In case you haven’t been following, it’s pretty cold out. Friends of mine in Illinois forwarded me a public service announcement from their city with tips on how to not die in the next few days.
Seriously. That’s cold. In light of the ridiculously low temperatures rocking the northern parts of the US right now (I flew out of Chicago just yesterday where we had a balmy -14 degrees. I hear North Dakota is rocking -50). I’m going to take a few minutes and go over some of the best examples of cold in gaming throughout the years. This list is in no particular order.
Journey – Mountain Top
The goal of The Game Company’s Journey is to climb a mountain. Pretty simple. You even have a magic scarf that lets you float around like the rebel you are (because to heck with gravity, right?). The fun and games come to a stop however once you reach the game’s finale and have to trudge up that snowy crag. Journey does a great job of conveying the feeling of cold. Your magic scarf is sapped of its power. You move more slowly. Even the player’s animations seem to speak volumes about how awful walking through several feet of snow would be.
Even looking at that picture is making me cold. Everything about that level, from the sound, to the color pallet, to the animation and particle effects, is telling me to get another pair of socks on.
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves – Train Crash
I remember going through this segment the first time I played this game and feeling, on a visceral level, how miserable Drake must have been. Maybe it was the train crash, maybe it was the bullet wound… but maybe it was the miserable cold he was having to trek through that was just icing on a garbage cake. One thing that stands out about the use of cold here is how much visual information we’re provided. I mean, look at Drakes face. Doesn’t he just hate the cold right now?
There is no part of me that ever wants to be somewhere as cold as that picture looks.
Final Fantasy VII – Gaea’s Cliff / Snow Field
I was big on JRPGs as a youth. As such, I got to go through Final Fantasy VII‘s northern crater section. From sweet snow boarding mini games, to a “lost woods” style wandering through the snowy tundra, to the only mini-game I’ve ever played where the goal is to raise your body temperature to prevent you from freezing to death. Then again, Cloud kind of deserves it. Who goes ice climbing with a sleeveless shirt and the same baggy pants he wore to the beach?
Who would freeze in 38 degree weather? Jeez…
Super Mario 64 – Cool, Cool Mountain
A classic. Everyone knows this game and I can’t think of a single person who didn’t love it. I mean, who wasn’t crazy about that penguin race? For real. Super Mario 64 was one of the first great 3D platforming games and it helped define the genre. Cool, Cool Mountain is where we got to see expert implementation of classic “Ice sliding” mechanics. Have you ever tried to run on ice without breaking several bones? Mario… so coordinated for a chubby plummer.
