Snow Bros Nick & Tom Special (Switch)

Snow Bros. Nick & Tom Special is a remake of classic the arcade title Snow Bros, the game saw several ports and an eventual sequel but seemingly had been thawed out until now. 

Snow Bros originally developed by Toaplan famous for titles such as Truxton and Tiger-Heli, Nick and Tom Special was developed by CRT Games and published by Clear River Games, while available digitally now there is a Physical copy coming soon with details on pricing available below.

Snow Bros Nick & Tom Special + Monster Challenge mode add-on: Release date (Physical edition): June 30 – MSRP: €29.99/£25.99

Available at Amazon and all other retailers across Europe & North America.

Snow Bros is an arcade title much in the vein of Bubble Bobble, you have a single screen, a bunch of enemies and the ability to turn them into giant snowballs and push them into oblivion. 

You get more points for the more monsters you hit with the giant snowball and multiple hits tend to spawn stuff like Potions which give you a faster walking speed, turn you into a giant and bigger snowballs or drop some Sushi to build score, Nick and Tom just love Sushi it seems. 

Once you clear the floor of enemies, the Snow Bros fly up to the next floor and the same continues, gradually building up in difficulty until the 10th floor which presents to you a boss battle, wash, rinse and repeat for the 80 levels this port contains, 30 more than the original version and home console ports of the time. 

The visuals are cute and charming with an abundance of colour to them, it does have that HD smoothing over that most retro revivals have giving it an almost “mobile” look to it but it’s not that detrimental to the game, just a shame as I’m a huge fan of spirtes. 

Safe to say if you’re not a fan of the Bubble Bobble single screen style of retro gaming then Snow Bros isn’t going to convert you, on the other hand if you love that kind of game then Snow Bros is a fairly charming romp with just a few things holding it back. 

Firstly being that it’s a remake of the arcade title, it may not match up with memories like mine of the NES version, gone are the mini games that appeared every so often which broke up the stages decently. 

It’s also a little bit of a quarter muncher which is fine as the game offers you unlimited credits at the press of a button but it’s a shame they couldn’t include any of the console versions as a bonus with their tweaks and adjustments to difficulty.

Finally it’s just a little light on content, you have the arcade mode, a score attack mode and a time attack mode, all of which are essentially the same. There is a Monster Challenge mode where you play as the game’s bad guys but this was unfortunately locked behind an £8.99 paywall and I’m led to believe it has been there since day one, there is also a challenge mode dlc coming out on June 30th, both of which will be bundled on the physical version making that the most substantial and bang for your buck.

Snow Bros. Nick & Tom Special is a fun multiplayer game though can be a grind solo getting through 80 floors on your own. If you’re a fan of retro puzzle Platformers and have a friend locally it’s worth picking up to throw snow around the place. 

I would suggest waiting on the physical copy of the game to get the most out of your money and just don’t go into the title expecting the most complex time, it’s a classic title for people who enjoy classic and simple game play.

3

Summary

A title that relies on nostalgia a bit too much, if you have it wait on the physical due to DLC paywalls locking the most interesting content

The following two tabs change content below.
Straight from the streets of SouthTown, all Dunks Powah'd and ready to Bust A Wolf. Catch me on Twitch/YouTube.

Latest posts by Powah Dunk (see all)