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Thread: Why is Snow Brothers for NES so rare?

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    Default Why is Snow Brothers for NES so rare?

    Has anyone ever figured out what the story is behind Snow Brothers being so rare and valuable on the NES? Just about every other game in that category are either games that were late releases in 1992, '93, and '94, or games with odd backstories like Stadium Events, but Snow Brothers doesn't fit into either of those categories. It was an arcade port, released by Capcom, who was a top tier developer in those days, and it came out in 1991 when the NES was still going strong. Did it just not sell very well? I know Tengen released a port for Genesis in 1993, so maybe Capcom lost the licensing rights to the game shortly after it was released, and it ended up with a limited print run as a result?

    It's also not as though Snow Brothers has just recently shot up in price either, I've been collecting NES games forever, and even in the days of Funcoland, Snow Brothers was always a high priced title compared to the rest of the games on the console. It just seems like a peculiar title to be so rare and expensive.

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    Most of Capcom's NES library were ports of at least semi successful arcade games or licensed games.

    I really doubt this Toaplan game did very well at the arcade (If KLOV is any indication, people aren't picking these things up, keeping them intact, or restoring original cabints back to this game after being converted to something else back in the day since virtually everything that exists are simply just the boards).

    So it doesn't shock me that a home port went mostly ignored.

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    Snow Brothers is really expensive on the Genesis as well. It's a good, very fun game. Probably just didn't make many of them, but Capcom has several NES games in low qty (Duck Tales 2 is another).
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    Quote Originally Posted by Greg2600 View Post
    Snow Brothers is really expensive on the Genesis as well. It's a good, very fun game. Probably just didn't make many of them, but Capcom has several NES games in low qty (Duck Tales 2 is another).
    Most of Capcom's rarities (ie: Megaman V, Rescue Rangers 2, Ducktales 2) can be explained as being late releases, which had low print runs due to the fact that the NES was on its last legs at the time of their release.

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    Well, it was made by Toaplan, who I don't think was a very popular developer until years after their demise (the All Your Base craze around 2000 almost certainly increased their name recognition). And the staff split into at least four different companies, which I imagine could create ownership issues for their older games.
    I know if any of their games have since been rereleased.

    I'd imagine the Mega Drive version to be rare because it was only released in Japan, where the MD was the least popular console of its generation.

    Mega Man V seemed like a game that was more expensive than rare. Maybe the PAL version is rarer because it was one the last releases, but the NTSC version seems to be more pricey than rare. It was like a $20-25 game (just a bit more than 1 or 6, the other higher value NES MM games) until a couple years ago (that's what I can remember paying for it, and that was a fairly typical list price).

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    The Funcoland pricing is probably why the game as always been priced a little higher on the used market than most other NES titles. Bubble Bobble Part 2 was always priced expensive there as well, and as a result was also more expensive than the average NES title, even before the collecting scene took off.

    But there definitely isn't a ton of copies of this floating around, its one you never even see people reporting on finding. Like others have said, the Megadrive version is pretty tough to find and expensive as well.

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    Quote Originally Posted by spman View Post
    Most of Capcom's rarities (ie: Megaman V, Rescue Rangers 2, Ducktales 2) can be explained as being late releases, which had low print runs due to the fact that the NES was on its last legs at the time of their release.
    This wasn't really a late release.

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    Quote Originally Posted by snes_collector View Post
    The Funcoland pricing is probably why the game as always been priced a little higher on the used market than most other NES titles. Bubble Bobble Part 2 was always priced expensive there as well, and as a result was also more expensive than the average NES title, even before the collecting scene took off.

    But there definitely isn't a ton of copies of this floating around, its one you never even see people reporting on finding. Like others have said, the Megadrive version is pretty tough to find and expensive as well.
    I have a November 1999 price list scanned.
    I want to guess this was about the low point in NES prices. I think literally the only games over $20 are Dragon Warrior III for $34.99 and Dragon Warrior IV for $49.99.
    Bubble Bobble priced at $12.99, BB2 $19.99. Mega Man V priced at $17.99, tied with the first game as the most expensive Mega Man.
    Contra Force is priced at $12.99, $2 cheaper than the original Contra.
    Snow Bros. is priced $19.99.
    Little Samson $7.99, Panic Restaurant only $1.99!
    Flintstones 2 is $9.99.
    Possibly another oddity: Lolo 2 is priced at $19.99 while Lolo 3 is only $9.99.
    Zombie Nation is $1.99.
    Ms. PacMan is $17.99, though it doesn't specify if it is Tengen or Namco.
    Likewise Tetris is not distinguished.
    Aw heck, so few games over $10, might as well list them all: Lolo 2, Baseball Stars 1 and 2, Bomberman 2, Bubble Bobble 1 and 2, Contra and Force, Donkey Kong, Dragon Warrior 2-4, Family Feud ($14.99!), Faria, Final Fantasy, Galaga, Kid Icarus, Mario is Missing, Megaman 1 and 4-6, Ms. PacMan (either? both?), PacMan (both? Though at least with PacMan it is essentially just a label variant), Pirates!, River City Ransom, Snow Bros., Super Dodgeball, Tecmo Super Bowl, Ultima: Warriors of Destiny, Uninvited, The Legend of Zelda

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    Hmm, well that theory isn't completely true then I suppose. Although pretty much all of those games are more expensive than the average NES game even now, so I guess it kinda is. Odd pricing on Family Feud, that's for sure.

