Mission in Snowdriftland


UPIXO In Action: Mission in Snowdriftland was a Flash-based platforming game created by German studio Extra Toxic, with help from Nintendo. Doubling as a game and an advent calendar advertising different Nintendo products, every day from December 1 to December 24, 2006, an extra level was added to the game. Each level is filled with enemies and 24 snowflakes. Collecting every snowflake in a level unlocked secret downloads. The game was supposed to be taken offline on January 14, but was delayed until January 16 - it is now no longer available although the site is still online. The game was scored by Fabian Del Priore. It was recently announced that the game would be revived as an Indie Games edition for December 2010.

Storyline

El Pix, an evil penguin, has stolen game files from the Human World, and made off with them to his lair in Snowdriftland. UPIXO 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. Every day in December 2006, a new level in Chubby's adventure becomes accessible, leading up to the final showdown with El Pix on December 24.

Gameplay

The game is divided into 4 areas: Floating chunks of ice, a forest, an iceberg, and El Pix's lair. Each area has 6 stages, for a total of 24. Each stage contains 24 snowflakes, that you can collect to unlock rewards for the game/console files you managed to retrieve during that level. You do not have to beat a stage to access the next one, however there is a reward for getting all snowflakes in every stage, and the final battle cannot be accessed until you have finished all stages. At first, Chubby can only take 3 hits before he dies. A few levels contain hidden powerups such as extra heart containers, which will add a permanent extra heart to Chubby's life meter.