The gameplay of “now Bros.” resembles Bubble Bobble, released in 1986. The game supports up to two players, and each player takes on one of the two snowmen characters, Nick and Tom. Each player can throw snow at enemies. The player must throw snow at each enemy until they are completely covered and transformed into a snowball. An enemy partially covered in snow cannot move until it shakes.
When an enemy turns into a snowball, the player can roll it. The snowball will bounce off walls until it eventually breaks apart. Enemies that are hit by the rolling snowball are eliminated, and other stationary snowballs will start rolling when the rolling snowball touches them. If a player successfully kicks all the enemies into a snowball (which can be used to make other snowballs bounce and increase the chance of pulling off this trick), bonus coins will fall from the sky.
There’s a boss at every tenth level. Each boss can be hit several times. In the Sega Mega Drive port, you play as one of the snow castle princesses after level 50.
When a player defeats an enemy, a potion bottle may drop. The color of the potion indicates which special power-up the player will receive:
– Red increases walking speed.
– Blue increases the amount of snow thrown, making it easier to cover an enemy in snow.
– Yellow increases the distance snow can be thrown.
– Green causes your character to inflate like a balloon, allowing them to fly around the screen and hit enemies for a limited time.
The effects of the red, blue, and yellow potions wear off after the player loses a life. Additionally, both the Blue and Yellow potions increase the power of the snow thrown by Nick or Tom.
If a player takes too long to complete a level, a wicked pumpkin head will come to try to kill the player character. It is invulnerable but can be stunned and sent to appear elsewhere in the level with snowballs or snow shots. Soon after, ghosts will appear that can travel freely throughout the level and seek out the player character. These ghosts cannot be killed or stunned, so the player’s only hope is to avoid them while eliminating the remaining enemies to move on to the next screen.
