Snow Bros. Wonderland is an all-new game in the classic arcade series that we never thought we’d see after the orginial publisher, Toaplan, closed up shop many years ago. And yet here it is.
DDNet regular, Alex, and I, have a bit of a difference of opinion about the merits of Snow Bros. in comparison to Bubble Bobble, its genre stablemate. However we both very much like the genre, and so, given that we both ended up playing Wonderland, we’ve decided to review this game by chatting about it.
Matt S: I think the thing that’s most important to acknowledge is that of the great battle between Bubble Bobble and Snow Bros. for king of the single-screen platformer, Snow Bros. comes out on top. If anyone tries to convince you otherwise, they’re just crazy.
Now with that out of the way, can I just say that it’s incredible that, all these years after the original developer/publisher, Toaplan, went bankrupt, we now have developers not only remaking the classic Snow Bros. games, but also coming up with all new titles? And on top of that, actually trying to innovate on the formula? Snow Bros. Wonderland is to single screen platformers what Super Mario 3D World is to 2D platformers – it’s an effort to preserve the fundamental “2D” quality of gameplay, but package it up in 3D spaces.
When I first saw screenshots of this game, I thought that the developers had gone really crazy and tried to squash Snow Bros. into a proper 3D platformer, but it isn’t that. This really is classic Snow Bros. but in 3D, and I’ve loved it from the opening seconds of play.
Alex K: I, for one, think it’s sad when editors of great gaming websites persist in their delusions around the supposed superiority of Snow Bros. over Bubble Bobble, but I’ll humour you on that one, because it rarely pays to agitate the deluded.
I do love a reimagining of a classic series, especially when it captures not only the imagery – which isn’t that hard – but also the flavour and style of the original in some new way. But I do think your Super Mario Land analogy isn’t as on the money as you think it is – because Snow Bros Wonderland reminds me a lot more of another reimagined series, and that’s Namco’s Pac-Man World games. You’ve got similar rolling mechanics, but also similarly, slightly clunky platforming.
I do applaud the ambition of Snow Bros. Wonderland, but I’m not convinced that it’s quite got the classic flavour of Snow Bros. within it – or for that matter, an even more refined meal like Taito’s classic.
Oh. Whoops. Never mind that, Matt. Convince me I’m wrong – what am I missing here?
Matt S: I certainly felt the shivers of authenticity when the classic music started playing, and when I cleared an entire room of enemies in one go so all those money packets came floating down! These are the core of the Snow Bros. experience, and that’s where I got the flavour from. The very best vanilla you can imagine (yes I’m a guy that orders vanilla gelato).
With that said there are bits where I concede the move to 3D and a desire to “do platforming” has let the game down – every time there was a thin little bit of land to traverse over (especially when it was paired with additional difficulties such as ice effects) I groaned a little, but I thought that overall, the overwhelming bulk of the experience was spot-on classic Snow Bros.
For me, the single biggest issue was when you encased an enemy in snow and then had to try to roll it around to line up the “kick” to send the ball rolling after the other enemies. I found this to be quite twitchy and difficult, and I swear that this is the reason I missed out on some great scores. Not my poor playing. Because I am a Snow Bros. master.
Alex K: I would gladly cede that your mastery of classic Snow Bros would eclipse mine, naturally. What’s funny there is that the fiddly bits of lining up kicks and lofted kicks/throws are the parts of the game that I think work the best.
They’ve taken Snow Bros. and – for the parts I enjoyed – turned it into a puzzle game. Nothing super challenging of course in terms of puzzle logic – there’s a switch, turn that statue into a snowball and hurl it at the switch to turn on the platform and so on – but that’s where Snow Bros. Wonderland feels at its best.
The problem is that Snow Bros. is also a classic platform arcade game, and this is where it’s absolutely at its weakest, because so many of those 3D jumping bits, especially with collapsing platforms do not work that well, even in the very short level segments between finding each key and unlocking the portal to the next section.
