In Snowmuncher you play as Dieter, a Polarchuck. The main object of Snowmuncher is to eat your way through the snow.
How to Play
You can move Dieter using the arrow keys, and you can have him eat a block of snow by pressing the space bar. When Dieter eats, he will eat all blocks of snow of the same colour as the one you have him eat.
You start the game with three lives. Each block you chomp on will add 5% to your bloat meter. If your bloat meter reaches 100% then the next time you try to eat a block you will "faint" and lose one of your lives. You will restart from the same point with the same amount of time left, but now your bloat meter will be empty.
The blocks are affected by gravity, so will collapse after a couple seconds if the blocks below are eaten. A block will only fall as far as the next block of the same colour, which it will then stick to instead of falling any further. If a block falls on top of Dieter's head, you will lose a life. As before, you will restart from your current position with the same amount of time, but your bloat meter will be empty.
In each level you have 90 seconds to reach the bottom of the screen. In later levels, you can extend this by collecting the special blocks with a frozen clock inside them. If you run out of time, you will lose one of your lives and have to restart the level over again from the very top. This can be used to your advantage, as I will explain later.
Obstacles and Bonuses
Aside from the regular blocks of snow there are mud and dirt blocks that will take two munches to eat. These are present from the very beginning of the game but you will notice there are suddenly a lot more of them from level 4 onward.
You will find these gems scattered throughout the levels. The green ones are worth 100 points, whilst the rarer purple ones (which appear from the second level onward) are worth 200. Though in order to get to the purple ones you will have to release a Snow Wurm.
Taking this special Bloat-Be-Gone medicine will reduce your bloat level by 50%.
These little beggars are Snow Wurms, once you release them they will follow you around and if they touch you then you lose a life. Fortunately they are quite slow movers so they aren't too difficult to run away from; or you could always drop snow on their head to see them off.
When you reach level four you will begin to see these eyeball blocks dotted about. If you can bring yourself to eat one you will get 20 points for it.
Also appearing in the fourth level and beyond, these tasty grapes will give you an equally tasty 50 point bonus if you manage to collect them.
Collecting one of these clocks will add an extra 15 seconds to your time. These extra seconds can be especially crucial in later levels. These normally start appearing around level five, though they have been spotted as early as level three.
Helpful Code
Typing buuuurrrrrrrrp at any point during your game will reduce your bloat meter by 50%. That's one b, four u's, eight r's and one p.
Avatar Method
If you are aiming for the avatar but struggle with the game then the following method may prove to be helpful.
In the first level, take your time and try to score about 700 points (or more if you can) without losing any lives and without using the code to reduce your bloat. Time isn't too much of an issue at this stage so you can take a moment to scan the screen to look for the larger groups of the same coloured block to go after, and you can pause in between eating to allow the blocks you have dislodged to collapse around you and rack up more points. If you lose a life or don't make the points then restart your game.
In the second level, try your hardest to get as many of the gems as you can; though if a gem is too far out of the way or surrounded by dirt blocks then it is probably better to ignore it to avoid overfilling your bloat meter. Continue to eat your way down to the bottom but don't complete the level. Instead, just stay near the bottom and eat until your bloat meter is full and then wait for the time to run out. No, I haven't gone mad, just bear with me!
BEAR with me...do you get it?!
The second level has a nice amount of gems scattered about, and also has a fair few Bloat-be-Gone potions to keep you going. In the levels after this it gets harder to just work on making points because it is more difficult to complete the level, so you want to be able to play through this level as many times as you can. Repeat the previous step of chasing the gems and then stopping short before letting the time elapse. By the time you are facing the level for the third time you should have about 3,500 points under your belt. This time you need to concentrate on completing this level: ignore the gems completely if you must, just make sure you get to the end, trying not to use the code to reduce your bloat just yet if you can help it.
By the beginning of the third level you should hopefully be at about the 4,500 point mark. Pick your way through the blocks on this level collecting as many gems as you can safely. Use the code to reduce your bloat if you get into a bit of bother (that's why it's a good idea to try and save it if at all possible). And that is all the advice I can give you, hopefully this method will bag you that avatar for your collection!
Ollie Appearance
Like many Flash games on the site, this game was worked on by Ollie, also known as the Phantom Orange Shirt Guy. You can find him by clicking on Dieter's right eye on the home screen.
For a full list of Ollie's various appearances, check out our Phantom Orange Shirt Guy article!
