The best thing about reviewing games is seeing something that you didn’t expect. My last great unexpected funfest was Simogo’s Sayonara Wild Hearts, a game that was on rails, beautifully written, executed, and accompanied by one of the best video game soundtracks I’ve had the pleasure of enjoying. I still play that once a year. It has been out since 2019. Having an unexpected game surprise me is always welcomed. And this year’s surprise is Snow Bros. Wonderland from developer Tatsujin.
Snow Bros. Wonderland is a co-op 3D platformer that starts slow but eventually shows its colorful feathers through level design, mechanics, and a goofy story that is perfect for the holiday season. The multi-player co-op makes for an additional fun element, as traversing the cute and customizable Snow Bros makes for a fun time with friends/family. While the game isn’t entirely perfect, it’s one of the better 3D platformers to hit the shelves in 2024.
So, let’s roll ourselves down a snowy hill and get cracking with this avalanche of a review.
A snowy good time
The storyline of Snow Bros. Wonderland revolves around the Snow Bros’ sons, Tom and Nick, Jr., who have taken up the mantle of their father to protect Snow Land from evil demons. When the land is threatened by said demons, and a powerful old enemy that their father knew well, Tom and Nick are thrust into action and become the new Snow Bros. Their quest is to scour the many places in Snow Land, take down enemies, and free the land once and for all.
It’s a worthy platformer quest that doesn’t take too much to push the player into action. As you would expect, the story is simple, the enemies are common, and the bosses are huge and relevant to the adventure. This reminds me a lot of earlier Super Mario Bros games, where you just need a small narrative push to get you in the mood to go through a platformer adventure. The story works here and is purposeful with its quest in tasking the gamer to simply rid the land of bad guys while harking back to previous Snow Bros material. Again, this is a common platformer narrative that doesn’t do too much to convince you to go on an adventure.
Now, once on the adventure, Snow Bros. Wonderland has a slow build to it. The first hour or so of gameplay I was wondering if the levels would get more complicated or if this truly was made for a younger audience. I was delighted to find out both were true about the game. The audience range is huge, as there is enough to do for both adults and kids, and the level of variety started to show up soon after the initial jumping point.
The early stages of Snow Bros. Wonderland are short and the enemies are as dumb as they are silly. You jump over a few fences, wrap up demons in snowballs, and send them flying into other demons. Once everyone is gone, the level opens a portal (or gives you a key(s) to open up portals), and you progress forward. The levels were very plain in the beginning. I didn’t fully appreciate this design by Tatsujin, as they were used to keep the player’s attention squarely on the mechanics and how to use them. There weren’t puzzles to solve, no real obstacles to break through, rather it was just simple in its construct. Again, this simplicity was solely so that you understood the mechanics going forward. And that’s a great thing because basically, the early action is your tutorial without you even knowing it.
The mechanics in the game were simple enough to pull off and not get in the way. The main weapon of Tom and Nick is throwing snowballs at enemies and slowly building the enemy into a gigantic snowball that can be used as a secondary weapon. For example, there were small red-tailed demons in the first area that you could throw snowballs at using R2. Once you built the enemy into a snowball through your snowball contact, you can either punt them towards other enemies to collect combo kills, simply by hitting the square button while pointing with a thumbstick, or you can pick up the giant snowball-ed enemy with L1 and throw them from a stationary position (less complicated but restrictive in distance). Either way, you go, you’ve got choices to make depending on the enemy’s approach.
Now, when you’re not throwing snowballs, you’re on the move. You can run around easily while navigating restrictive linear borders you can’t cross. There are a lot of fences that keep you from leaving the path dictated by the devs, and that’s fine for this type of game. There are moments when you can jump over some fences, into an area, or jump down through a multi-tiered landscape. You’ll be kept linear most of the time but there is enough here to try to run and jump out off the beaten path.
In the end, the combination of running and jumping helps to navigate the gobs of enemies, and eventually, the early levels give you a good dose of how the game works. My gradual appreciation for the mechanics hit its zenith with kicking enemies wrapped in snowballs. It was like bowling and the enemies were pins. Deciding on what direction to kick said snowball to get the biggest enemy kill combo becomes addictive after a while, and always fun.
Once the early levels were done, the game slowly became a bit more complicated. Snow Bros. Wonderland added different enemies in the next stage, bigger ones at times. The game also introduced a boss fight, which is consistently a slow burn when it comes to gameplay (rightfully, a slow burn). The boss fights are unique from map to map, and you have more than a few maps to explore in this game, and each has its personality.
Anyway, as more maps are revealed, the pieces on those maps become more complicated, as the next set of levels adds switches, puzzles, and even more difficult enemy action. The maps also look less and less like each other and before you know it, the world of Snow Bros. Wonderland is much bigger than anticipated. The girth and complication of every element of the game are rewarding as they change the gameplay into a deeper platformer experience.
I thoroughly enjoyed the gradual progression of this game’s complications. It felt like the gameplay grew bigger and led you to something more challenging yet rewarding. You never want to feel like a 3D platformer is giving you the same meal over and over again, which is one of the bigger problems I have with Mario these days, so adding more puzzles here and there, obstacles like pinball bumpers, and different levels built with varying personalities keeps the gameplay interesting and engaging. The quest to see “what’s next” was the motivating factor to keep playing Snow Bros. Wonderland, and the payoff never disappointed.
Overall, I loved the level design and how it was consistently changing to keep the gameplay interesting. Nothing in the game felt like a chore, and with every jump into a new world (set of maps), I knew that something else was bound to be introduced to change up the gameplay. It was progressive, difficult at times, but fun all the way through. The simple mechanics and controlling the Snow Bros was as easy as eating pie on a Sunday. Anytime you have great levels and easy mechanics, then you’re in the right place for a good 3D platformer experience.
Graphically gorgeous and fun presentation
While this isn’t packed with ray tracing or any God of War-level number of details with shading, textures, models, and whatnot, the game still looks like a fun 3D platformer. Snow Bros. Wonderland is a visually playful adventure with a goofy personality in its music, writing, and every cute element that mixes into the bunch.
Is it better than Mario? Nah, but it works the way it is and it brings about some good creative design that helps keep the game visually interesting. Going from a snowy plane with giant lizards to a Shinto-based map featuring a huge sumo wrestler at the end makes for a fun time and a fair amount of consistency with graphical style and execution. The maps’ personalities equal the personalities of the bosses and every element that surrounds them. The designs are just wonderful from character models to environments. I’m just impressed with how it looks and feels.
On that sweet note, let’s wrap this review.
Conclusion
Snow Bros. Wonderland from Tatsujin is one fun holiday experience. It’s a good co-op 3D platformer that hits the right notes on variety, mechanics, level design, and writing.
