Let It Slide- the Guide!

Welcome to "Let it Slide"- the guide!

This is the basic guide for basic game-players. This guide goes through every helper and hazard in the game, and how you can use or avoid them. From the gems to the gabars, this guide covers everything, so you know what to look out for. Soon, you'll beat all three levels, so get to it!

The Controls:

Walking:

Uh, you should know this. You press the left arrow button to walk left. You press the right arrow button to walk right. No duh.

Jumping:

You can either jump by pressing the space bar or the up arrow button. I recommend that you use the up arrow button because then you only need one hand to play, and can use the other to... um... eat ice cream. Or something. When you jump, always HOLD DOWN the jump button until you land. For some odd, odd reason, when in mid-air, the snuffly will wag its tail furiously IF your finger is still on the jump button. You would think this wouldn't make a difference, but it does. Using his awesome tail-wagging power, he manages to create a kind of fan that keeps him in the air longer, which means higher and longer jumps. So ALWAYS hold down the jump button.

The Clock:

Look in the upper right-hand corner of the game window. There is an hourglass in it, with a number counting down. At the beginning of each level, you start with 200 seconds, and the timer slowly counts down. Nothing will happen if you run out of time before you finish the level, it just means you won't get a bonus. If you do finish the level, however, with, say, 30 seconds to spare, you will get an extra 30 points added to your score. Remember that each gem is 10 points, so don't skip a gem just to save 5 seconds on the clock, because you'll get more points in the long run if you take time to get gems and hearts.

GOOD things:

Gems:

The main prize of the game! There are little green crystal shards throughout the ice caves. Although they are all different shades of green, the color does not matter- they are all 10 points apiece. They will be hovering in midair, waiting for the snuffly to take them. You don't have to collect them all to finish the level, but in level 1 it is pretty easy to find all of them. In level 2 and 3, if you are up for a challenge you can try to obtain every one, but for basic players it would be smarter not to.

Lives/Hearts:

At the beginning of each level, you start with three lives, in the shape of hearts. If you die, you will lose one heart. When you lose a life, the snuffly assumes a pained expression and hops into the air, which can be rather annoying if you are on a small platform, as the snuffly will jump off involuntarily. If you drop onto spikes or water, the snuffly will jump straight up into the air, which is rather pointless as he just comes right back down on the spikes or water again. Luckily, each time you lose a life you are allowed a small period in which you cannot die, during which the snuffly flashes just to remind you of this fact. That should be enough time to get out of the water or off the spikes, or else you will lose ANOTHER life if your flashing period ends. When you lose your last life, the last heart will disappear and your snuffly will spin around and around until it is gone, replaced by the page that tallies up your score. You can gain more lives, however, by collecting hearts throughout the game, which are much more rare than gems. At the end of each level, your remaining hearts are turned into 50 points each and added to your score.

Helicopter Hat:

Only in levels 2 and 3. Occasionally you will see this little helicopter hat somewhere. If you get it, the snuffly will wear it on its head. This gives the snuffly something like a parachute effect. When jumping, and holding down the jump button as usual, somehow the wagging tail sets off the helicopter fan on top of the hat, which will spin and spin and keep the snuffly aloft for longer distances. However, the hat DOES NOT lift you in the air; it just lowers you VERY SLOOOOWLY. And it doesn't work at all if you take your finger off of the button. The red gabars also wear this hat, but THEIR hats DO lift them in the air, which is VERY VERY unfair. Perhaps the lifting power comes from the strange goggles they wear, which the snuffly DOES NOT get.

Snow:

The ideal ground material! The snuffly doesn't slide on it much, so it's much easier to control him.

Ice:

What? This is the ice caves, of course there's ice! Did you think it would just be snow? This is the slippery substance that gives the game its name: "Let it Slide". The snuffly slides very easily on this, so make sure you don't lose control. If you stop walking when on ice, the snuffly will continue to slide, arms held out to either side of him, which could either be a balancing technique or just a "WHEEEEEEE!" kind of gesture.

Wood Platforms:

These little wooden platforms magically rise and lower themselves to let the snuffly ascend to places that cannot be accessed by jumping. They also move left and right. You can jump up through them, but you can't drop down through them (otherwise you won't be able to stand on them at all). These platforms also serve as swings in level 3, when they swing back and forth on a long rope. Time your jumps to get on the swings carefully. You can also use a rising platform to get you extra thrust on your jumps to reach higher places.

Ice Platforms:

These are much the same thing as the wood platforms except that they don't move. They are made of ice, so they are very slippery, and once you have touched them they begin to melt slowly, so don't spend too much time on them. After they have melted, a new platform will appear in the same place after a few moments. Also, in level 2, sometimes when you jump on an ice platform, another ice platform will sudden appear in front of you.

Round Boulders:

Only in level 2. No, they aren't big muddy snowballs. If you jump on them, they will roll, but make sure that you balance yourself and stay on! You can use these to roll past something on the ground, such as water or gabars, staying safe above them. You can also use them to reach places you can't jump to.

Ice Cubes:

Only in levels 2 and 3. They look like giant floating ice cubes. If you jump on them, they will sink or tip, so jump off again quickly before you fall into the water.

