Snow Bros. 2: With New Elves

Snow Bros. 2: With New Elves[lower-alpha 1] is a 1994 platform arcade video game developed and published by Toaplan under their Hanafram label.[3][4][5][6][7] One of the last games to be created by Toaplan, it is the sequel to Snow Bros., which was released earlier in 1990 on multiple platforms. In the game, players assume the role of one of the playable characters to rescue a kidnapped princess from captivity.

Snow Bros. 2: With New Elves
Japanese Arcade instruction card
Developer(s)Toaplan
Publisher(s)Hanafram
Composer(s)Osamu Ōta (Uncredited)
Ryūichi Yabuki (Uncredited)
SeriesSnow Bros.
Platform(s)Arcade
Release
  • WW: April 1994[1]
Genre(s)Platform
Mode(s)Single-player, co-op, multiplayer (up to four players)
CabinetUpright
Arcade systemToaplan Version 2[2]
CPUM68000 (@ 16 MHz)[3]
SoundYM2151, OKI6295[3][2]
DisplayRaster, 320 × 240 pixels (Horizontal), 65,536 colors

As of 2019, the rights to the title is owned by Tatsujin, a company founded in 2017 by former Toaplan member Masahiro Yuge and now-affiliate of Japanese arcade manufacturer exA-Arcadia alongside many other Toaplan IPs.

Gameplay
Gameplay screenshot.
For further information about the gameplay, see: Gameplay of Snow Bros.

Like its predecessor, Snow Bros. 2: With New Elves is a platform game similar to Bubble Bobble where players must traverse through six increasingly difficult worlds composed of multiple stages, each with a boss at the end that must be fought before progressing any further to ultimately resuce the kidnapped princess as the main objective.[8] Players fight enemies by throwing snow at them enemies until it is completely covered and turns into a snowball, while partially covered enemies in snow cannot move until it shakes it off. Once an enemy has been turned into a snowball, the player can roll it and rebound off of walls until eventually shattering against a wall, trapping any enemies on its way.

A new addition are three new playable characters, each with their own method of dispatching enemies from the playfield, however the snowman Nick was omitted in the sequel.[8] Another gameplay objective is to complete the words "EXTRA" at the bottom center by grabbing orbs left by defeated enemies that changes between letters and completing "EXTRA" gives the player an extra live, in addition of immediately advancing to the next stage.

As with the first entry, the game hosts a number of hidden bonus secrets to be found, which are crucial for reaching high-scores to obtain extra lives. If a single player is downed, their character is immediately respawned. Getting hit by enemy fire or colliding against solid stage obstacles will result in losing a live, as well as a penalty of decreasing the characters' firepower and speed to his original state and once all lives are lost, the game is over unless the players insert more credits into the arcade machine to continue playing.

Development and release

Snow Bros. 2: With New Elves served as one of the final projects to be developed by Toaplan, as the company ceased development of shoot 'em up games prior to their closure.[3][9][10] The soundtrack was co-composed by Osamu Ōta and Ryūichi Yabuki, although neither are credited as such in the game.[11] Mangaka and Knuckle Bash designer Junya Inoue was also involved in its production, although he did not specify his role during development.[12]

Snow Bros. 2: With New Elves was released in arcades on April 1994 under Toaplan's then-newly formed Hanafram label, becoming one of their last games to be released before ceasing operations and declaring bankruptcy on March of the same year.[3][4][7][13][14] The game ran on Toaplan's Version 2 arcade board, which used a Motorola 68000 clocked at 16 megahertz, as well as Yamaha YM2151 and OKI6295 chips for sound, while its visuals were rendered at 320 x 240 pixels with 65,536 colors and displayed 256 sprites onscreen.[3][2][15] The arcade board is multi-regional, meaning that it can be configured for different regions via the DIP switches and these settings change several elements in the game.[3] Prior to launch, the title was first showcased to the public in a playable state at the 1994 AOU Show.[4][16][17][18][19][20] On 25 April 2018, an album containing music from the title, as well as its predecessor's soundtrack was published exclusively in Japan by City Connection under their Clarice Disk label.[11]

Legacy

In more recent years, the rights to Snow Bros. 2: With New Elves, its predecessor and many other IPs from Toaplan are now owned by Tatsujin, a company named after Truxton's Japanese title that was founded in 2017 by former Toaplan employee Masahiro Yuge, who are now affiliated with arcade manufacturer exA-Arcadia.[21][22][23][24][25]

Notes
  1. Also known as Otenki Paradise: Snow Bros. 2 (Japanese: おてんきパラダイス・スノーブラザーズ 2, Hepburn: Otenki Paradaisu - Sunō Burazāzu 2) in Japan.

