Snezhinka: Sentinel Girls 2 – Switch Review

Publisher and Developer Hinyari9 is back with Snezhinka: Sentinel Girls 2! Out now on Nintendo Switch, this game is a sequel to Marfusha, and this time, the stakes are higher, the taxes are worse, and the violins are sublime.  Step into the boots of Snezhinka, a contract employee in a dystopian private military company, fending off waves of robotic foes in a desperate bid to survive, get paid (barely), and maybe, just maybe, find your missing sister. But is this high-tempo shooter a must-play, or does the grind drag it down like an over-taxed pay slip?

My main draw with Snezhinka: Sentinel Girls 2 was the anime art style and dystopian military aesthetic. Something about pixelated mechs and intense bullet-hell action speaks to my soul. But was it everything I hoped for? Well… yes and no.

Snezhinka: Sentinel Girls 2 is a 2.5D shooter with simple but effective mechanics. Move, aim, shoot, and use gadgets – that’s all you need to keep the robotic horde at bay. Challenge mode focuses purely on defending your wall, while the story mode adds a personal (and financially crippling) touch. Every day you survive earns you a salary, which is then ravaged by deductions before you can spend your earnings on new weapons, stat boosts, or recruiting a co-worker.

Speaking of co-worker’s, here is where the game decides to laugh at your expense. Through my playthrough I discovered you can only have one co-worker at a time. Which is never explicitly stated. This means you’ll likely waste precious credits on an extra recruit you can’t use. Swap to a different co-worker? Back to level 1, they go. Return to a previous co-worker? Yep, also level 1. Hope you enjoy grinding!

The challenge mode throws in a bit more variety with different maps: Powerplant Challenge, and Gate Challenge. But the core gameplay remains the same: protect the base, survive as long as possible, and pray your side job brings in enough cash for an upgrade that actually works. Speaking of upgrades, the Automat machine promises to increase a random stat, yet sometimes gives you a hearty “your stats were unchanged” message with no warning.

Visually, Snezhinka: Sentinel Girls 2 is a treat. The 2.5D pixel art is stunning, nailing that grim yet stylish dystopian aesthetic. Everything feels alive in a bleak, mechanised way, from the crumbling cityscapes to the eerie neon glow of the battlefield. The way the pixelated explosions shake the screen upon explosion, all of the different mech and character designs, is fantastic, and you really get to see things even better in cutscenes.

But the real star of the show? The music. Classical instruments like the violin and piano intertwine with digital beats, creating a soundtrack that is both hauntingly beautiful and pulse-pounding. It’s reminiscent of rhythm game compositions, perfectly syncing with the intensity of combat. Hinyari9 deserves all the praise for this aspect; it’s genuinely one of the best things about the game. Unfortunately, there’s no voice acting, which is a shame, given how much replaying you must do. The silence makes emotional moments feel empty, leaving you to fill in the gaps with your own dramatic inner monologue.

Snezhinka: Sentinel Girls 2 can be completed in a couple of hours. The only reasons to replay are to collect every weapon, do the challenge mode, or see different story beats. Replaying the game to see all the story variations tied to each co-worker is an intriguing concept, but having to rewatch the same Dochka scenes multiple times, with no option to skip the repeated bits, turns it into a test of patience rather than engagement.

Snezhinka: Sentinel Girls 2 delivers on its high-tempo action and presents an intriguing story with multiple branching paths. The combat is tight, the visuals are great, and the soundtrack is incredible. However, the lack of voice acting, tedium of replaying scenes, and frustrating progression system hold it back from true greatness.

With a bit more polish, such as better explanations for mechanics, the ability to retain co-worker levels, and a refined skip function, it could have easily been a gold-tier experience. As it stands, it’s worth playing, but be prepared for some grind and, some frustration.

Snezhinka: Sentinel Girls 2 earns a well-deserved Thumb Culture Silver Award.