A snowball’s chance in hell

Snow Bros is Toaplan's lesser-known attempt to recreate the addictive two-player magic of Taito's iconic arcade classic, Bubble Bobble. Analogously, it's a single-screen, arcade-platforming coin-guzzler that pits us against the almighty malevolence of the razer-toothed King Scorch who - swept up in his supreme, feral nastiness - has pounced upon the wintery wonderland inhabited by Nick and Tom to kidnap their respective princessy other halves.

Armed with an infinite supply of snowballs, the shell-shocked duo are driven to plough through monster-infested platform levels to reach the orchestrator of their angst in a desperate effort to free his distraught captives. Repeatedly bombarding enemies with chilly, crystalised projectiles results in their frozen envelopment in a giant snowball, which can subsequently be kicked or shoved into other opponents to destroy them. Flung snowballs ricochet off scenery, following the path of least resistance through platform mazes until departing the screen. Once the current configuration is clear of patrolling firebreathing imps and devilishly-horned thugs we're whisked away to the next area to deal with our ongoing deja vu dilemma.

Snow Bros is notorious in Amiga circles for being another Ocean France arcade port that failed to materialise in the nighties in line with its projected release schedule. It eventually emerged finished and highly playable in 2006, albeit sadly lacking the arcade original's two-player co-op mode.