Mission in Snowdriftland

Game preservation is still an ongoing problem within the video game world. Although we have seen an improvement over the last couple of years, we are still not at the required level. I appreciate it’s not that easy with plenty of games surrounded by red tape, licensing issues, and ownership, and some games have been lost to time due to the developers belief that there isn’t an audience for their games anymore, so it’s left to gather digital dust. 

Mission in Snowdriftland is one such case, and it has a rather interesting history. In the late 90’s and early to mid-00’s, flash games were where the video indie game scene lived. Flash was an extension that lived in your website browser that enabled the browser to produce higher graphics and sound than the browser was originally built for. Made by Adobe, it was used extensively back in the early days of the internet, enabling thousands of games to be made and playable through your browser for free. There were security issues that did arise from Flash, where people managed to use it to get access to your PC and do all sorts of nasty stuff, and as technology grew, the need for Flash started to wain. So much so that in 2020 Adobe discontinued it, and it’s no longer used. 

Mission in Snowdriftland was one of these flash games that was created in conjunction with Nintendo in 2007 to help promote their (at the time) current DS and Wii games. The game is set on the idea of an advent calendar, opening a door and playing a stage once a day. With the game window on the left of the screen, there was a smaller window on the right showing Nintendo games and links to the game page. The trouble was that once the festive season had finished, so did the game, which was taken down in January of 2008, and it hasn’t been available properly since. Thankfully, through the fans, the developers Tons of Bits learnt of the love that still exists for the game and released a remastered version on Steam a couple of years ago. And now, in 2024, it’s returning to Nintendo with a Nintendo Switch version, which is now out, making sure this game can live on for (hopefully) many more years to come. It’s still not completely safe, as digital stores can just drop games, but who knows, maybe a physical edition isn’t such a dream and would help preserve the game in a much safer way. 

Much to my shame though, I had never heard of the game and didn’t know of its existence or its affiliation with Nintendo, but when I received a message from a friend telling me about it and the developers asking for coverage, I was in, and it was one of the best decisions I have made this year. Flash games, especially platformers, are known to not be the best. People struggled with making it work through weird mechanics that felt wrong and basic or rough visuals to boot. I’m happy to report that Mission in Snowdriftland is the exception to the rule, as it not only looks gorgeous but its platforming mechanics feel good and precise. The chiptune soundtrack too is a highlight, with real effort to make it something more than just bleeps and bloops. You play as Chubby, a little video game snowman who keeps being cast in video games that don’t gel with him, for example, being based in a desert, not the best environment for a snowman! But when an evil villain steals important artefacts from the video game organisation, UPIXO, and escapes into a snow-filled and chilly world, they send Chubby after him to retrieve these important trophies from games past. 

This leads into twenty-four levels of pure platforming heaven. For a flash game, there has been a level of detail that you just wouldn’t expect. The level designs are perfect, and there is so much unexpected depth to them that I was taken aback. Some of the later levels have so much verticality that you have to pay attention to where you’ve been and where you need to go. At first, like in any decent platformer, the levels are not too much trouble, but the deeper you go, it becomes a much more challenging experience. It doesn’t go to the level of absurdity, but there certainly is a step up from the start of the game. The bosses also pose quite a challenge but are also an enjoyable part of the game. It’s a case of jumping on their heads three times to defeat them, but their movements and other dangers do make for a more difficult time. The range of general enemies you’ll encounter is quite staggering too, with a wealth of different creatures that are out to stop you. I loved the detail in them, and the developers have managed to capture some real individuality in their looks and movement in each and every one. 

The depth of the game extends in other areas too, with twenty-four snowflakes to find in each level. These didn’t pose too much of an issue to find, until the later levels, that is, but they were joyous to collect. I don’t know what it is about them; maybe it was the lovely little chime that played when you picked one up? I’m not sure, but it was a fun inclusion and leads into the Mario inspirations of the game nicely. If you do collect the snowflakes from all the levels, you’ll unlock a bonus level, which is the most challenging of all, and there’s more secret levels coming too, as every level will soon have one, and these can be accessed by owning every single snowflake.

At the end of each stage you’ll receive one of the stolen artifacts. These all take the shape of an iconic item or character from a video game. You’ll see things like a Megaman helmet, a Yoshi egg, and an Animal Crossing leaf. I think you get the idea. This leans into the Nintendo collaboration to help promote Nintendo games and celebrate the older games like Space Invaders and PAC-Man. This was just another moment of joy in the game, and like in a real advent calendar, the high anticipation of what you were going to receive filled me with copious amounts of incentive to get to the end of each stage. There are four worlds with six levels and a boss battle in each world, and each one hides a health upgrade, which, yet again, for a flash game, I was not expecting to see.

The artistic visuals here are also a real standout. So much care and attention has been put into the backgrounds and characters that yet again I was taken aback. Chubby oozes charm, and I instantly warmed to him with his happy facial expressions and eye-appealing design. The enemies, as I mentioned, have had the same attention applied, and the world itself was visualised lovingly. There’s even small things to take note of, like when Chubby lands from a jump, a little snow flies up off the ground where he disturbed it with his feet. The whole cartoony aesthetic hasn’t aged a day either, as it feels like this game was made in the last couple of years, let alone nearly twenty years ago. This visual treat bleeds into the world map too, where it has been carefully created to represent each world in one snowy scene, with the advent calendar doors perfectly placed. They are not as random as on real calendars, but this gets a pass as it would have made for a confusing and messy approach if they had gone down that route. I loved the snowflake that appears in the open door, which signifies when you’ve collected all the snowflakes on that level, and the way chubby jumps into the door was also a nice touch. The music all around you while playing is also special, with some jolly pieces of music. Once again, the care that has been put into the music is much higher than I expected, and I found myself humming the main tune over and over when I was away from the game. It led into the atmosphere of the game perfectly, with some feel-good wintry tracks. Certainly one of the highlights, and it already has a place in my video game playlist.