Nintendo licensed game Mission In Snowdriftland was a sleeper hit back in 2006, now developers are resurrecting the once time-limited flash classic on Steam.

Most Nintendo fanboys will claim they know everything there is to know about every charming character to be featured in a game published by the Japanese games company. We bet most of them have never heard of Chubby Snow though, the star of a highly unique flash title that appeared for the briefest of times over the holiday period of 2006.

Mission In Snowdriftland was the result of a collaboration between small indy studio tons of bits and Nintendo. The idea was to create a game that was in effect, a virtual advent calendar. Each day of December a new mission would be unlocked, which were in turn designed to advertise differing Nintendo products. A classic platformer, the player would aim to collect 24 snowflakes strewn across each level and if successful, unlock special downloads.

The game went offline in January of 2007 and apart from a brief resurrection in 2010, has remained a lost game ever since.

Now it may sound as if there’s nothing really special here. A random flash game themed around Christmas sounds like something you could easily give a miss. In reality, though, the game was really damn good.

The quirky storyline introduces us to El Pix, an evil penguin, who has stolen game files from the Human World and is holding them in his lair in Snowdriftland. UPIXO (United Pixelheroes Organisation) has no clue what to do, seeing as the region is far too cold for anybody to survive. However, the UPIXO boss’s assistant, Professor Schwabbel, spots Chubby Snow, a living snowman, who is complaining at the front desk because all his videogame roles have been bad so far, and asks him to get back the game files. 

The sheer quality of the levels and excellent platforming controls – easy to learn, hard to master – had those who discovered the game hooked through Christmas 2006, and many have tried in vein in the years since to track down the code and enjoy the experience once again.

The legend of this lost Christmas classic inspired YouTuber Nick Robinson to create a video chronicling the history of the game, and its fans desperate search for a playable version in the here and now. It’s well worth a watch, check it out below:

A game that just won’t die

Inspired by the continuing interest in this little-known gem of a game, original publisher tons of bits have answered the prayers of the titles many fans and are working to produce a modern adaption for Steam.

Despite the game’s moderate design, a homage to classic 16-bit platformers, the studio needs help from the public to get the project off the ground.

So a Kickstarter was launched in January 2021 to convert the once Flash centric content into a fully functional PC title.

The campaign calls the game “A homage to old school platformers like Super Mario. In a period of about 45 days, a lot of users played this game and experienced a joyful and happy holiday time with our little hero Chubby Snow. We loved making this game as much as users loved playing it.”

So far, the Kickstarter has met almost 50% of it’s £26,000 goal to complete the PC version of the game. The team hope to have Chubby’s classic adventure ready for PC players by December 2021.

If you want to donate to campaign, you can visit the Kickstarter page by clicking here.

A happy ending for classic game hunters

It’s not often that a classic game thought lost to the ether of the internet is successfully brought back to life for us all to enjoy once again, especially a flash game – a format no longer officially supported.

But in the case of Mission In Snowdriftland, it seems we will get the chance to play a highly unique and very enjoyable platform adventure once again. To experience the game for yourself, the team are providing a free demo of the game’s first two levels, which you can access on the Mission In Snowdrifltand website.

We highly recommend you check it out; it really isn’t every day you get to discover a classic Nintendo character you’d never heard of, is it.