According to the weather forecast, Britain is set to enjoy a balmy Christmas Day this year, with temperatures “soaring” up towards 13 degrees in some places – so we can probably all expect a catastrophic blizzard to hit in the next couple of days. It’s all a work of fiction!

To celebrate, and to ease the pain of potentially not being able to leave the house for days, we’re presenting the very best snow and winter based levels from all of Gaming History. Well, some of it, anyway.

10. Freezeezy Peak – Banjo Kazooie

A beautifully designed level, full of festive cheer and charm in typical Kazooie fashion. It might not be the most difficult level on this list, nor the most complex in terms of mechanics but it looks wonderful, and works as a simple but effectively engaging collection style quest.

Extra points go to Rare here for keeping to the modern idea of the family unit, with a terribly irresponsible father figure who has left his children home alone without any Christmas presents: a chilling endictment of the Broken Family. “My stomach hurts, I shouldn’t have eaten that shiny thing.” Well, I mean, OBVIOUSLY.

9. Hoth – Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire

Easily the finest battle in the original movie trilogy, both in terms of how it looks and the way the battle plays out – there’s something more engaging about the on-world setting that sets it apart from the usual screaming space skirmishes that dominate the rest of the films – remade as a fine level. It looks as grand in pixels as it does in celluloid, though it’s probably best to ignore the enemy AI issues as they blunder around somewhat aimlessly rather than bringing the noise to the Rebel base.

8. Ice Cap Zone – Sonic 3

It’s essentially the same level that all Sonic levels are, only dressed up slightly differently – complete with a mostly way too easy Robotnik boss battle (that eggman survived way too many explosions) – and pretty much only qualifies here because it looks so damn pretty. And I suppose the fundamental model that drove all of Sonic’s early levels was good enough to just about justify the perpetual recycling, before Sega foolishly went 3D with the hedgehog.

7. Snowhead – Legend of Zelda : Majora’s Mask

A great level, and home to the Goron, Snowhead Temple is the second dungeon in Majora’s Mask, and features a bonkers story about a magical lullaby, half-remembered and Gorons in disguise. Typical Zelda stuff, but still slightly odd.

6. Shadow Moses – Metal Gear Solid

The stark, snowy environment offered the perfect backdrop to Snake’s bad-ass misery-guts, even if our hero should definitely have been wearing some sort of face protector in that extreme weather. That weather of course added extra mysticism to the level as well, and a whole new level of stealth, which was always welcome in the sneakiest of all sneaky games.

5. Ice Age Valley – Donkey Kong Country

The game that reannounced Donkey Kong as a hero, and a marketable character, reinventing the great ape and launching a brand new franchise that boasted wonderfully designed levels and bags of charm. Hardly the hardest game on the market, but still a very rewarding experience that was at its best in the more complex levels and worlds like Gorilla Glacier. This level within that world is probably the best of the bunch – though they are all great – with harsh weather conditions throwing visual curve-balls and making everything that little bit more tricky.

4. Cliffhanger – Modern Warfare 2

A lot of the love for this level stems from that Hero Moment when Soap saves your life as you head towards the icey peril of a sheer cliff face, but it’s not something I could love immediately having died immediately on my first attempt. Anyway, those issues resolved, Cliffhanger was able to extend its cool grip around me as well, with its excellent design and fiendishly clever infiltration objectives. Yes, you might have got the objective for not killing anyone at all, and probably tell your friends as much all the time, but I like explosions and immediate threats that kill me multiple times before I can best the level. If I wanted to creep around not killing anyone I’d play out in the real world, thanks very much.

3. Sherbert Land – Mario Kart 64

No matter how used to playing Mario Kart you were, or how familiar with the levels you had become, Sherbert Land levelled the playing field for most players through a combination of typically tight design and the frustrating ice elements, which made dodging enemy-propelled obstacles all the more difficult. I lost an N64 controller to this level and its penguins, but I wouldn’t hesitate in naming it among the best levels of the entire Mario Kart series.

2. Surface – Goldeneye

The grand-daddy of all snow levels, and probably the most iconic of all of Goldeneye’s ground-breaking levels. It might not look good by today’s standards, thanks to an overall blockiness, and the lack of stealth seems odd for what is a spy game, but Surface is still fantastic. I have great affection for the way technological restrictions mean geography and environmental features appear as you move close to them, and most of all thanks to the way the game was designed overall, there was never any point where the player would feel patronised or pandered to despite the groundbreaking nature of the game. Self-discovery is an enormously undervalued commodity in modern gaming, where “Helpful Hints” for some reason appear in sequels treat everyone like morons.

1. Cool, Cool Mountain – Mario 64

A wonderful level, combining multiple play types both 3D platform and on-rails, as well as races against a giant penguin AND an Indiana Jones inspired snowball.  The design marries colourful Christmassy spirit with the usual Mario charm to brilliant festive result. A worthy winner.

Any we missed? Don’t blow a fuse, it’s just for fun. Instead, share your opinions below.

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