November's almost over, December's on its way and winter's almost here (or been here for over a month if you're Canadian) so hey, what better time for a rundown of the five best and worst wintery video game stages?
The "ice level" is a long-standing video game staple, and just like a real winter day they can either be crisp breezy fun, or a slippery, slide into hell...
#5 Best - Freezeezy Peak
Banjo-Kazooie
I've always thought the N64 Banjo-Kazooie titles were pretty badly underrated -- in fact I'd say the first Banjo game was maybe the best platformer on the N64, and Freezeezy Peak was my favorite stage in the game.
Not only was it super-wide open, with a huge snowman to climb in the middle, but it was just so damn Christmassy. I got Banjo-Kazooie, like most of my childhood games, for Christmas, so playing through Freezeezy Peak on boxing day was, ironically for a icy level, a downright warm, fuzzy experience.
Plus this stage had that mysterious cave with the unobtainable ice key. I love that kind of stuff. I'll find your lock someday mysterious ice key!
#5 Worst - Dezoris
Phantasy Star II
Listen, I love the Phantasy Star games, but anyone familiar with the series knows the ice-planet Dezoris (or Dezo/Dezolis) is always where s--t gets real, and in no game did it get realer than Phantasy Star II.
Phantasy Star II's Dezoris is huge, easy to get lost in, swarming with high-level enemies and filled with brain-bruisingly complex dungeons. Also, it's just kind of a drag with bland music and scenery and only a couple sad little towns full of depressed NPCs.
#4 Best - The Whole Damn Game
Silent Hill: Shattered Memories
This is my favorite horror game of the past generation and I'll keep singing its praises until somebody notices. No other game I've played has so accurately captured the feeling of living in a place with serious winters -- the lack of light, and feelings of isolation and vulnerability.
Also, while the game captured the feel of winter, it skipped the annoying aspects most wintery games fixate on, like slippery floors, getting stuck in the snow and so on.
#4 Worst - Gorilla Glacier
Donkey Kong Country
I know a lot of people have fond memories of Donkey Kong Country, but I've never really cared for the game. What? I said I liked Banjo-Kazooie! My Rare karma is in balance.
Anyways, one of the reasons I don't really dig DKC is this world. It stands in stark contrast to the colorful, upbeat feel of the rest of the game -- Gorilla Glacier is bleak, uninviting and its music is weirdly sparse and eerie. Also it's frustrating as hell with lots of exact platforming onto slippery surfaces required. They even throw in some underwater bits. Sure, just go ahead and combine two of the most divisive level themes in one. Argh.
#3 Best - Ice Cap Zone
Sonic the Hedgehog 3
Sonic 3 is this Sonic fan's favorite Sonic game, and Ice Cap Zone was my favorite stage in the game. It's actually a fairly easy level, but you know what? That's okay sometimes. The whole stage just feels fast, breezy and fun and features some truly great music -- a fantastic counterpoint to the chilly, downbeat tunes often composed for wintery levels.
#3 Worst - Route 217
Pokemon Pearl and Diamond
Pokemon games are usually pretty predictable, but this one area of Pokemon Pearl/Diamond is filled with all manner of wonderful, frustrating twists.
Route 217 has you climbing a large, snow-covered mountain, and unlike every other area in the game you're not allowed to use your bike or run -- you're not even allowed to walk at full speed. Sometimes you'll even fall into a snowdrift, rendering you completely immobile until you manage to shake free. Oh, and did I mention the blizzard? Yeah, you can't even see what's happening as you trudge along at a snail's pace.
#2 Best - Phendrana Drifts
Metroid Prime
A wonderfully chilly, authentic feeling ice level that, much like Shattered Memories, largely avoids typical annoying winter stage design. No over-reliance on slippery floors and pace-slowing snow, just a great winter-themed level that made the loneliness of Metroid Prime feel even more acute. Phendrana Drifts is the high point of this great game. Also, the music is pretty much perfect.
#2 Worst - The Whole Damn Game
Ice Climber
The original crappy wintery themed game. Terrible controls, lame characters, bad level design and unclear objectives -- this game flunks every good game design test there is. Nintendo tries to push this one as a "classic" but anybody who's played it for five minutes knows different.
#1 Best - Iced Land
Super Mario Bros. 3
Ah, World 6. Iced Land. The longest and most challenging level in the game (well, except for possibly Bowser's final world). Mario 3 is responsible for innovating a lot of annoying ice level tropes, but they worked in Mario 3 because a) they were fresh at the time and b) it was Mario. Mario games just work, even it comes to slippery ice levels.
