This came to me a few days ago, but it’s taken me a while to actually get to writing about, for reasons you’ll soon experience for yourself.  It’s a viral marketing initiative in the form of an online advent calendar from Nintendo.  You get to play a new level of this online flash game each day of December leading up to Christmas. I’ve always been a big fan of advent calendars (even though the quality of the chocolate is usually suspect) and I think this is my favorite imagining yet.

Mission in Snowdriftland features a snowman named Chubby who feels like he has yet to be cast in an appropriate role for a videogame.  Enter a villain who’s entered the Real World and stolen some important game files (oh no!) and retreated to his hideout in Snowdriftland, the coldest place ever.  Whoever goes after him will need to have a high tolerance for cold temperatures.  Does that sound like anyone we know? Of course it does!

This game is a really cute, engaging platformer that reminds me a lot of the good old days of NES, but much prettier and with better sound.  It’s a pixel-perfect, sometimes unforgiving, and absolutely addicting experience.  Each level is pretty easy to clear on a run-through, but by getting more snowflakes in each level (think of snowflakes as coins in Super Mario and you’ve got a pretty good idea) you’ll also earn more game assets, like screenshots, wallpapers, mp3s, and icons.  Some of the snowflakes are pretty straightforward, but if you’re a completist (like me) and want to find out what you’ll get when Christmas comes and you’ve earned every snowflake, guard your hair.  Some of the snowflakes are incredibly difficult to get and it may take you a while to make it through a level with them all safely tucked in your pocket.

Who ever heard of making you work so hard to be marketed to?  It really takes someone like Nintendo to get away with it and make me appreciate it enough to blog about it and spread the word to my friends.  It’s been challenging to discipline myself to tab away from the game and actually write the blog.  I keep justifying my new habit.  I’ll just try this level one more time and then I’ll finish my blog.  No, seriously.  Ok, one more. I’ve almost got it this time…