Gaming Nintendo's Long-Lost Advent Calendar Game Comes Home For Christmas On Switch

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The concept is a winner: You receive a flat, Christmas-themed box, and for 24 days before Christmas, you open a small door on the front daily. Here's where it falls apart: Behind the door — in most cheap, modern Advent calendars — is a piece of "chocolate," but the low-quality kind makers can't legally call chocolate (those quotation marks are very intentional). It's quite disappointing, especially given how promising the idea is.

However, years back, Nintendo and German studio tons of bits perfected the Advent calendar with UPIXO In Action: Mission in Snowdriftland.

On December 1, 2006, Nintendo of Europe launched Mission in Snowdriftland, a Flash platform game, online. Well, they released the first level. Being an Advent calendar, only one level went live on the 1st, then another the next day, continuing until Christmas Eve.

The game was noticeably better than most Flash games of its time. Chubby Snow, the lovable snowman character you control, handles well, with some slippery movement, but it's easy to adapt to and fits the mostly snowy settings. The levels were also quite big and fun to explore, especially if you took on the extra task of finding all 24 snowflakes in each stage.

It even had a story: A villainous penguin, El Pix, took game files from the human world to Snowdriftland. This confused UPIXO (the sadly fictional United Pixelheroes Organisation), who lacked heroes able to endure Snowdriftland's icy conditions. By chance, they found Chubby, who agreed to recover the game files and eventually beat El Pix (on Christmas Eve, following the Advent calendar format).

The game benefited both tons of bits and Nintendo. Working with an industry giant was a great chance for the developer. For Nintendo, the game was an easy pre-holiday marketing tool: The game files you'd retrieve for completing levels promoted DS and Wii games, while Nintendo game images had their own window next to the level as you played. For players, it was also just an enjoyable (and free) daily activity to look forward to for a few weeks, helping build excitement for the holiday season and making video games a bigger part of it.

But, as you might guess from the game's setup, it didn't last long. It was playable for a bit more than the initial 24-day period, but eventually went offline on December 16, 2007. Apart from a December 2010 re-release, the game was unplayable for years and thought to be lost media.

It's a shame, as Mission in Snowdriftland could have become a holiday favorite among Nintendo fans. How great would it have been to have this quick, daily game to enjoy every December, making replaying the levels a yearly custom?

Sadly, that wasn't to be... until recently.

In December 2018, a complete, playable version of the original game was found online. Then, in 2020, a YouTube video by detail-loving Nick Robinson brought more attention to Mission in Snowdriftland, and also showed that tons of bits had decided to update the game for release on Steam.

The update finally came out in 2021, and at last, Mission in Snowdriftland (now without "UPIXO In Action" in its official name) was back. Of course, there were welcome new features, like full-screen play, controller support, achievements, a speedrun timer, and the option to play in the slow Advent calendar style or rush through all 24 levels at once.

This version also had the Nintendo elements removed: tons of bits' link with the company was over, so gone were the ads for 15-year-old games from old platforms. Still, the Nintendo connection isn't fully cut with Mission in Snowdriftland.

In October, tons of bits posted a cute photo on Instagram of a Chubby plush snuggled with a Nintendo Switch, with the text "THIS WINTER" and some dots. Either Chubby is getting his own Switch for Christmas, or tons of bits is bringing Mission in Snowdriftland to Nintendo's popular console. Luckily (sorry, plush Chubby), it's the latter: It was just confirmed the game is coming to Switch on 29th November.

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With its wider availability, Mission in Snowdriftland has a better chance of becoming a holiday gaming cult hit. For me, it already has. For the past two Decembers, on the first day, I've started up Mission in Snowdriftland and played the familiar first level.

I don't even have nostalgia for it: I first heard about the game from Robinson's video and was quickly drawn to its well-made visuals, its cheerful festive music, and the fun of the game's Advent calendar gimmick. When I played it myself, I was surprised by the smooth and enjoyable gameplay. It's simply a fun game.

Now, even more people can experience this unique piece of Nintendo history, and maybe even make it a new holiday tradition. This particular Advent calendar no longer needs to be a missed chance. If you're thinking about doing an Advent calendar this year, Mission in Snowdriftland levels are much better than "chocolate."

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Mission in Snowdriftland is scheduled for release on 29th November on the Switch eShop, with new secret areas coming to both the Steam version at the end of the month and Switch a little later. You can follow the developers on Twitter @tons_of_bits and via their website.