Snow Bros: the Ultimate Challenge

Nan-in, a Japanese master during the Meiji era (1868-1912), received a university professor who came to inquire about Snow Bros. Nan-in served tea. He poured his visitor's cup full, and then kept on pouring. The professor watched the overflow until he no longer could restrain himself. "It is overfull. No more will go in!"

"Like this cup," Nan-in said, "you are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you Snow Bros unless you first empty your cup?"

Since Snow Bros is a coin up game, anyone can finish it. All you have to do is to keep putting in coins to make your way though the 50 levels. However, there is more to it. After a lot of playing Snow Bros, I came to realize that there were serious challenges buried in it. Challenges that would take a lot of time and devotion to complete. If you have thought for a second that you were done with Snow Bros, think it over.

After a lot of thought, I have came up with a paths and doors scheme. Keep in mind that it might very well take you years to walk and cross all of them, you must be an outstanding, gifted and extremely skillfull player to cross all the Five Doors. Snow Brothers and Systers are still today dealing with the problems exposed here. For 17 years, since the Programation of the game, many people have been kicking snowballs all around, and yet, some Doors remain Unopen, Waiting for Thy One.

The Bills Path

To make Bills in each and every floor is yor duty here. Use as many lives, coins and days to walk it. For your ease, I suggest that you keep a printed 9x5 cells table like the one I give you in the Bills page. Print it, grab a pen, and start making crosses.

To be honest, I am still strugling to make Bills in some levels, so I don't know for a fact that it can be done. I want to believe that it is possible. Someday, a Prophet will came and show us Thy Way of Thy Bills, thus bringing Hope to all the Snow Brothers and Snow Systers out there.

The Score Path

In this path, your objetive is, of course, to collect as many points as posible during the 50 floors. I believe there is not a limit for your score. This is why:

First you could make Bills in all 50 floors in a row (and that is something). Then you could do it again kicking just one snowball in each floor, and thus, getting Bills plus sushi for all the baddies in each floor but one (the one you kicked). After that, I guess you could wait until the timeups in every Boss to make more points there. And at the very end, you will realize that there is no timeup in the Floor Fifty, and thus, you can make an unlimited amount of points by hiting the stoneheads with snow. Of course you only gain 10 points a shot, and you have to be careful not to get killed nor to hit the stonehead with a snowball. So, in pure theory, there is no limit for your score. You could build up a pretty high number there.

First: The One-Coin Door

"To be human is to know the fear of death, yet keep on fighting."
-- Gau Ban, Shadow Skill.

The first Door to attain Snow Bros Mastery. To cross it, you have to clear all fifty floors using just One Coin. Gain as many extra lifes using the cakes and letters system as possible. Forget about Bills and points, simply try to clear each floor one by one. Do not take inecesary risks if you want to cross this Door. Practise, practise, practise and practise. Practise makes perfection.

Second: The One-Life Door

"If you want to defeat me, you must practice with your life!"
-- Akira Sendo

To never loose a single life must be your way to cross the Second Door. It is not to end the fifty floors with the same amount of lifes that you started with, (for you could gain and loose life on your Way). You will only Truly cross the One-Life Door by finishing all fifty floors and yet not to die once.

Do not despair, just keep on practising until there is no more 'dying and recollecting the powerups' cycles. Reach the point where you can cross all fifty floors in one run and you will attain the Second Door of Snow Bros Mastery.

Third: The No-PowerUps Door

After you have play enough Snow Bros, you will came to realize The Truth about the PowerUps: that those are but a mere help to the novice, and that a true skilled Snow Bros Master should do without any external help. Use only your own skills to clear all Fifty Floors, defeat all five Bosses and be just yourselft while you do it. Do not enmasquerade under special powers, do not wear someone elses robes, but only your very own. For this, is the only way to penetrate the Third Snow Bros Door. You do have, however, One Full Coin to conquer your objetive.

Again, practise will make your moves faster, sharper and more precise. However, practise without Understanding will not make you attain this Door. You must realize that PowerUps only intoxicate the spirit. You will only grow Vulnerable using PowerUps, for they make you Dependable on external means that are not part of your Truly Nature. Negate the PowerUps, avoid them. And if one happens to fall up on you, inmediately loose that life to purify yourself, and learn to avoid them better.

Fourth: The One-Live No-PowerUps Door

When you put water in a cup it becomes the cup,
if you put it in a teepot it becomes the teepot.
Water can flow, or it can crash. Be water my friend.
-Bruce Lee

Learn to predict, learn to anticipate, learn to automate. Do not think before moving, do not move before thinking. Do not move The Snowman, but Become The Snowman. Practise, practise, practise and practise. Become One with the Game. Become flexible, adapt, like Water, like a Wave. Imagine that you are those billows. You are no longer a Snowman who can die. You are those huge waves sweeping everything before them, swallowing all in their path. Nothing can disturb you. You are those waves. You will sweep everything before you. This is the way to cross the Fourth Door of Snow Bros. Do this and you will be a Snow Bros Master.

Fifth: The One-Live No-PowerUps All-Bills Door

Not to get a single blow
not to intoxicate the body with drinks
but to make Bills in every floor
that is True Perfection.
That is, The Ultimate Challenge.