This massive (14 individual levels), extremely varied world always felt incredibly intimidating and mysterious to me as a kid, and yet I'd jump there time and time again with the warp whistle, and vainly to best it. I don't think I ever did, but I had fun trying. World 6 -- King of the ice levels.
#1 Worst - Ice Zone
Ecco the Dolphin
Ecco the Dolphin was one of gaming's cruellest jokes. The beginning of the game is very chill -- nice big areas to swim in, a calm open sea to perform jumps on, not much in the way of enemies to harass you -- and then a few levels in the rug gets pulled out and the game becomes a total pain in the ass.
Ice Zone is where Ecco really starts to show it's sadistic side. The open areas are now choked by ice so you only have narrow, hard to navigate, corridors to swim through, the top is frozen over so no more fun jumps, and the water is absolutely swarming with sharks, and giant crabs.
I obviously didn't enjoy any of the ice levels listed as "worsts" here, but this was the only level that straight-up stopped me in my tracks and made me quit a game I had been enjoying up to this point. You broke me, Ecco the Dolphin's Ice Zone -- you broke me.
So, those are my five most and least favorite ice levels, but I know I've only covered a fraction of them. What about you guys? Any wintery video game wonderlands you've particularly loved/hated?
![[avatar]](http://p.uproxxcdn.com/photo/3998/thumb)
![[image]](http://cdn.uproxx.com/wp-content/thumbnails/130/110/2013/05/gammasquadcodghostsdog2-150x150.gif)
![[image]](http://cdn.uproxx.com/wp-content/thumbnails/130/110/2013/05/Screenshot-from-2013-05-21-135846-150x150.png)
![[image]](http://cdn.uproxx.com/wp-content/thumbnails/130/110/2013/05/this-is-what-the-ps4-might-look-like-uproxx-150x150.jpg)
![[image]](http://cdn.uproxx.com/wp-content/thumbnails/130/110/2013/05/gammasquadlastofus6-150x150.jpg)
I admit bias in loving Majora’s Mask, but I would’ve put the Snowhead Temple in the best.
Also, X-Men II: Clone Wars for Sega Genesis starts in a snowy level. The coolest part being you get a random character before any of the credits or anything… the game just throws you into action immediately. Pretty cool.
But yeah, I agree with all your choices, especially that Sonic level. That’s the one where you start snowboarding in, right?
Yup on the Sonic level starting with snowboarding.
I considered putting Snowhead Temple on the list but I wasn’t sure if I’d list it as a best/worst. It was authentically wintery and the dungeon was pretty well-designed, but I recall some pretty annoying “don’t stay in this area too long or you’ll freeze”, slippery floor and deep snow issues.
Agreed on X-Men 2. I thought it was pretty awesome that the game just starts and then once you beat the level you get the credits and the ability to select characters. It was one of the first games that felt like a movie with the way it opened.
Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah I remember that Level for Sega, really good.
mario 2. talk about slippery ice, playing that level with luigi is arctic suicide
You know what’s worse than ice levels….. Sewer levels. Is there any cop-out worse than the sewer levels for game developers? It’s almost always the easiest/lazy level design in the world to make and the minimal amount of effort needed for visuals.
Damn Ninja Turtles games couldn’t get enough of ‘em!
man twilight princess was pretty well done. while I thought metroid prime’ phendara drift was okay, twilight princess’s is important to the story. blizzard prevents your advance! not incidental.
I don’t know if this would technically count, but the Forochel area in Lord of the Rings Online is very visually stimulating. The Aurora Borealis at night is amazing.
It’s not technically a “level” since RPG’s don’t really have those, but Tundaria in Golden Sun: The Lost Age is the worst of the worst. You have to park your ship at one end, walk a hundred miles to the other fighting high level monsters the whole way meaning by the time you get to the dungeon at the end you’re low on health and/or pp. Then you have the entire actual dungeon to deal with. Worst.
RPGs count — I included Phantasy Star II. I don’t remember the specific part you’re talking about, but I remember Golden Sun: The Lost Age being pretty infuriating in general.
Yeah, that level is a kick to the nards.
I was a big fan of “Winters” from SNES’s Earthbound. That music gets stuck in my head when shoveling snow (so for about 5 months out of the year), and I have the fondest of memories of that bubblegum-chewing monkey!
I love “Silent Talon” in Ghost Recon Future Soldier.
Technically not a level, but the Mr. Freeze portion of Arkham City was fun to play. Not only is Freeze an underrated character imo, but his was easily one of the most challenging parts of that game because Batman had to use all the tricks up his sleeve to beat him.
Mr. Freeze took a big blow in the public eye after Schwarzenegger in 1997′s Batman & Robin.
