Pixel Arcade
About this game
Snowball Rush is a single-screen platformer where you never destroy an enemy directly. Your snow shot covers a target a little more with each hit; after four or five it is completely encased and becomes a snowball sitting on the platform.
Move with the arrow keys, jump with up, and throw with space; touch players get the pad plus a throw button. A snowball is only a temporary state — leave it and it melts, and the enemy that emerges moves faster than before, so the loop is always pack, then commit. Push a finished ball and it rolls along the platform, bounces off walls, and destroys any enemy it touches, dropping fruit and gems as it goes.
Scoring rewards greed. One enemy flattened by a rolling ball is 500 points, but a ball that catches three enemies on one run pays a chain bonus that dwarfs it, and a ball that rolls off the edge and down onto the platform below can clear two floors on a single kick. Every stage is one screen with a fixed layout, so once you know where the ledges line up you can set these up on purpose.
The danger is being cornered on a short platform while charging up a throw, since you are stationary and your shot is slow. Snowball-rolling platformers were a distinctive branch of the single-screen genre around 1990.
FAQ
Why did the snowball disappear?
Snowballs thaw. You have a few seconds to push one before the enemy breaks out, faster than it was before.
What is the best way to clear a stage?
Set up two or three snowballs on the same platform and kick one into the others for a chain that clears the floor and pays a bonus.
Does it work on mobile?
Yes — pad, jump and a throw button under the screen.
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