Snow Bros. 2: With New Elves, known in Japan as Otenki Paradise: Snow Bros. 2, is a 1994 platform arcade game developed and published by Toaplan under their Hanafram label. As the sequel to the beloved 1990 arcade classic Snow Bros., it expanded the original’s snowball-throwing gameplay with new playable characters, even as the studio behind it was quite literally collapsing during development. In this article, we’ll explore its story, gameplay, the remarkable circumstances surrounding its release, and its modern revival.
A Rescue Mission Wrapped in Arcade Chaos
The game’s plot follows a familiar arcade formula with its own whimsical twist. In order to revive the Great Demon King Atchich, his younger brother Attsu the Great invades the peaceful Weather Land and kidnaps its princess after attempting to steal the treasure of the Sunshine Kingdom. With Atchich’s revival threatening to plunge Weather Land into danger, four princes step forward to rescue the princess and restore peace to the kingdom.
Like its predecessor, the story exists mostly as a lighthearted excuse for fast-paced arcade action rather than a deeply developed narrative, true to the spirit of the genre at the time.
Building on a Cult Classic Foundation
The original Snow Bros., released by Toaplan in 1990, followed snowman twins Nick and Tom as they journeyed through 50 stages, throwing snowballs at enemies to rescue kidnapped princesses. Though the game played similarly to Taito’s Bubble Bobble, requiring players to clear every enemy off the screen before advancing, it carved out its own identity with frantic, fast-paced action that emphasized speed over the slower, puzzle-oriented pacing of its inspiration.
The original found enough success in arcades to spawn ports across numerous home platforms, including the Game Boy, NES, and Mega Drive, along with a cult following that has persisted for decades. That lingering popularity was enough to convince Toaplan to greenlight a direct sequel, a rarity for the studio, which almost never revisited any of its non-shooting game titles.
Expanding the Core Snowball Formula
Snow Bros. 2 keeps the core gameplay loop largely intact: players fight enemies by throwing snow at them until they’re fully covered and transform into a rollable snowball, which can then be pushed around and bounced off walls to trap and defeat other enemies in its path. Partially covered enemies remain temporarily immobilized, giving players a brief window to capitalize before they shake the snow off.
The sequel introduced several new elements on top of this familiar foundation:
- Three new playable characters — Bobby, Roy, and Richard joined the cast, each with a distinct method of dispatching enemies from the playfield.
- Nick returns — The original game’s protagonist made a comeback as a playable character, though notably his brother Tom is absent this time around, his color palette instead repurposed for Nick when selected as the second player.
- The “EXTRA” letter system — Players could collect orbs dropped by defeated enemies that cycled between letters, spelling out “EXTRA” to earn an extra life and instantly advance to the next stage.
- Hidden bonus secrets — Much like the original, the game hid numerous secrets crucial for chasing high scores and earning additional lives.
Structurally, the sequel expanded the scope significantly, sending players through six increasingly difficult worlds made up of multiple stages, each capped off with a boss fight that had to be overcome before progressing further toward the ultimate goal of rescuing the kidnapped princess.
Released During the Studio’s Final Collapse
What makes Snow Bros. 2 particularly remarkable in gaming history isn’t just its gameplay, but the circumstances surrounding its release. The game launched in arcades in April 1994 under Toaplan’s newly formed Hanafram label, mere weeks after the studio had officially declared bankruptcy that same March. This makes Snow Bros. 2 the literal final game Toaplan ever developed before shutting its doors for good.
According to former staff member Junya Inoue, the project was developed largely by freshman-level employees at the company, a detail that adds even more weight to the strange timing of its release. Reports from Japanese sources indicate the game was distributed in relatively low numbers, likely a direct consequence of the chaos surrounding the studio’s collapse during its launch window.
Toaplan’s broader legacy was primarily built on shoot ’em up games, making both Snow Bros. titles something of an outlier within the company’s catalog. Following the studio’s closure, several former employees went on to found other notable developers, including Raizing and Cave, while the rights to Toaplan’s intellectual properties, including the Snow Bros. series, eventually passed to Tatsujin, a company founded by former Toaplan composer Masahiro Yuge.
A Cult Classic That Outlived Its Creator
Despite the troubled circumstances of its release, Snow Bros. 2 managed to build a dedicated cult following over the years, even if it never matched the commercial impact of the original game. Years later, an official soundtrack album featuring music from both Snow Bros. titles was released exclusively in Japan in 2018, a small but meaningful nod to the lasting appreciation fans held for the games’ music and design.
A Modern Remake Decades Later
In October 2024, three decades after the original’s chaotic release, a full remake titled Snow Bros. 2 Special arrived on PC and Nintendo Switch, developed by CRT Games and published by Clear River Games. The remake modernized the game’s visuals while staying faithful to its core arcade roots, and notably added local and online cooperative multiplayer support for up to four players, a feature entirely absent from the original 1994 release. The remake also expanded the experience further with new stages, monsters, bosses, and distinct challenge modes, giving longtime fans and newcomers alike substantially more content to explore.
The franchise’s revival didn’t stop there. A few weeks later, in November 2024, an entirely new entry titled Snow Bros. Wonderland released for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch, shifting the series into 3D for the first time while retaining the fast-paced, frantic spirit that defined the original arcade games.
Final Thoughts
Snow Bros. 2: With New Elves occupies a strange and fascinating place in gaming history, not just as a worthy expansion of a beloved arcade formula, but as the final piece of work from a studio that was disappearing even as the game hit arcade cabinets. Decades later, its modern remake and the franchise’s broader revival prove that the chaotic, snowball-throwing charm Toaplan built all those years ago never truly faded away.