezhinka will only take a few hours, and based on my first story mode run, seeing every ending will only take a few more, which is great for this game. The shooting and quick upgrades are delightful for a few hours, but asking much more would have quickly taken away from the experience. That said, I can see myself making a few more attempts at getting a high score in challenge mode, so it’s absolutely worth the price of admission.
The Final Word
Snezhinka is an arcade-style 2D shooter, focused on anime girls defending against waves of mechs on behalf of their authoritarian government. It’s a strange game, but the atmosphere succeeds in its oppressiveness and the fast-paced gameplay keeps its simplicity from becoming tedium. It’s a small package, but it offers a ton of fun for a few hours, knowing it’s just as important to leave a good final impression as it is to have a strong first impression.
– MonsterVine Rating: 4 out of 5 – Good
