I remember last time I was playing Snakes & Ladders with my gran. I rolled my dice. I went up a ladder. I waited for my next turn. I went down a snake. A pleasant way to spend an afternoon, I’m sure you’ll agree.
Still, I distinctly recall at one point throwing a plate of bourbons and various cakes at the wall, overturning the board and screaming; “Fuck you nan, this game needs more guns!” We’ve all been there, am I right?
Thank God then, for Snakes-N-Ladders: Origins—Episode 1, the first person shooter that aims to tell the origin of the ancient board game. There are guns, spaceships, fire breathing lizard creatures – basically everything the board game was missing.
The synopsis speaks for itself, really:
Millions of years ago there waged a devastating war between humans and reptilians for control over the galaxy. Knowledge of this war has been passed down the ages and now exists in the form of a board game which is played to this date.
I should point out that I haven’t done anything to that to make it sound funnier or weirder. That’s the genuine plot. I think about 60% of me is convinced that this is a pisstake, but the other 40% is deeply concerned that this is a serious effort. Watch the trailer below.
Explore a dark jungle and shoot snakes while you listen to badly composed music that’s clearly been done on an old Casio keyboard. The dream is real, guys. It’s real, and it’s right here.
Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.