Snow Bros. Special - Collector's Edition

Visitors to this site have likely noticed my acute fondness for the single-screen platformer (or, for short, the SSP). It’s a genre of game that hearkens back to the medium’s ancient days where scrolling graphics were not yet common or even a thing. Most early games, usually due to technical limitations, took place on a single playfield. Pong, Breakout, Space Invaders, Pac-Man…these experiences entertained despite their square, one-screen constraints. But that soon changed as games got increasingly complex; suddenly, “jumping” titles like Donkey Kong became popular, providing an additional dimension (leaping) and actual narrative (“save the girl”) to an arcade landscape otherwise comprised of detached, “shooting gallery” fare.

But even this new paradigm and genre was not to last. In the end, only so much could be done with a static arena, even one that changed its “props” from stage to stage (the gaming term “stage” is a concept lifted quite literally from the actual stage play, from Broadway to vaudeville). Hence Pac-Land and Super Mario Bros. and Castlevania and the legions of sidescrollers that would evolve from the form. In short, the “screen scroll” was a breakthrough—a paradigm shift—in which gameplay could be made endlessly more dynamic; less suffocating painting and more movie reel free. This was a positive movement for the medium as a whole, but one that relegated the older single-screen experience to a niche and often cutesy-fied category that faded within the next decade.

Snow Bros. is one of these old-school, one-screen feats, a 1990 platformer that became, for many, the primary example of the genre. It’s long overdue for a revival…or at least it was until a surprise remake released in 2022 updated the visuals, added new levels, and included a few extra modes of play. Limited Run Games offered a collector’s version of this release that I received about a month ago. At the time, it seemed a bit pricey at $89.99, but after finally opening this trove of snow, it provided a surprise thrill for this long-nostalgic fan.

It’s certainly worth sharing a few pics of these frozen treats, at the very least!--D

The box from the front...full of plush and stuff!

The back basically says, well, "the classic is back!"

The Bros. up close. (Buddy Plushies!)

The top slips right off...

The box's bottom liner shows some fine inner critters.

The art book. Literally named "Art Book."

The book’s thin, but at least it’s a hardback! See the pretty princesses?

A reprint of the old arcade flyer...

Snow Bros. features some catchy music…captured at last to CD!

Snow Bros. features some catchy music…here's the song list!

Nick and Tom pins, plus a keychain of their arcade game.

The actual game card’s case. The artwork here doesn't exactly do the game justice. (Or does it?)