Just For Fun / Snacks

Come to Snaktooth Island and discover... (Beat) —Snacks!

Snacks is an indie Adventure Game available for the PC, PlayStation 4, and as a launch title for the PlayStation 5. Developed and published by Young Horses (the same minds behind Octodad), Snacks follows the same bizarre, absurdist humor that they built upon with their first title.

Prior to May 2021, it was a Mon game about finding and capturing eponymous, animate, googly-eyed, arthropod-like Bugsnax. However, due to feedback of the Bugsnax being "creepy" and "off-putting", Young Horses spent several months un-bugging their game, announcing such in April 2021.

In a world of fuzzy monster-like people called Grumpuses, you play a news reporter who receives a film strip in the mail from Elizabert Megafig, an explorer who beckons you to a place called Snaktooth Island, where the titular foodstuffs grow, so that you may document them.

Unfortunately for you, upon arriving there you learn that she's disappeared on an expedition, with everyone who followed her scattering. This leads you on a quest to rebuild the abandoned town within the island, reunite its scattered denizens, and uncover the mystery behind her disappearance with their help.

The game is played entirely in first-person, with a heavy emphasis on food-catching through the use of various contraptions that you'll acquire from other Grumpuses. Once Snacks are caught, you can feed them to the townsfolk, and make one of their body parts transform into the corresponding food you just fed them.

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Snacks provides examples of:

