A Match-Three Game created in 1996 for the Apple Macintosh by David M. Dobson. The object of the game is to clear the board by matching three or more Snoods of the same type, clearing those Snoods as well as causing any Snoods left unattached to the top of the board to drop off. If you fire too many shots, the Danger meter fills up, causing the top of the board to come down, pushing the Snoods on the board closer to the bottom; if any Snoods cross the bottom, you lose. The original version of the game featured 50 puzzle levels, and also included different difficulty levels from Child to Evil that allowed players to play a randomly-generated level instead of the puzzle games.
The Snoods are Jakenote , Midoribe, Mildred, Spike, Zod, Geji, Sunny, and Numbskullnote .
Since its creation, the game has been ported to the Intel and ARM Mac, as well as Windows, Nintendo DS, and Game Boy Advance. In 2018, it was released on Steam, having been ported to Unity. Mobile ports have also been released.
Snood provides examples of:
- Advancing Wall of Doom: Each time the Danger meter fills up, the top of the board comes 1 space further down, pushing your Snoods closer to doom.
- Allegedly Free Game: The Steam and mobile releases takes this approach, with consumable tokens bought using gold bars which can be bought with real-world currency. That is unless you register of course.... an option that only appears in-game, with no indication you can do so on the Steam page.
- The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: The random generator that selects which Snood is next does so from any type currently on the screen as soon as you fire, so more often than not, you'll find yourself getting a Snood whose type you have just cleared from the board on your previous shot. All too frequently, this causes you to have to clear the same character over and over and over again. One can't help but feel that the game is simply taunting you...
- Difficulty Levels: There are various difficulty settings - Child, Easy, Medium, Hard, Evil and, in newer ports, Armageddon - along with Puzzle Mode, which features 50 preset puzzles and the options to create more.
- Edutainment Game: The first game was eventually marketed as being educational for children because it developed "matching [skills], stragetic assessment, and problem solving". This, however, was added on later just to make parents buy it for their kids. The game itself is just another puzzle title.
- Excuse Plot: According to the blurb, the plot involves saving the Snoods, presumably from all being turned into Numbskulls.
- Game Mod: The original version was bundled with Snood Edit, which allows the creation of your own Snood puzzles. You can customize the preset pattern, which Snoods are used, etc.
- It's a Wonderful Failure: Losing in the GBA version shows a cutscene where the player character says a line and gets crushed.
- Just One More Level!: Invoked; the original Mac version features a "Just One More Game" feature, which if selected, will quit the program the next time that you lose. However, there's nothing to stop you from launching the program again…
- Luck-Based Mission: Some levels are highly dependent on which pattern of Snoods you get.
- Match-Three Game: The game was inspired by Bust-a-Move and has very similar gameplay. The game is played by shooting three similar-looking Snoods at each other to make them disappear.
- No Fair Cheating: The Mac and Windows versions allow you to use an aimer, take mulligans, or use high frequencies of magic Snoods. However, any use of these measures (with the exception of using the aimer on the Child difficulty) is recognized by the game as cheating, so your score will be marked as "cheesy" and cannot be submitted to the world leaderboard.
- Public Domain Soundtrack: The Game Over sound is a short clip of the Song of the Volga Boatmen.
- The Smurfette Principle: Out of the eight Snoods, Mildred is the only one with a female name and appearance. All of the other Snoods have either male or gender-neutral names and appearances.