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The twin phoenixes of floor thirty are incredibly fast making it the best encounter in the game. The second boss randomly teleports between the top and bottom of the screen, forcing you to plan ahead to actually hit it. Their size and unpredictability should make these encounters a nightmare but the challenge of working in an enclosed space makes them fun. Every tenth floor ends in a pretty cool boss battle that surprisingly works. There is enough variety that it stays fresh right up until its conclusion. However, that works in its favor in my opinion. Snow Bros is shorter than Bubble Bobble at just fifty floors. It can be frustrating as some rooms seem to give less than twenty seconds before he appears but it never becomes unfair. I would imagine it is because they are designed to be cleared as fast as possible. Every floor has a different time limit with some shorter than others. Tarry too long and he will spit out ghosts that aggressively zero in on your position. His presence alone should be enough to light a fire under your ass. At first he will not immediately pursue you.
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In this case Pumpkin Head is the literal grim reaper of Snow Bros. Just like Bubble Bobble take too long on a given floor and an unstoppable enemy will hound you. The way the game slowly adds new wrinkles and situations during each set of floors reminds me of Mendel Palace, one of my favorite puzzle games for the NES. Speaking of variety, at least one new enemy is introduced after each boss fight. While they aren’t explicitly themed each set of ten stages does a consistent visual aesthetic which adds to the game’s variety. The addition of sloped surfaces, while quaint, adds a whole other dynamic to each stage as well. Each individual floor is carefully designed and often features a mechanic to eliminate every enemy on one shot. The stages are smaller which forces confrontation with the enemies more frequently. Its hard to line up enemies consistently to earn one of these but at least they last until death.Īlthough I’ve made frequent references to Bubble Bobble I like the pacing and level design of Snow Bros better. These potions grant super speed, instant snowballs, and increased throwing range. Killing multiple enemies in a row drops different colored potions in addition to food. Snow Bros does not have the number of power-ups of Bubble Bobble but the ones present are just as impactful. Its all very similar to Taito’s game but far more intuitive in my opinion. Once frozen they can be used as a platform to reach greater heights, pushed around to smother enemies, or kicked at which point the snowball will rebound around the screen. You must completely cover them in frost at which they become a snowball. Your snowballs don’t immediately imprison enemies. While their basic premise is the same there are differences.
#Nes snow bros 2 released series
Replace bubble spitting lizards with snowmen and a new series is born. There is no getting around it Snow Bros was obviously “inspire” by Bubble Bobble. His plan backfires however as the princes use their newfound frost abilities to put an end to his reign. Without the princes the princesses Teri and Tina are easily captured. The Evil King Scorch has his sights set on the kingdom of Whiteland and turns its two princes into Snowmen. Can you blame me for being cautious? Snow Bros is an excellent arcade port and platformer that deserves a higher profile. In my defense I was coming off the double whammy of Marvel’s X-Men and 8 Eyes. Had I known it was Bubble Bobble in a different setting I would have jumped on it immediately. Mind you I didn’t even bother looking at the back of the box. When I saw Snow Bros in the store I thought it looked like the dumbest game in the world. For as much as I like to think I’m open minded with video games I must confess, I’ve made my share of bad assumptions.