• Amusing Injuries: Your character can get set on fire, causing them to run around while flailing their arms, but since there isn't a health system, it has no lasting effects. You can even use your flaming body to melt icy Snacks.
• Anthropomorphic Food: Averted since the game was updated to be about Snacks instead of Bugsnax.
• Asteroids Monster: Some of the flaming/frosty Snacks will split into smaller, different ones when they lose their fire/frost and are not caught before they fall apart (ex., a banana split splits into a Neapolitan ice cream scoop, a cherry, and two bananas). For some Snacks, breaking down bigger ones is the only way for the smaller ones to appear.
• Bland-Name Product: Averted with the soft drink family, which all have the same names as real drink brands, and have cans with the same colour schemes as well. There's Dr. Pepper, Mountain Dew, Sunny D, and La Croix.
• Bookends: Near the start and near the end of the game is a scene where the player wakes up in Flavor Falls, sees a strawberry, and encounters Filbo lying on his back.
• But Thou Must!: The player's dialogue choices, while giving the player a small amount of freedom on how to treat the island's residents, mostly ends up being a choice between "agree" and "sarcastically agree", with most of the characters responding the same way no matter what you picked. Either that or no dialogue options work unless it's the one needed to advance the plot. One dialogue with Beffica even drops the pretense that player has a choice on what to say next, with the two options being "What about me?" and "Seriously, what about me?"
• Cartoon Creature: All the characters are a species known as Grumpuses which sort of resemble Muppet knock-offs, although a few have walrus-like faces.
• Character Development: The main component of the story involves the main character acting as a mediator to help all the other Grumpuses come to terms with their self-doubts and interspecific disagreements which led them to settle on Snaktooth Island in the first place and ended up splitting them apart before you arrived. If you complete all of a character's side-quests, they'll realize they don't need Snacks as a crutch anymore (and possibly avoid being killed).
• Company Cross References: You can find a few of Cromdo's ties, which are replicas of Octodad's ties from Dadliest Catch.
• Conspiracy Theorist: Snorpy believes everything, including the island and the Snacks, are part of a conspiracy by the Grumpinati. As the post-credits scene reveals, he turns out to be on to something, as Clumby is in contact with the Snacolytes that seeks to suppress the truth about Snacks.
• Death by Despair: It's possible for this to happen to nearly all of the Grumpuses near the end of the game. If their sidequests haven't been completed, they will let themselves be assimilated into the island if you take too long to find Lizbert.
• Death Mountain: Half of the Sugarpine Woods is steep and snowed over due to being near the Frosted Peak, which also counts as this trope.
• Despair Speech: As above, letting the Grumpses be consumed by the island has each Grumpus either go insane or give in to the lure of the Snacks, such as Chandlo deciding his personal weakness is more than enough for him to be consumed by the Snacks.
• Developer's Foresight:
  • If you grab the spare journal in Beffica's cave before she even tells you about it, she'll be a little weirded out but commend you anyway.
  • It is possible to catch more than one of the same Snack in the same trap, and the "You caught (Snack's name)" indication will change to reflect this. For example, catching two cups of french fries will make the game say "You caught French Fry Cups" instead of showing the "You caught French Fry Cup" prompt twice.
• Edible Ammunition: The player's slingshot can be loaded with ketchup and later other sauces, which serve as a useful tool for preparing Snacks from a distance.
• Eldritch Location:
  • Snaktooth Island, a massive amalgamation of parasitic animal cells that continuously gathers more victims to sustain itself.
  • The Triplicate Space, a temple beneath Snaktooth Island that existed long before Grumpbeard set foot there. It also gives off an alien feel to it, almost like something from Subnautica or the like. Combine it with statues of Grumpuses with horns naturally growing out of their heads (as in "no Snacks were needed"), and discovering it will leave you with more questions than answers.
• Expository Theme Tune: Performed (and remixed to fit the unbugging) by Kero Kero Bonito.
• Featureless Protagonist: The only attributes the player character has are their arms and fur color.
• Fetch Quest: A large portion of the missions involve finding specific Snacks and feeding them to certain characters.
• Foreshadowing:
  • After threatening to fire you and trying to convince you to drop the Snaktooth Island story, Clumby's sudden decision to let you go after Liz shows that she was leading you to die at Snaktooth Island, partially to keep the island a secret and most likely as a sacrifice to the island.
  • Wambus mentions that new Snacks come out of the ground Covered in Gunge, despite the fact that they're not all plants, thus lack any conventional means of reproduction. That's because they come from The Undersnacks, a place that reveals the true nature of the Snacks and Snaktooth Island as The Assimilator and an Eldritch Location respectively that also happens to be filled with the gunge.
  • Triffany finds various tomb-like pits across the Scorched Gorge along with some mass graves. She also found skeletons with toothmarks on them, despite the previous inhabitants being on an island of food creatures. The ones outside are undoubtedly the ones who discovered the truth about the Snacks and, on an island that has absolutely no edible food that isn't Snacks, resorted to cannibalism to avoid Snackification, while the ones inside were completely Snackified and thus isolated to die in peace.
• Frothy Mugs of Water: Snackwater, which is made from the Snacks, causes Shelda to slur and hiccup and Wambus refers to it as "liquid courage". It's also extremely flammable.