Air beams:

Only in level 2. For lack of a better name, I am calling these air beams because I have no idea what else to call them. These are REALLY strange. Basically, your snuffly will be walking along and come across a little mound of brown earth, shaped almost like a volcano. Coming out of the little volcano will be a light-blue beam. When your snuffly walks into the beam, he will be lifted up into the air and bob up and down, rising even higher if you hold down the jump button. Sometimes the beam just comes straight out of the ice, instead of through its little mound. Yes, it is odd, yes, it is slightly scary that air beams are coming out of the ground, but they help you, so whatever.

BAD things:

Gabars:

Why these little guys hate our dear snuffly so much, we will never know. For whatever reason, they are determined to make his journey through the ice caves miserable by throwing hard snowballs at him and hurting him if he so much as touches them. Note that if a snowball-throwing gabar is outside of the frame, and therefore outside of your view, he will not throw snowballs at you. You will lose a life if you touch either the gabars or their snowballs. For some strange reason, the gabars will also fade into nothingness if you touch them (the exception being the ominous ghost gabar, who I guess can't die because he's already a ghost). Perhaps this is why they hate the snuffly: he is exterminating their entire clan! There are different types of gabars, so I have made a separate section for each of them, as follows.

Green Gabars:

These are the most common form of gabars. Either they pace back and forth, in which case you can jump over them, or they will be jumping up and down in place, in which case you can time their jumps and pass under or over them at the right time. Some (only in levels 2 and 3) also come with an added threat in the form of little white snowballs. They will only throw in the direction that they are facing, and usually throw in some kind of pattern (for example, jump and throw, land, throw a snowball, throw a snowball, jump and throw, land, throw a snowball, throw a snowball, and so on).

Red Gabars:

Only in levels 2 and 3. These gabars are rather special in that they wear those little helicopter hats (along with the weird bug-eyed goggles) and as a result, can fly. They will always be floating in the air, never on the ground. These gifted gabars will either be floating up and down in midair, or they will be bobbing up and down WHILE pacing through the air. Be wary: some of them are armed with snowballs, while others are not.

Yellow Gabar:

Only in level 3. As you can see, the heading is not plural, which is because I could only find one yellow gabar in the entire game. This gabar works much like the green ones, in that he paces while throwing snowballs. HOWEVER, there is a major, yet subtle difference in that this gabar KNOWS WHERE YOU ARE. If he is walking towards you while throwing snowballs, and you jump over his head, he will give a little jump, then TURN around to walk towards you again throwing snowballs once more. Pretty easy to get past, though.

Ghost Gabar:

Only in level 3. This thing freaked me out so much when I first saw it that I ran screaming away from the computer and hid under my bed (slight exaggeration). It really is frightening. Again, the reason I did not make the heading plural is that there is fortunately only one of these monsters, at the very end of level three. He is twice the size of a regular gabar, towering over our poor snuffly. He armed with large spiky snowballs that FOLLOW YOU!!!!! Also, like the lone yellow gabar, if he is charging at you and you pass him, he will give a little jump, turn around, and charge after you again. It's pretty hard to jump over him, and also pretty hard to avoid his snowballs, so my brilliant strategy (which I discovered by accident) is to die, then while the snuffly is still flashing, and cannot die, run past him frantically screaming like a panicked maniac and jump to safety on the other side, which, happily enough, is the end of the level. Try not to lose any lives prior to this, and stock up on hearts, because it is very possible that you will lose more than one life during your battle with the boss.

Crystals:

Only in level 2. Um, this only appears once. It's just a barrier in the water to block your way when you're rolling on a boulder across the water. You have to jump over it onto an ice cube. Then you will never see it again for the rest of the game. You will not lose a life if you touch it; it's just an obstacle.

Water:

Only in levels 2 and 3. Not much to be said about it except that you can't touch it (it's really, really, REALLY cold water). If you do, you will lose a life, so get out of the water before you lose another one. Yes, it's sparkly and pretty, but it's also deadly. (Side note: for the longest time, I was perplexed and slightly creeped out by 3 bubbles, looking strangely similar to eyes, appearing above the snuffly every time he lost his last life in water. At last I figured out that the bubbles actually splashed up from the water every time the snuffly fell in, but they were frozen in place at his last death in the odd manner I have described.)

Spikes:

Only in level 3. They actually look more like strange yellow grass, but I don't think grass would grow in ice caves, and grass wouldn't make the snuffly leap back in pain and lose a life. So I guess it's spikes. Whatever it is, don't touch it. Pretty easy to get around, just jump over them.

Falling stalactites:

Only in level 3. They are only in one part of the level, in a stretch of flat ice just after the lone yellow gabar. Take this stretch fast, and don't stop, because walking on that ice triggers a bunch of icicles to come down and smash onto the floor, or onto you if you're not careful. Get hit by one of these, and you'll lose a life. Pretty easy to dodge, though, and you won't be bothered by them at all if you just keep walking.

Well, that's everything you will find in the entire three levels of the game! Happy playing, until next time! Don't be afraid to let it slide!