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Snow Bros. Game Review

Snow Bros. is a classic platform arcade video game released for Arcade in 1990. It’s such a wonderful, underrated platformer.

The gameplay is quite authentic and different than anything else I’ve played before. It is interesting for featuring a top-down structure instead of left-right, which was more popular during this period. You are a snowman that has to save his princess. The game consists of fifty levels, each has to be passed by killing every opponent on screen. Usually, you have to go all the way up to beat the level, and that made for a very interesting, tower-like setting.

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Let’s talk about the AI. There are many different types of enemies here. The red devil-like goofballs are very easy to beat, but everyone else is significantly more difficult. The lizard guys can be a nuisance with their fire attacks while the tornado guys are also hard to escape if you get cornered. The same goes for the Halloween pumpkin that releases the ghosts. Those appear only after too much time has passed and they can really screw you over.

Each enemy is beaten by being made into a snowball. That made for a very interesting, authentic mix of platforming and shooting, not to mention a lot of interesting physics with the snowball killing other enemies in its wake, thus producing multiple rewards.

Speaking of the power-ups, they are fantastic and they make this game a joy to play. This is a perfect example of a power-up being flawlessly utilized. They appear just often enough without becoming too abundant, and playing without them is so much harder. Of the three main potions, I found the red one the most important one as running makes any level so much easier to beat. But the yellow one for shooting distance is also important, and of course the blue one for larger snowballs is a must get. If you get all three at once, you are basically unbeatable.

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As for the bosses, they are all excellent. Some are easier than others, but most of them are suitably hard to destroy. The final boss is great, but my favorite is probably the green creature who is very difficult and interestingly structured. It was a great choice to make the bosses vulnerable to both the regular shooting snow at them and especially from hitting them with other snowballed creatures.

There are only a few issues I’ve had with Snow Bros. One of them has to be the length. Yes, the game is hugely entertaining, but because it’s so much fun, it was immensely disheartening to witness it end so soon. An even bigger problem is its uneven difficulty level. Sometimes it’s present when it comes to the bosses themselves, but I am mostly complaining about the two modes. The game has a co-op mode and it’s fantastic for sure. It’s so much fun playing with a friend. However, that mode is much more easier than the single-player mode, which itself can be too hard at certain levels.

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The technical aspects are uniformly fantastic. The animation of the characters is endearing, the game looks terrific and the sound is phenomenal. The score is great through and through with the highlight being that opening screen music that is just irresistibly catchy. The controls are great, the plot is simple, but serviceable (I liked that the girls got their moments to shine), and the level designs are stellar with some being so well crafted that they have to be tread carefully.

In the end, although it’s too short and uneven in terms of difficulty level, Snow Bros. is an absolute arcade platforming classic that benefits from authentic gameplay mechanics, a great score, terrific power-ups, strong enemies and fantastic level design.