• G-Rated Drug: Snacks are related to drugs implicitly; Chandlo wants to use them to get physically stronger, Floofty believes they can be used to revolutionize medical fields, Eggabell used them for Drowning Her Sorrows, Wiggle wants to use them to boost her cerebral capabilities, and Cromdo wants to use them for a dubiously legal business. Crosses over a bit with Fantastic Drug because they are actually addictive, altering your physical and mental physiology, and can kill you if you consume too many at once.
• The Greatest Story Never Told: Filbo and the main character decide to keep quiet about the existence of Snacks and instead state to Clumby that Snaktooth is a dangerously volcanic island (which is partly true) to prevent anyone else from trying to go there. It's downplayed a bit because Clumby is revealed to be a member of the Snacolytes and suspects that the characters are intentionally keeping quiet about Snacks.
• Green Hill Zone: The Garden Grove and Flavor Falls are grassy regions where the Journalist first arrives on Snaktooth Island.
• Harmless Freezing: The player character will freeze upon touching a frosty Snack. Whacking the ice a few times or getting hit by fire/lava will get rid of the ice.
• Heroic Willpower: If you fully complete a Grumpus's side quest chain, they will realize that they don't actually need Snacks to fulfill their desires, ensuring they won't die if they eat too many Snacks before the island is evacuated.
• Hub City: Snaxburg is the sole living settlement on the island, and the Journalist is to reunite the expedition to it.
• Hurricane of Puns: Eggabell's dialogue is almost non-stop egg-related puns and wordplay.
• An Ice Person: Some of the Snacks are covered in a frost layer which will freeze you and other Snacks on contact for a few moments, requiring you to melt off this layer before you collect them.
• Impossibly Delicious Food: Every Grumpus agrees that the Snacks are incredibly tasty. Exploited by the Snacks, as they're like this by design.
• Instant-Win Condition: For the Golden Ending, all of the Grumpuses must survive. Completing all of the sidequests prevents all of the Grumpuses from eating more Snacks, ensuring they all automatically survive.
• Jungle Japes: The Broken Tooth is covered in rough tropical forest.
• Lethal Lava Land: The Boiling Bay has the island's volcano that you can walk into.
• Level Ate: Snaktooth Island goes beyond just having the Snacks with its other food-related aspects, such as plants that grow condiments like ketchup and the "lava" flowing from the volcano is suggested to be superheated fondue. The Undersnacks takes this further and combines it with Womb Level, while also explaining why; the entire island is made of Snacks; the surface areas just do a better job of hiding it than the island's interior.
• The Lost Woods: The lower half of the Suparpine Woods is a pine forest.
• Love Confession: Played With. Just before the final level, Snorpy will gather all of his courage and ask Chandlo to be his boyfriend... and he responds by pointing out that they've already been dating for years. Snorpy was just too oblivious to realize that making out with someone and moving in with him means you're in a relationship (he thought they were "roommates with benefits"). Thankfully, Chandlo puts the ambiguity to rest by kissing him.
• Missing Secret: Before the DLC update, using the lunchpad to catapult yourself on top of the rocks behind Floofty's shelter in the Boiling Bay will teleport you back to the beach and display the error message "The Triplicate Space is not yet available to you." By finding a key on Broken Tooth by lighting the sconce near a door in the communal sleeping area, you can access it and learn about the Snacolytes.
• More than Mind Control: Snacks do more than change one's physical body; they also subtly manipulate a person's insecurities to try and induce them to consume more. This is implied to be why so many side-quests involve a Grumpus requesting you catch and feed them more and more Snacks, and why the conclusion of each one's questline is them realizing that the Snacks aren't helping.
• Multiple Endings: There are two overall endings, and whether or not anyone dies determines which one you get.
• Mutagenic Food: Any Snack a Grumpus eats changes the appearance of one of their body parts to reflect the food-creature they just consumed. The food-changed body parts eventually turn back to normal on their own unless you eat too many.
• Non-Heteronormative Society: Implied. The presence of two homosexual couples (Snorpy and Chandlo, Lizbert and Eggabell) as well as one non-binary (Floofty) isn't treated as weird by any of the characters in the game.
• No Party Like a Donner Party: It's heavily implied that the original Grumpuses to arrive on Snaktooth island eventually discovered the true nature of Snacks and descended into cannibalism out of desperation. After Snaxburg is destroyed by an earthquake, Cromdo declares that it's now "a Grump-eat-Grump world" and Beffica calls dibs on eating Filbo, which Floofty wants to watch.
• One-Hit Wonder: In-universe. Wiggle struggles with only being known for a single hit song, "Do the Wiggle." Her sidequests involve her trying to catch ever more rare Snacks to try and stoke her muse so she can finally get out of the shadow of her one hit.
• Palmtree Panic: The Simmering Springs and Boiling Bay make up the island's beach.
• Patchwork Map: Snaktooth Island has some unusual geography. There's a snowy alpine biome, a desert biome, a deciduous forest biome, and a tropical beach, all within walking distance of the town. Though it might be justified in that it's actually an Eldritch Location.
• Photo Montage: During the credits, with a photo for each Grumpus in the Golden Ending credits.
• Plot Allergy: The main character is actually allergic to Snacks, which is the in-universe reason why they never use any transformations on themselves. Which happens to be to their benefit, given the Awful Truth behind them.
• Properly Paranoid: Snorpy theorizes that the Grumpinati is behind everything involving Snaktooth Island, and takes measures to keep himself off their surveillance. The after-credits scene shows he's right about there being a conspiracy after all, but it's not the Grumpinati. Downplayed in that the Snacolytes actually want to protect the world from Snacks in their current nature.
