Snowy: The Bear's Adventures Review

Written by: Keith Durocher Published: November 30, 2005 Mirriam-Webster defines "cute" as 1) clever or shrewd, often in an underhanded manner; or 2) attractive or pretty, especially in a dainty or delicate way. After playing Aliasworlds and Alawar Entertainments' Snowy: The Bear's Adventures, I'm inclined to petition the good folks at m-w.com to add a third definition, perhaps something about pink-bellied polar bears armed with snowballs. I say this because this game exemplifies both of the previous meanings listed so perfectly it deserves a mention all its own. Snowy is a classic arcade platform game. It's immediately reminiscent of Taito's Bubble Bobble, only the reptilian heroes of that venerable title have been replaced with a scrappy little polar bear named (you guessed it) Snowy. This plucky Ursus maritimus looks somewhat like Snoopy stuffed into a cartoon bear suit. He's as white as the glaciers of his Arctic homeland, but this is offset by a hot pink tummy and ears, and a wry grin that suggests he's in on a joke none of us get. For reasons no one knows, our intrepid little champion has found himself trapped in a strange world far from home. It's populated by all manner of different beasties; vicious dogs, kamikaze turkeys, green goblins with too much phlegm, clockwork robots that spit out bombs, and goat-like creatures that like to charge headfirst into anything that gets in front of them, walls included. None of these oddities seem to be friendly toward polar bears, and so Snowy must fight the only way he knows how: pelt the lot of them with a deluge of snowballs. I have no idea where Snowy gets the ammunition for his endless supply of icy spheres, but it's not like I had much time to ponder this point, either. The goal is to hit each enemy with roughly eight balls each, coating them in more and more snow until they're so engulfed in it, you can walk up to the frozen sphere and kick it away. You'd think tightly packed snow boulders would be heavy, but Snowy kicks them all over the screen, and they take out any other enemies that have the misfortune of being in the way. Some kindly soul from high above the action randomly takes pity on Snowy, and occasionally drops packages containing power-up goodies like extended snowball range, bigger snowballs that coat the bad guys faster, or increased speed for our tireless bear. Very rarely, a gyrocopter will be in one of these falling gifts. Once you hop inside, you get limited invulnerability, allowing you to dart around and take out beasts just by flying into them. Finally, there are boss monsters to overcome. These are immune to regular chilly orbs, so Snowy must use their weapons against them. Since they all spit out walking time bombs, the only way to get at the big guys is to freeze the bombs and kick them at the bosses. It's tricky, but no more so than storing tons of slightly wet snow in hidden compartments in your fur. If Snowy can do that, this is cake. Perhaps our hero is always grinning simply because of the reckless abandon with which he eliminates all these bad-tempered beasts. Graphics: As a good old fashioned 2D game, Snowy uses sprites instead of 3D models. What it lacks in depth of view it attempts to make up for with a slick cartoon look. For the most part, Aliasworlds succeeds in this goal; they are spot on in parts, lacking somewhat in others. Snowy is the true champion in this regard; his sprite is animated perfectly and he's so cute, it's almost criminal. I've never been as drawn to the idea of playing a teddy bear in a game as I have with The Bear's Adventures. Most of the monsters share this fluid style. This falls apart somewhat with the boss monsters, one or two of which lack the details needed to make up for their vaguely amateurish design. I did like the Jack-O-Lantern Zeppelin boss, though. The animated backgrounds are a nice touch as well. You'll spend more time looking at Snowy than anything else, however, because you can't help but gawk at something as sweet as our little bear. Ease of use: There's not much to learn with Snowy. The left and right keys move your avatar left and right, the up key makes him jump, and the left Ctrl key is used to hurl snowballs. That's it; there's nothing more to it. One of the perks of using a tried-and-true format like an arcade classic is that very little needs to be implemented to cover all of the bases. Gameplay: I quite liked Bubble Bobble in the arcade, so it stands to reason I enjoy The Bear's Adventures, too. The concept of a snowball-tossing polar bear is an interesting idea that, if anything, makes more sense than bubble-spewing reptiles. My criticisms with the gameplay are minor: too few power-ups; not enough end-boss variety; and, overall, the game is too short. That doesn't stop the experience from being any less addictive, however. Difficulty: Sadly, this is the one aspect of Snowy with which I was most let down. Namely, the game is far too difficult on anything but "easy". Once you place the game on this setting, however, you're given 99 lives and the power-ups fall with significantly increased frequency, making it almost too simple to complete. More work should have been put into creating a smoother transition to the more difficult levels. Sound effects: The sound work is excellent, especially the voice acting. It's extremely sparse - only a couple of words - but it fits Snowy perfectly. At the end of every level, he leaps in the air and proclaims, "Wow!" When he gets the increased snowball density power-up, he utters "Big!" It comes out more like "Beeg", and you can't help but feel like someone has spooned sugar straight into your ears. Even his slightly smug chuckle when he gets the increased range is amusing. All the other effects work well, too. The deep thud as Snowy kicks the big ice-boulders is satisfying, the popping sound of a bonus point item being picked up is crisp, and exploding snowballs sound like, well, exploding snow. This is a far trickier sound to achieve than you might think; even Hollywood gets it wrong most of the time. Aliasworlds put just the right dry crunch in to sound convincing. Music: There isn't much to speak of here, only three tracks in total. There's the bouncy menu music, the main theme on a steady loop during play, and a variant for the end-boss encounters that carries increased tension. These are all well-written, and they sit at a perfect default balance. The main theme reminds me of a song in the Tim Allen movie, Big Trouble; it's quite a catchy little number. It's a pity there isn't more variety, though. Final analysis: Snowy: The Bear's Adventures is a fun game that looks great, sounds awesome and sets new standards in saccharine-sweet gameplay. If it weren't for a few minor oversights and the high degree of difficulty, this game would warrant a five-dragon score. Even with these setbacks in mind, it's still one of the best arcade platform throwbacks I've played in years.