Iron Snout: a fighting game where you never take a step
Iron Snout drops a pig in the middle of a forest road and sends wolves at it from the left and the right, forever. There is no walking. Left and Right are a punch or kick in that direction, Up is a jump (twice for a double jump), Down is a duck and a low kick, and the game is about reading which side the next wolf comes from and hitting it first. Wolves arrive with cleavers, chainsaws, pogo sticks, riot shields, skateboards and rockets; hit a thrown weapon at the right moment and the pig catches it and throws it back with the next attack. SnoutUp, a one-person studio from Lithuania, built it in GameMaker and released it in 2016; the browser version on this site is that same build.
A fight is one life. Your health is the strip of bacon in the top-left, the star counter is kills, and Escape brings up a statistics panel with fight time, strikes, hits, best combo, weapon kills, projectile kills, projectiles dodged, items caught and heads knocked off. When you go down, the Best Fighters ladder shows where your kill count lands: Straw Pig at 5, Wood Pig at 10, Brick Pig at 15, Peppa Pig at 20, Ham Shady at 30, and on up to God Tier Pig at 250. The whole thing loads in a few seconds on a school Chromebook and a run takes about as long as it takes to make one mistake, which is why people keep restarting it.
Controls & mechanics
| Action | Control | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Punch / kick | Left or Right arrow (A / D) | Attacks toward that side; the pig turns to face it. Keep landing hits for a combo |
| Jump / double jump | Up arrow (W), press again in the air | Hops over low attacks; a second press gives more air time, and Left or Right while airborne is a flying kick |
| Duck / low kick | Down arrow (S) | Drops under a thrown cleaver or a swing at head height and kicks at the legs; in the air it slams you back down fast |
| Catch and throw | Attack into a flying weapon | Timed right, the pig catches it; the next attack in a direction throws it back |
| Pause / statistics | Escape | Pauses the fight and shows your stats, Music and Sound sliders and a Tutorial replay; Retreat quits to the skin menu |
How to last longer than thirty seconds
- The arrows are attacks, not movement: New players tap Left to walk away from a wolf and punch the air instead. Think of each key as a direction to hit in. The pig stays put; the wolves come to you.
- Duck the cleavers, then take them: A wolf winding up a throw is telegraphed. Down avoids the cleaver. Better: attack toward it as it arrives and the pig catches it. Your next punch in a direction throws it and kills the first wolf in line.
- Rockets want a jump kick: Wolves riding rockets fly above a normal punch. Jump, then press the direction they are coming from to kick them off. A rocket sent back down the lane is the Rocket Bender achievement.
- Double jump up, duck to come down: Up twice keeps you airborne for a flying kick; Down in the air drops you straight to the ground before the next wolf arrives. Hanging in the air is how you get hit from the other side.
- Hit them before they swing: The game's own advice, and the whole game: a wolf that is already inside punching range has already lost its turn if you swing first. Small wolves cannot hurt you at all, so do not waste a swing dodging them.
Key features
- Weapons you can steal: Cleavers, chainsaws, swords, pokeballs, wrecking balls and rockets can all be caught or kicked back; Items Caught, Weapon Kills and Projectile Kills are tracked on the stats panel.
- A ladder of named pigs: Every run ends on the Best Fighters board: Straw Pig 5, Wood Pig 10, Brick Pig 15, Peppa Pig 20, Ham Shady 30, Skibidi Swine 40, Rookie Pig 50, Pigachu 65, Skilled Pig 80, Sigma Snout 100, Pig Master 125, Hog Norris 150, Battle Boar 175, God Tier Pig 250.
- Skins from your stats: The main menu is a carousel of outfits: Beach, Guard, Soccer, Pirate, Ninja, Leprechaun, Cupid, Moon, Hambo, Gopnik, Saiyan, a Shrek pig, a Norris pig and an Among Us crewmate, each locked behind total kills, total hits, best combo or items caught. Progress saves in your browser.
- Chromebook friendly: A 7 MB GameMaker HTML5 build served from this domain, with a blood toggle (the skull button on the main menu) for a family-safe version. Keyboard, or tap and swipe on a touch screen.
Game info
- Title: Iron Snout
- Developer: SnoutUp
- Category: Fighting
- Platform: Web browser (HTML5)
- Type: Fighting · single player · one life per run
Pro tip: When a wolf on a skateboard rolls in, do not punch: duck. The board goes over you, the wolf lands behind and a kick in that direction sends the skateboard flying into the next wolf on that side. That is the Skateboard Kill on the achievement list, and it is the cheapest two-for-one in the game.