• Red Herring: Despite many hints that the Grumpinati are involved with the Snacks and confirmation by Triffany that an organization known as the Grumpinati did exist in historical times, investigating the Triplicate Space indicates that the conspiracy involved are a group called the Snacolytes, and they are really tired of being confused with the Grumpinati.
  Alegander Jamfoot: Ugggh, we are NOT the Grumpinati! That's made-up movie nonsense. I mean, sometimes our actions are blamed on the Grumpinati... but we're a secret society, we can't just go around correcting everybody.
• Schizo Tech: The Grumpuses' level of technology varies widely and randomly, leaving the intended time period level ambiguous. There are laser pointers and drones, but films still use reels and are in black-and-white and cellphones apparently haven't been invented.
• Segmented Serpent: There is a row of small sushi rolls found at the end of Wiggle's sidequest line. However, they're completely inanimate.
• Shifting Sand Land: The Scorched Gorge and Sizzlin' Sands are the island's most arid regions.
• Shout-Out:
  • One of the articles mentioned to have been published by the main character in the past was "The Secret of Soylent Grump".
  • The player's boss at GNN is C. Clumby Clumbernut, which is reminiscent of another famous news editor with a similarly Alliterative Name and a generally unpleasant attitude, J. Jonah Jameson.
  • Snorpy's comment on the s'more's scan is "How'd it get burned? How'd it get buuurned!??".
  • One of the quests to get Shelda back to Snaxburg is called "Legend of Shelda!".
  • The quest to help Cromdo get the windmills running again is called "Don Quixote''.
  • Snorpy mentions his favourite television show (rather fittingly) is Grump Peaks.
  • Among the game's Trophies are:
    • Gone Home
    • That Reminds Me of a Puzzle
    • Got To Catch Them All
    • "In the Arms of the Gramble" references an infamous commercial about animal cruelty featuring Sarah McLachlan's "Angel".
  • Speaking of Pokémon, the main gameplay loop is an odd cross between adventure games, the Pokemon default of Gotta Catch 'Em All, and Pokémon Snap's emphasis on first-person puzzling.
  • Many of the game's other quests do this.
    • Fly Me to the Moon
    • Pen Pineapple
  • The dance that Filbo does at town parties appears to be the Carlton.
  • Shelda's comment on the giant multi-layered burger is that "there's always a bigger burger..."
  • Triffany's comment on the giant cheese ball is that it's "the nightmare of every archaeologist".
  • When you throw the Shrink Spice (later revealed to contain acid) at Floofty, they cry out in pain that their "goggles do nothing".
  • When Chandlo asks Shelda how to help Snorpy deal with his psychological issues, she begins by telling him "that boy needs therapy".
• Shown Their Work: When you find Eggabell on top of Frosted Peak, she mentions there'd be an avalanche. She lists either blunt force trauma or asphyxiation as the ways The Journalist would be killed. Notice that doesn’t include hypothermia. That’s because you’d suffocate from lack of oxygen if you survived getting hit by the snow long before you’d freeze to death.
• Take Your Time: Averted. All Grumpuses can eat Snacks on their own, and most can die near the end of the game if you take a ludicrous amount of time to beat the game without completing their sidequests.
• This Means War!: If either Snorpy of Chandlo die but the other survives at the end of the game, the survivor will declare their intent to destroy the Grumpinati once and for all to get revenge for his lover's death.
• Toilet Humor: One sidequest from Wambus involves you retrieving some of Filbo's... *ahem* "night soil" as fertilizer for his garden.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Among the Grumpuses, Beffica's favorite Snack is the hot dog, to the point that she makes cave art dedicated to her love for it.
• Trash the Set: Snaxburg ends up being completely demolished in the climax by an earthquake, not that the Grumpuses were going to keep living there anyway, since you and Filbo discover Snaktooth Island is utterly uninhabitable.
• Underground Monkey: Most Snacks have two or three variants — these appear in different areas and have slightly different appearances. For example, the strawberry, pineberry, raspberry, and blackberry are all small berries; the cheese puffs and nachos comes in regular, white cheddar, and flamin' hot; and there are four different types of citrus fruit hidden in tunnels.
• Virtual Paper Doll: With the upgraded Snackifier from Floofty, you can change the transformed body parts of a Grumpus into any type of Snack they've eaten before, allowing for you to go for better-coordinated designs than the Rainbow Pimp Gear style Body Horror most are inclined to get otherwise... or go for even wilder combinations.
• "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: Photographs of all the characters returning to society after having escaped from Snaktooth Island are shown during the end credits after the Golden Ending, including confirmation that Liz and Egg did in fact survive the ordeal, leave the island, and heal from Snackification.
• Will They or Won't They?: Snorpy's subplot involves him trying to work up the nerve to confess his feelings to Chandlo, who himself constantly talks about his obsession with getting stronger so he can always protect Snorpy.
• Wimp Fight: At one point, Gramble and Wambus' disagreements escalate into physical violence... consisting of arm-length pawing and meek slaps.
• Womb Level: The Undersnacks consists of living foodstuff matter and opaque red liquid, befitting the revelation that the island is all Snacks.
• Wreathed in Flames: Some of the Snacks are covered in flames which will set you, other Snacks, and your traps on fire, requiring you to put the flames out before you catch them.
• Zeppelins from Another World: The Grumpuses seem to use blimp-like airships for transportation rather than boats.

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