Snake Rattle n Roll

Snake Rattle n Roll is a platform video game developed by Rare. It was published by Nintendo and released for the Nintendo Entertainment System in North America in July 1990 and in Europe on March 27, 1991. The game features two snakes, Rattle and Roll, as they make their way through eleven 3D isometric levels.

A Mega Drive version was released by Sega in June 1993 with an extra level. Snake Rattle ‘n’ Roll was developed by Rare members Tim Stamper and Mark Betteridge. The music was composed by David Wise and was inspired by “Shake, Rattle and Roll” and other 1950s-era songs.

The object of the game is to navigate the obstacles in each level and eat enough “Nibbley Pibbleys” to ring a weigh-in bell located in the level, which will allow the snakes to exit. The game can be played by a single player or by two players simultaneously. Snake Rattle ‘n’ Roll has been named one of the top games released on the NES and one of the top games released by Rare. It is included in Rare’s 2015 Rare Replay compilation for Xbox One. A follow-up for the Game Boy, titled Sneaky Snakes, was released by Tradewest in 1991.

Gameplay – Snake Rattle n Roll

Snake Rattle ‘n’ Roll features two snakes (Rattle and Roll) making their way through 11 isometric levels. The object in each level is to eat enough “Nibbley Pibbleys” – small round creatures found throughout each level – to gain enough weight to ring a bell on top of a weighing machine located at the end of the level; this causes a door for the next level to open.^[1] Players maneuver their snakes throughout the level with the control pad and are able to pick up Nibbley Pibbleys by lashing their tongue, which can also be used to attack enemies.

The snakes’ lengths increase when they eat; snakes grow more quickly when they eat Nibbley Pibbleys of their own color, and they grow the most when they eat yellow ones. Located in each level are dispensers which randomly spew out Nibbley Pibbleys; however, they also spew out bombs which can damage the snakes.^[2] When a snake reaches a long enough length, the tail begins to flash, which means the snake is heavy enough to exit that level. At that point, they must find and jump on the scale to ring the bell and open the exit door.^[3]

Each level contains various obstacles and enemies. Players lose a segment from their snake if they are hit by an enemy, and they lose a life if their snake runs out of segments.^[2] Players can also lose a life if their snakes fall too far, the timer runs out, their snakes touch a sharp object, or if they are squashed by an object from above. Also, if they remain in some bodies of water for too long, a shark will attack. The game ends when players lose all their lives, but they have several continues in which they can restart the game from where they left off.^[4]

Players can defeat enemies by hitting them with their tongues or by jumping on them.^[3] Players can collect various items to help them along during gameplay, such as items that extend the length of the snakes’ tongues, provide extra lives and continues, add time bonuses, award invisibility diamonds, speed up the snakes, or reverse their directional controls.^[5]

Located throughout the game are “lids” (in the shape of manhole covers) which players can open to uncover Nibbly Pibbleys, items and extra lives, entrances to bonus levels, and sometimes enemies.^[1][6] Also located in the game are hidden warps which allow players to skip several levels and restart at a later point in the game.^[6]

Development – Snake Rattle n Roll

*Snake Rattle ‘n’ Roll* features a 3D isometric playing field in which the snakes must avoid obstacles, collect items, and eat “Nibbley Pibbleys”.

Snake Rattle ‘n’ Roll was developed primarily by Rare employees Tim Stamper and Mark Betteridge. As with Rare’s other NES games, it was executive produced by Howard Phillips, who soon left Nintendo in 1991.^[7] Stamper worked on the game’s graphics and concepts, while Betteridge worked on the game program itself. Most of the ideas behind the game came from Betteridge, who had challenged himself to get the smallest file size for a NES game possible. According to Rare member Brendan Gunn, Betteridge found out how to develop cheap backgrounds that took up little space.

After thinking about what and how to move objects on such backgrounds, he came up with the idea for a snake. Much of the game derived from another isometric video game Marble Madness, of which Rare published the NES version in 1989.^[8] They also used the same type of high-speed scrolling that was used in the NES port of Marble Madness, which, according to a Nintendo Power overview of Rare, “many said couldn’t be done on the NES”.^[9]

Rare’s future Creative Director, Gregg Mayles, started with the company play-testing Snake Rattle ‘n’ Roll. He recalls being impressed with Betteridge’s development of the controls, which he said “felt really responsive”.^[8]

The game’s soundtrack, consisting predominantly of twelve-bar melodies in the early rock-‘n’-roll style of the 1954 song “Shake, Rattle and Roll“, the name of which is parodied in the game’s title, was composed by David Wise. According to website GamesRadar, the game’s compositions revolve around 1950s-era “oldies so old they don’t even get played on the radio anymore”.^[10] One sound effect, played when a snake lands in the water and is pursued by a shark until it returns to land, quotes John Williams‘ two-note theme from the 1975 film Jaws.^[11] The soundtracks for the NES and Sega Mega Drive versions were released on vinyl in 2020 by Black Screen Records with liner notes from Wise.

It was first published by Nintendo and released for the Nintendo Entertainment System in North America in July 1990 and in Europe on March 27, 1991.^[12][13] Rare later ported the game to the Sega Mega Drive, a version which was released only in Europe by Sega in 1993; this port features an additional final level in addition to the 11 levels on the NES version.^[14]

In that version, the snakes make it into space, but a meteorite crashes into their spaceship, causing them to crash land on another planetoid, which serves at the 12th level.^[15] After completing the level, the ending shows the snakes on a new spaceship that is going back home.^[16] Although this game was never released for the Game Boy, in level 7 of the NES version, the landscape spells out “NINTENDO GAME BOY”.^[17] The Sega version spells “SNAKES R+R GO SEGA” in the same place.

Reception – Snake Rattle n Roll

Snake Rattle ‘n’ Roll first received preview coverage in January 1990 in Nintendo Power magazine. The preview said that the game “defies description” and that it would appeal to people who have enjoyed games such as Q*bert and Adventures of Lolo.^[24] The game was featured in the magazine’s September–October 1990 issue, which featured a walkthrough of the game’s first three levels.^[18] It was also featured in UK-based magazine Mean Machines, where it received high praise from editors Matt Regan and Julian Rignall.

Regan praised the game’s 3D environment, fun gameplay, and level of humor, as noted by the odd objects such as toilet seats. Rignall called the game’s graphics “stunning, with beautifully drawn scrolling forced perspective 3D backdrops and some great sprites”; he also lauded the game’s playability and simple controls, challenging difficulty, and overall fun factor. Overall, they said Snake Rattle ‘n’ Roll was “one of the most original games seen in years” and was “a firm favourite here in the MEAN MACHINES offices”.^[1]