References
  1. Akagi, Masumi (13 October 2006). 東亜プラン (Toa Plan). アーケードTVゲームリスト 国内•海外編 (1971-2005) (in Japanese) (1st ed.). Amusement News Agency. p. 50. ISBN 978-4990251215.
  2. "Toaplan Version 2 Hardware (Other)". system16.com. Archived from the original on 12 June 2017. Retrieved 24 November 2019.
  3. "Snow Bros. 2 - With New Elves". arcade-history.com. Archived from the original on 15 April 2016. Retrieved 24 November 2019.
  4. "Be Mega AM Network". Beep! MegaDrive (in Japanese). No. 55. SoftBank Creative. April 1994. pp. 30–31.
  5. "Arcades - News•Previews: Snow Bros 2 (Toaplan)". Joypad (in French). No. 30. Yellow Media. April 1994. p. 26.
  6. "紹介 - おてんきパラダイス". Gamest (in Japanese). No. 114. Shinseisha. 15 May 1994. p. 189.
  7. Wovou (2019). "L'histoire de Toaplan – page 3". neo-arcadia.com (in French). Neo-Arcadia. Archived from the original on 7 November 2019. Retrieved 24 November 2019.
  8. "おてんきパラダイス" (in Japanese). Shooting Star. Archived from the original on 5 June 2018. Retrieved 24 November 2019.
  9. Iona; VHS; K-HEX (June 2009). "東亜プラン FOREVER (4/5)". Floor 25 (in Japanese). Vol. 9. (Translation by Gamengai. Archived 2013-04-23 at Archive.today).
  10. "東亜プラン シューティングクロニクル 特設ページ". SweepRecord (in Japanese). SuperSweep. 27 October 2011. Archived from the original on 15 February 2020. Retrieved 15 February 2020. (Translation by Shmuplations. Archived 2019-10-02 at the Wayback Machine).
  11. "CDST-10064 | Toaplan ARCADE SOUND DIGITAL COLLECTION Vol.5". vgmdb.net. VGMdb. Archived from the original on 17 November 2019. Retrieved 24 November 2019.
  12. "井上淳哉". Game Staff List Association (in Japanese). BrandGamer-R･TYPERS. 2002. Archived from the original on 1 July 2016. Retrieved 13 May 2020. (Translation by Gamengai).
  13. "Overseas Readers Column - Toaplan Goes Bust". Game Machine (in Japanese). No. 472. Amusement Press, Inc. 15 May 1994. p. 26.
  14. Lambie, Ryan (21 June 2018). "Toaplan: the rise and fall of Japan's greatest shooting game company". Den of Geek. Dennis Publishing. Archived from the original on 21 June 2018. Retrieved 24 November 2019.
  15. "Toaplan Hardware - Truxton 2, Snow Bros 2, Grindstormer, Dogyuun, Fix Eight, Knuckle Bash". The Toaplan Museum. Archived from the original on 17 February 2017. Retrieved 25 November 2019.
  16. "'94 AOUショー 紹介 - おてんきパラダイス". Gamest (in Japanese). No. 110. Shinseisha. 19 March 1994. p. 87.
  17. "AOU TV - おてんきパラダイス (東亜プラン)". Game Machine (in Japanese). No. 469. Amusement Press, Inc. 1 April 1994. pp. 10–11.
  18. Kaida, Kiyotaka (April 1994). "Super Soft Hot Information: アーケードゲーム (Arcade Game) - AOUショー 主な出展ビデオゲームリスト". Micom BASIC Magazine (in Japanese). No. 142. The Dempa Shimbunsha Corporation. p. 296.
  19. "'94 AOUショー レポート - おてんきパラダイス". Gamest (in Japanese). No. 113. Shinseisha. May 1994. p. 67.
  20. "'94 AOUショー 紹介 - おてんきパラダイス". Gamest (in Japanese). No. 113. Shinseisha. May 1994. p. 184.
  21. "ライセンス事業" (in Japanese). TATSUJIN Co., Ltd. 2019. Archived from the original on 25 December 2018. Retrieved 25 November 2019.
  22. Bravo, Roberto (12 September 2018). "Nueva compañía «Tatsujin» asegura tener gran parte de las IPs de la extinta Toaplan" (in Spanish). Gamercafe. Archived from the original on 21 October 2019. Retrieved 25 November 2019.
  23. "Tatsujin". exA-Arcadia. 2019. Archived from the original on 21 October 2019. Retrieved 25 November 2019.
  24. Bravo, Roberto (25 January 2019). "Tatsujin, los dueños de Toaplan, anuncian que están trabajando para exA-Arcadia" (in Spanish). Gamercafe. Archived from the original on 21 October 2019. Retrieved 25 November 2019.
  25. "［JAEPO2019］TATSUJINやナツメアタリの参入が発表されたexA-Arcadia。出展コーナーの模様を紹介". 4Gamer.net (in Japanese). Aetas Inc. 26 January 2019. Archived from the original on 21 October 2019. Retrieved 25 November 2019.
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