A Good Snowman is Hard to Build Switch Review – Do You Want to Build a Snowman?

Draknek & Friends sure do have some fun puzzle games out there, and A Good Snowman is Hard to Build is no different. This is a unique puzzle title that puts a nameless/faceless avatar in your hands as they intimately create a family of snowpeople. It does not take a whole lot of time to clear, but this is a fun, little game to take up a weekend.

But should you be building these snowmen in the first place? Or is this a puzzle game that needs to hurry up and melt? Let’s find out!

A Good Snowman is Hard to Build is a nice puzzle game where you guide your avatar around a garden that is sectioned off in small squared areas, and it is up to you to figure out how to create a snowman with the little space you have. Essentially, you need a small, medium, and large snowball, and you have to roll them in proper order to build the snowman. That means large waits for medium, and then the small one is pushed onto the top.

There are interesting gimmicks spread throughout that expects you to figure certain mechanics out on your own, like fact that smaller snowballs can be rolled on and off of bigger ones (This helps to move small snowballs to the opposite side of a larger one, for example) and walking around other areas to take advantage of entrances in order to solve others. It is a unique way to mix up gameplay with the otherwise standard build-a-snowman conclusion, and it does so with great spacial awareness in very tight quarters.

Movement is a bit finicky, and I found myself accidentally rolling snowballs when I didn’t want to or hammering into a wall or obstacle because my commands were not registered quickly enough. It is not too problematic, as A Good Snowman is Hard to Build comes with simple commands like B taking you a step back and X resetting the puzzle completely. These two buttons help a lot with trial and error which helps to solve the puzzles better, in my opinion. Since the spaces are tight, the B button to take a step back lets you try very quickly a series of movements to whittle your options down.

I did find that the puzzles were not so engaging after a while, and I struggled to figure out why. What starts out as really cute, our nameless/faceless avatar excitedly calling out the names of snowmen before bringing them together, ends up becoming quite tedious. This is nothing against the gameplay itself, but the lack of a proper variety in the puzzles makes for a relatively dry experience overall.

You see, you just build snowmen, and there is nothing else to it. There are no changes to the gameplay or strange mechanics thrown into the mix, we just continue to build snowmen in different ways, in different orders. Some times even tasked with building two snowmen in one area to make it even harder, but this is still more of the same. I would have loved to have seen some other ideas introduced after so many puzzles to mix things up a bit, but what we have is still a solid puzzle experience nonetheless.

The little garden world does have a lovely look and feel about it, and the bright white snow with the green, green grass just pops on the screen really well. The soundtrack by Priscilla Snow is soothing and quite enchanting, which is the perfect type of music for a puzzle game like this. It leaves you in a state of zen as you attempt to wrap your mind around the snowman puzzles at hand.

A Good Snowman is Hard to Build is a really nice puzzle game with some fun ideas that looks and sounds incredible. It fails to keep things interesting as you continue on, but that does not take away from the challenge of the spacial puzzles presented. Building snowmen is great, and seeing their cute faces as a reward is nice, but I would have loved to see a bit more mix up in the gameplay.

It is not a very long game, and it is definitely one that can be cleared in one sitting if you are a puzzle master. For those looking for a nice brain challenge, this is definitely worth your time and effort, but I would personally recommend Draknek’s Sokobond over this one any day, as it provides a similar challenge but keeps things fresher throughout.

If you want to build a snowman and spend some time relaxing to a fantastic soundtrack, this is definitely the game for you, but if you are looking for a strong, puzzle experience that will hold your attention from start to finish, there are better options out there, like the aforementioned Sokobond, which is incredible.

A Good Snowman is Hard to Build Review provided by Nintendo Link
Review also found on OpenCritic
Publisher: Draknek & Friends
Developer: Draknek
Release Date: September 2nd, 2021
Price: $9.99, £7.39, €8,19
Game Size: 168 MB