This may also be specific to the Switch version, but there’s some pretty chunky load times in there considering it’s not exactly pushing state of the art when it comes to visual assets.
The pace also feel s quite different to me, shifting from that classic arcade experience with pressure on you to finish up quickly to a more considered experience. Is the pacing an issue for the way you’re playing it?
Matt S: It’s definitely a less frantic-paced experience, which is a bit of a disconnect with the fact that points are still the main gauge of how well you’ve played. Mario and other 3D platformers long ago did away with scores as something you paid attention to, but here we have something that looks like it should be an arcade scores-and-leaderboards thing, but isn’t really paced like to play. I wouldn’t say that bothered me though. I thought the art direction and chill vibe (apologies for the pun there – not all levels are icy!) put me in the right mindset to play the game at its pace.
It also helps that the game is broken up into very short segments. I felt like progress was incrementally satisfying and flowed nicely, whereas in most normal 3D platformers I find myself wondering when I can reach the end of a level so I can take a break. Amusingly enough because Wonderland is a game of such small increments I found I played it for much longer with each session. Not just because I love Snow Bros., but because it was so easy to keep playing that little bit further.
I agree that loading times were rather extended for a game that is rather humble technically. On the other hand, I really love the art direction. It’s clean, pleasant, and charmingly quirky. The range of accessories to dress up your character with were great fun to play around with too. It’s a game that’s got plenty of unique personality and soul, and I’d always prefer that over whatever Ubisoft or EA’s churning out in 4K realism right now.
I guess the big question for you Alex is whether you think there’s any kind of audience for this game at all, or is it just for the Snow Bros. faithful (which is about ten people worldwide now, let’s face it)?
Alex K: You cloned yourself nine times? Impressive.
OK, terrible jokes aside, while the ambition of what they’ve tried to do here has some merit – if you just release the same game over and over people will stop buying or if you water it down (which is sadly what happened with Bubble Bobble 4 Friends, for example) you lose interest – this doesn’t feel anywhere near as compelling to me even as the Snow Bros. Special Anniversary version that came out a few years ago.
Taking 2D games into the 3D realm fails far more often than it succeeds – for every Mario 64 there were more than a dozen Bubsy 3Ds back in the day – and while I wouldn’t call Snow Bros Wonderland a failure on that level, it’s certainly not as polished as it needs to be. The platform jumping is imprecise – and sometimes just flat out unresponsive – and the arcade “one more go” urgency just doesn’t hit me anywhere near as well as it does with classic Snow Bros.
It’s frustrating in a way, because I do feel like there’s some love for Snow Bros. inherent here, but it’s almost like they couldn’t decide if they wanted a straight up action game or a puzzle game, so they went for both, and missed the mark by enough to make it a harder sell to anyone who isn’t a Snow Bros. fanatic.
But as it happens, I do know one of those strange creatures, so I should leave the final word to you Matt. Is this a game in your view that will make a whole new generation of Snow Bros. fans? (Snow Bros. Bros?)
Matt S: Perhaps part of the reason I have a higher tolerance for this game is not just that I love the base property, but I also love those old N64 bad 3D platformer efforts. Remember Chameleon Twist on the N64? Probably not, as it didn’t exactly win over the critics and was actually one of the most expensive N64 games. I loved it though. Or what about Glover? Or Bomberman 64? Snow Bros. Wonderland is a bit more modern than those titles, but you’re probably right that it has a dash of that heritage and tradition in it.
And so you are probably right that the audience that is going to love Snow Bros Wonderland is vanishingly small. Unfortunately for you, you’ve landed in the middle of a Venn diagram where one circle is “Game Critic” and the other is “Snow Bros. Bro”. And so now your name is going to be attached to a glowing score for the game into perpetuity, because I really did love every moment of this game.
Alex K: For the record, I was too busy going back to playing Bubble Bobble to notice the score you’ve given Snow Bros Wonderland.
