It’s cold, it’s wet and it’s everywhere! Snow! Yes, it was fun for the first twenty minutes that we dared venture outside for but now we are well and truly sick of the sight of the white stuff. Roads are hazardous, footpaths impassable and everywhere you look malformed and horrendous snowmen line driveways, like some frosty army awaiting its moment to strike.
Well the snow has reminded us of our favourite frosty levels and we bring you some of the toughest, ice entombed levels around…
Icicle Mountain – Super Smash Bros. Melee
Polar bears in neon pink hot pants, grouchy little ‘topis’ and boardwalks that are sleeked in black ice – all in days work for the mountain climbing height defying Ice Climbers. However for the rest of the gang featured in Super Smash Bros. Melee, Icicle Mountain can prove too much, particularly for Pikachu and Pichu (their most powerful ability Thunder is almost useless with all the overhanging platforms). Not only do players have to contend with the hazard of the ice and the creatures that live on the mountain but the stage also moves, up and down, forcing players to climb higher and faster or descend frantically.
The stage proves too much for many SSBM veterans and the level is banned from most official tournaments and games.
Caves – Tomb Raider
Forget footprints in the sand! We’re talking footprints in the snow!? When we managed to peel your eyeballs off the pixelated appendages of the beautiful Ms. Lara Croft, we were treated to a sight almost just as amazing, the first traces of a digital character left on the digital world.
It might have been the training level for the first Tomb Raider game but that doesn’t mean it was in anyway easy. We had to come to terms with guiding the daredevil treasure hunter, leap from heights, get to grips with our…weapons and scale traps.
We also learn just how cold Lara could be as she watched as her guide was devoured by ravenous wolves and fled for her own life.
Cliffhanger – Modern Warfare 2
It was the first look we ever got of the game now hailed as the greatest multiplayer ever made – now how could we find fault with it? Well we can’t but we can sure as hell moan about the level that gave us nightmares, awful snowy nightmares! The tactics of this stage involve using the forces of the elements to your advantage, climb treacherous ice walls, disguise yourself in a snowstorm and take out your foes as you use your camouflage to blend into the deadly snow.
All of this is capped off with one of the best snow escapes in the history of gaming… out-sledding your enemies in one hell of a snow mobile chase!
Ice Cavern – Ocarina of Time
Oh how we loathe the Ice Caverns in the Ocarina of Time but it’s not just OOT that we have a problem with. In the history of the Zelda games we’ve only ever truly struggled with the formidable and treacherous Ice Temples. For years they have been the source of much anguish in the gaming world, skidding on frozen blocks, running out of fire arrows, desperately fleeing frozen enemies and coming to terms with the futility a long dash… which inevitably leads to falling to our icy doom.
You are not the only gamer in the world if you contemplated giving up at this point and letting Zelda to her fate at the hands of Ganondorf and heading out for some cocoa and a chick flick!
Northrend – Wrath of the Lich King
Ok, so it’s not exactly a level as it is more of a continent but Northrend is the stuff that World of Warcraft players dream of. From the scarred frosted lands of the Borean Tundra, to the serenity of Wintergrasp Lake, Northrend is forever in the clutches of the most feared tyrant in the history of Azeroth… the Lich King.
