Snapdots

Overview

Snapdots is a puzzle game developed by D4 Enterprise and published by Nintendo. It is the spiritual successor of Guru Logi Champ, one of Compile's final games. The Japanese version was released in 2009 as Kaiten Illust Puzzle: Guru Guru Logic, and was followed by a 2010 release in North America. The game features more than 100 puzzles, in addition to a Time Attack mode that challenges players to clear as many boards as possible before time expires.

Gameplay

Each puzzle consists of a 16x16 grid. The object of the game is to place blue blocks on top of every single gray box on the grid. To do so, players take control of a UFO that resides at the bottom of the screen. This UFO can move to left and right and has the ability to both shoot and grab blocks that are directly above it. Additionally, the player can use the L and R buttons to rotate the puzzle, effectively allowing the UFO to travel across all four edges.

Players can only shoot a block if said block will land on a solid surface; this can be another UFO block, one of each puzzle's preset black blocks, or a Push Block. If a UFO block is placed inside of a gray box, it will turn blue; otherwise, it will become red. Players are only given enough blocks to solve the puzzle, so effective usage of both the UFO's blocks and the black boxes is key.

As the player advances, he or she will encounter Holes, Bounce Blocks, and Push Blocks. Holes are spaces on the grid where no block can be placed. Bounce Blocks are yellow blocks that will reflect any UFO block, preventing the player from stacking on top of them. Push Blocks are preset blocks that count toward solving the puzzle but cannot be removed by the UFO. When the player fires a block at it, one of two things happen: if the Push Block can move forward, it does so; otherwise, it pushes the UFO block back one space.

Dotty's Wisdoms

Snapdots features only one character: an alien girl named Dotty. She usually occupies the top screen, casually walking while making occasional comments. Once the player completes a puzzle, she talks about the resulting picture; for example, she remarks that compact discs aren't compact anymore and asks if chickens lay eggplants.