Batman punches a SHARK in the face until it stops attacking him and leaves. WHY didn’t Leon and Helena think of THAT in RE:6?
The ice level on Mario Kart Wii is especially fun. One of my favorite levels on the game. Sherbet Land.
My favorite system of all time is N64, but my favorite game ever is Metroid Prime. That part where you first enter the drifts and Ridley flies overhead…and you know you have to fight her later? Awesome.
Yeah, Ridley looming over head throughout the game, closer and closer each time was a storytelling master stroke. It helped that the actual boss fight was fantastic — best of the whole Metroid Prime trilogy. The moment is captured near the end of the video I posted actually.
I’ve always been fond of the Assault on the Control level in Halo.
I don’t remember much about the games that I play because I’m always moving on to the next game and then the game after that.
I think it’s a complex.
I mean, my working memory on active games is quite capable. I purge the reserves to move on to the next. I suppose I passively hate nostalgia.
Not the “best” but I always liked the Himalayas stage in “DuckTales.”
I almost bought Shattered Memories based on your recommendations when I went on a Wii game binge earlier this year; it didn’t make the cut, although I did get Cursed Mountain, which looks to be pretty wintry itself. Haven’t played it yet, of course.
Anyway, you probably listed all the best ice levels, but here are some other memorable ones:
-Frappe Snowland in MarioKart 64 (outta the way, snowmen!)
-Frosty Village in DKR (flying over those houses was really cool at the time, somehow)
-Glacier Coast in Wave Race (in a widowmaking kind of way)
-Iceland in Fate of Atlantis (a dude freezes to death for archaeology!)
-Mt. Gagazet in FFX (though I can’t really remember the level so much as its denizens and music)
-Dragon Cave in 1080 Snowboarding (another widowmaker)
-White Land II in the original F-Zero (mainly because it took me so fucking long to figure out how to make it over that jump)
-The first snow level in Mario 64 (penguin slide race FTW)
-And the one that I would be most inclined to include on a top 5 list: Shadow Moses; pretty much the entirety of it, in either MGS or MGS4. Maybe especially in MGS4, though, because it feels so much more wintry there.
Yeah, loved the snow levels in Diddy Kong Racing myself.
It’s weird, Rare ice levels were generally great *except* in Donkey Kong games where they sucked (Donkey Kong 64′s ice level also almost made the “worst” list, but I figured the Donkey Kong Country world would be more recognizable).
The snow level in Mario 64 frustrated me to no end. The penguin slide was awesome but everything else made me want to punch a baby. An Italian baby with a mustache and a plunger.
This is true, Shadowtag. But it was memorable; all the more so, really.
I think someone already mentioned it but shadow Moses act 4 in mgs4 is not only my favourite ice level but my favourite level of any game
Yes, a very clever use of level design and gameplay
Yeah its great, along with Crying Wolf as a Boss. Nuts. and The Geckos at the start, crazy when you look with the goggles!
Chill Penguin’s level in Megaman X is still possibly my favorite. That giant mech suit thingy was so much fun.
Snowy Level for SSX all levels I liked.
Tony Hawks on PS2, that snowy level in Canada I really enjoyed. Laid back and chilled. I liked it alot! [www.youtube.com]
Final Fantasy 8 when you go to Trabia Garden, and you find out everyone is from the Foster Home where Edea raised them was great.
Tekken 6 Manji Valley was an amazing stage full of snow, I loved it.
F Zero on the SNES where you race on that stage where it has the massive jump over the gap, the theme song sounds like James Bond. I hated it but it was a new experience being a kid and all [www.youtube.com]
but yeah thats me.
this got me thinking about FF7. the portion where you have to work your way through a snowy wasteland on your way up to the big crater (its been a while, names of locations are beyond my memory) wandering through the blizzard with only your little flags as indication of direction. the overall map was confusing and i remember having a spot o trouble figuring out a few of the puzzles. so i appreciated the challenge. but i think it loses points for the music. the look could be considered bland but based on how disorienting the area was i think it worked.
I considered that part of FF7 for the “worst” list, but in the end it felt like it was just too small a part of the game to bother picking on.
I think BK wasn’t as popular because at its release people thought it was a mario 64 clone, where as time goes by we see that 3d platforming is a genre. It was a very ambitious game at the time and covers so many bases that even mario would take a hint from in later years. I also love its versatile environments and vibrant color palates. Really is one of my favorite games.
Loved the beginning part of Uncharted 2 in the mountains, purely for atmosphere. It also didn’t deal with a lot of the standard concepts of snow and ice slowing you down or anything like that.