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    The Game Show titles were always popular, and Family Feud also happened to be somewhat harder to find. Another NES title that was always oddly overpriced is Barbie. It ain't worth jack these days, but I remember it being expensive at Funcoland.

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    Funcoland never distiguished between the variants of games like Pacman or Tetris. It was always great when you found Tengen Tetris there because it was the same price as Nintendo's Tetris. Back then, Tengen's was one of the more expensive NES games on eBay.

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    Did the game was available fro rental only, and never sold in store ?
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    Quote Originally Posted by sniperCCJVQ View Post
    Did the game was available fro rental only, and never sold in store ?
    I don't think that the case. I remembered it being poorly distributed and didn't sell well, but it was sold in stores. I am going by 1992 and 1993 for seeing it at Toy'r'us and a couple other stores.

    The other reason I think of that is memories that happened after the Nes was discontinued in the states. I recalled seeing Snow Bros at local used game store in 1995 before someone broke into the store and Snow Bros. was stolen and Tengen Tetris being gone. The Snow Bros. game had a box shown at the place but was expensive with the game being kept in draw. My memory of that would point the game was sold in stores because I find it unlikely that rental places would keep Nes boxes for selling purposes. The used video game store didn't rent games

    I am saying that because a local rental place went out business in 1996 and was selling Nes games. The nes games were sold in rental cases without their boxes. I bought a copy of Blaster Master in 1996 when the store was going out of business and gave me a rental case with the game inside.

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    I have never run across this game in the wild. I got mine from a rental store 15-20 years ago and that is the only time I have seen it. Since then, I have bought two Bubble Bobble 2, two Power Blade 2, two NES protos, three RC Pro AM 2, and a Gold NWC cart. I don't know if it is a rental only, but they couldn't have sold too many in retail stores.

    Plus, it is a great great game. It is in our top five for 2 player games. Is the Genesis(Mega Drive) game worth getting to play if you already own the NES version???

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    Quote Originally Posted by MachineGex
    I have never run across this game in the wild. I got mine from a rental store 15-20 years ago and that is the only time I have seen it. Since then, I have bought two Bubble Bobble 2, two Power Blade 2, two NES protos, three RC Pro AM 2, and a Gold NWC cart. I don't know if it is a rental only, but they couldn't have sold too many in retail stores.

    Plus, it is a great great game. It is in our top five for 2 player games. Is the Genesis(Mega Drive) game worth getting to play if you already own the NES version???
    The Megadrive version is worth playing but it light years rarer than the NES version. It's been reported that something like only 2,000 copies were ever sold in Japan so it's not affordable at all.
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    I think it would be interesting to hear from people who found the game in the wild, where they found it and how long ago it has been. Like I posted earlier, I can't even remember the last time someone reported even finding one of these in the wild.

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    I found a copy of the NES version at my local value village in 2011 for $5.99

    i posted about it in the finds thread that day:
    http://www.digitpress.com/forum/show...88#post1795588
    I didn't take a picture of it at the time as i didn't have a camera (still don't but my phone does now).
    btw there was no evidence that this was a former rental.
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    I found one in a store called "Cash in Culture" in the Century 3 Mall near Pittsburgh. It was $60 cart only. I wanted to buy it but didn't have the money and have sworn off credit cards for anything but a true emergency. I started to save up for it hoping it wouldn't go anywhere. I stopped saving when 3 weeks later it was gone. That was about 3 years ago. I try not to think about it because my financial situation has improved astronomically since then. If that would only happen now it would be mine.
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    Quote Originally Posted by MachineGex View Post
    I have never run across this game in the wild. I got mine from a rental store 15-20 years ago and that is the only time I have seen it. Since then, I have bought two Bubble Bobble 2, two Power Blade 2, two NES protos, three RC Pro AM 2, and a Gold NWC cart. I don't know if it is a rental only, but they couldn't have sold too many in retail stores.

    Plus, it is a great great game. It is in our top five for 2 player games. Is the Genesis(Mega Drive) game worth getting to play if you already own the NES version???
    I got mine years ago too. I have only ran across this game at PRGE a couple of times over the years. I found mine at a funcoland. 1991 for a NES game would be like a Wii game released last year. A late release and one that did not have a franchise established to its name like Mega Man. The Megadrive version is FANSTASTIC. A total recommend.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Greg2600 View Post
    Snow Brothers is really expensive on the Genesis as well. It's a good, very fun game. Probably just didn't make many of them, but Capcom has several NES games in low qty (Duck Tales 2 is another).
    It was only released for Mega Drive in Japan. Theres no Genesis port or Euro release.




    The Famicom version of Snow Bros is pretty rare/desirable and regularly sells for $60+ cart only
    Last edited by Parodius Duh!; 02-24-2013 at 10:10 PM.

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