Game:

Snow Bros. (1990)

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An old, simple Doujin game of humble origins. Originally released in 2003 by Eternal / Mobius Loop (永久る～ぷ), it's the first game from the team that would eventually go on to develop the "TWilight" series (their best known works: "TWilight INSanity", "TWilight refrAIN" and "Alternative Sphere"). The game stars Shiori Misaka and is based on Key's "Kanon" visual novel masterpiece which has had many derivative works in the Doujin space along with "Air" and "Clannad", but this one is more derivative than most. Basically take "Bubble Bobble" and "Snow Bros.", remove most of the good parts, and then throw in some MEAN level designs. What you're left with is a game that's not as tight or fun and features deceptively diabolical difficulty.

The game features 16 main stages but also has "Alpha" levels that are harder than the originals, and you face bosses on the 4th, 8th, 12th and 16th stage. The main gameplay mechanics are utilizing ice cream to lure certain enemies into position and gathering up snow into balls to lob at enemies. Shiori can also jump but cannot touch enemies at all unless you get a certain power-up. These power-ups include:

Meat Buns: Shiori makes snowballs faster.
Tayaki: It will increase your score.
Jam: Shiori now walks faster.
Keychain: Rare, and provides a 1UP.
Sword: Invincibility for a certain amount of time.
Alarm: Stops time and the enemy for a bit.
*Star: Extra points when the stage is cleared. -v

Depending on the number of stars, you will get a 1UP. The 1UP condition increases after various milestones such as 100, 200, 400, 700, 1100, 1600, 2200, 2900, etc. While the game isn't impossible, it made a few choices that ultimately worked against it. For one, the enemies spawn fast and quickly flood the stage, so there's a whole system built around chaining that tends to get under-utilized because the time limit is also fairly strict on most stages. The other point of contention is the snowball mechanic... in Snow Bros., you could turn enemies into a snowball by lobbing snow and standing in place. In this game, you have to hold the button and Shiori begins to move and accumulate snow as she walks. In theory, this should work pretty well in conjunction with the ability to put down ice cream and distract enemies, but it's terrible in execution as most levels are not designed to really utilize these abilities to the fullest. You either don't have enough room to form a large snowball, you don't have enough time, or you have too many obstacles (your snowball is destroyed if you come in contact with an enemy before launching as opposed to just defeating the enemy). Power-ups themselves are pretty far and between and often spawn when time is low or in treacherous places. Even the manual alludes to "luck" being needed in various scenarios.

That said, there might still be something here for people who want to unearth it. The graphics are very rudimentary, but the soundtrack is EXCELLENT which seems to be a common trait amongst most Kanon/Air/Clannad Doujin titles. It also seems to have more meat on its bones ironically compared to a few of their future works ("CloverWing" and "Do You Dream About 3 o'clock Snacks, Committee Member?") and retailed for only 500 yen, so it's hard to be too critical. The dev still seems to have traced web leads, so the game won't be publicly distributed for the time being, but I do have it, so time will tell. This is a video of the game in action. Enjoy.

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