Snow Bros.

US flyer

**Snow Bros.** (スノーブラザーズ) is an arcade fixed-screen action game released by Toaplan in Japan in April 1990. Outside of Japan, the game was released under the title **Snow Bros.: Nick & Tom**, and licensed to Romstar for US distribution. Snow Bros. was ported to the Game Boy as **Snow Bros. Jr.** It was also ported to the Famicom by Toaplan themselves, and on the NES by Capcom. Once again, it was ported to the Sega Mega Drive in Japan only as well. Snow Bros. was also ported to iOS and Android as **Snow Bros. Classic**.

The game was developed by Toaplan, and the music was composed by Osamu Ohta, who also worked on *Wardner* (1987) and *Twin Hawk* (1989). This work was a clear departure from the previous works released by the company, which was widely known as a long-established shooting game company.

## Story

Burning with the ambition of world domination, King Atchich of the Kingdom of Hotda abducted the two beautiful princesses of Snowland as the beginning of the invasion and imprisoned them deep inside the castle of the Kingdom of Hotda. Snowland, who lost the princess who controls the magic of snow, begins to melt little by little. At this rate, the kingdom will soon disappear! Nick and Tom, the snowmen, felt unprecedented resentment at being robbed of the princesses in front of them. They vowed to rescue the princesses from the hands of the villains, and set out for the kingdom of Hotda, where the enemy was waiting.

The home of the enemy, Hotda Castle, is a 70-store stone tower. A fire-breathing monster is roaming, and Atchich is worried about the fire and built the castle out of stone. It's more like a fortress than a castle because it's durable first, so it's not a very elegant castle. The snowmen, who are not good at hot places, tried to infiltrate the hot castle of Atchich with courage.

## Gameplay

*Snow Bros.* is a single-screen platformer similar to *Bubble Bobble*, where the players must eliminate all enemies on the screen in order to proceed to the next screen. Players can shoot snow at enemies to stun them and turning them into large snowballs, which the player can roll around or kick away to defeat other enemies.

Defeated enemies will drop various score items (the score varies depending on the item). In addition, by wiping out all the enemies on the screen with one snowball, an item worth 10,000 points will fall from above as a "congratulatory gift bag" (the player can also roll in other snowballs in a chain. The number of congratulatory bags varies depending on the stage).

Snowballs with enemies trapped in them can be pushed to move them, and they can also be jumped on, allowing the player to reach places that are beyond the reach of normal jumping. Furthermore, immediately after being caught in a snowball, the player is invincible for a certain period of time.

At the end of each stage, a boss character appears, and by hitting him with the snowball a certain number of times, the stage is cleared. 10 snowballs per stage, for a total of 50 stages.

### Items

* Red: Increases the speed of your snowman
* Yellow: Increases the range of your shot
* Blue: Power up your shot
* Green: Becomes huge and invincible for a certain period of time
* Player's face mark: After the enemy temporarily stops moving, another four round monsters will appear. If you turn them into snowballs, the letters will appear, and if you kick them away, you will get the letters (not valid if you hit the monster with the snowball). Collecting "S", "N", "O", and "W" will give you a 1-up.

## Enemies

* Titchi
* Botchan
* Boodoro
* Sarada
* Komataro
* Botom
* Pumpkin Head
* Slime Ghost
* Batchi
* Doskoi

## Bosses

* Mogera
* Gamakichi
* To-Chan & Ka-Chan
* Big Nose
* Rock Bubbles

## Gallery

JP flyerMega Drive coverNES coverFamicom coverUS Game Boy coverJP Game Boy cover
## Trivia

* The movement system and the ability to change the enemy's state and defeat them by rolling them up are features that were popularized in Taito's "Fairyland Story" (1985), "Bubble Bobble" (1986), and "Don Doko Don" (1989). Similar titles include Data East's "Tumblepop*.*