Nick and Tom need your help in one of the "coolest" games on the NES.
THE GOOD
-Excellent multiplayer
-Fun level design
-Challenging boss battles
-Good controls
-Great graphics and sound
THE BAD
-Some of the later levels set you up to easily to die
OVERVIEW
The evil monster named King Scorch was trying to take over the world for some time now but he couldn't succeed because Prince Tom and Nick of Whiteland were too powerful. After thinking long and hard, Scorch finally came up with a brilliant plan; turn Tom and Nick into snowmen. With Tom and Nick out of the way, King Scorch and his army invaded Snow Land and captured Princess Teri and Tina. Once Nick and Tom heard about this they became upset and vowed to stop King Scorch from world domination. The two newly formed snow brothers are going to have to use their new powers, given to them, to aid in their quest.
GAMEPLAY
Snow Brothers is an exceptional 2D platformer. Whether you're playing solo or with a friend you're bound to have a fun time. There are 50 exciting levels to crawl through, each filled with a unique mixture of platforming, strategy and enemies. Most of the levels will provide a fun challenge but there are a few that are poorly designed where you'll lose lives even if you are a very skilled player. This is only a minor draw back to Snow Brothers. Basically, to advance levels you must defeat every enemy on the screen. If you are taking too long, on a certain level, an invincible pumpkin ghost will appear so watch out for him. Dispatching enemies is not only fun but can be advantageous too (if you want higher scores and power-ups). Tom and Nick have the ability to throw an infinite amount of snow at their enemies and the object is to completely cover them and turn them into huge snow balls. Then just push them into a wall or other enemies to kill them. This is where the strategy comes into play. If you happen to combo kill multiple enemies with a single snow ball, bonus point "candy" multipliers or power-ups will appear. There are four awesome power-ups that really give you an edge against your foes. Just keep in mind that if you die you'll lose these enhancements. The power-ups appear in the form of potion bottles which are the following: Red (lets you move faster), Blue (lets you shoot larger snow projectiles), Yellow (increases the range of your snow projectiles) and Green (which swells your character up and lets him fly around and defeat any enemy instantly).
On every tenth level a boss awaits the Snow Brothers. Each boss is uniquely challenging and fun to confront. You won't be able to damage them with your snow projectiles, instead you'll have to cover their henchmen up with snow and use them as weapons. After each boss battle you'll have a chance to play the Snow Brothers slot machine mini game. This simple slot machine can help you earn extra lives for the next ten levels.
Controlling Nick and Tom is easy and very intuitive. The "A" button jumps and the "B" button throws snow. You can also push around the snow ball enemies that you create so that you can plan out how to make combo kills easier.
GRAPHICS & SOUND
Snow Brothers incorporates good graphical quality along with exceptional gameplay. The level design is top notch and the visuals are very clear in detail. The backgrounds are also very pleasant to look at too.
The music is exiting, especially for the boss battles. Plus, there are plenty of gratifying sound effects from the endless snow throwing to the collisions your snow balls make with enemies.
CONCLUSION
Snow Brothers is an exceptional 2D platformer. This game is fun if playing solo but even more fun if playing with a friend. With the simple control scheme and incredible level design, I would highly recommend this game to anyone. Snow Brothers is one of the "coolest" games for the Nintendo Entertainment System.