A love letter to Banjo Kazooie’s Freezeezy Peak, (probably) the greatest Christmas level of all time
We love a biome in video games. Even the word is one I inherently associate with video games, in spite of its origins as a piece of proper grown-up geographical terminology. Within that gloriously over-the-top thematic pantheon… is there anything better than a good old fashioned Christmas level?
I differentiate a Christmas Level from a Snow Level, by the way. There is a difference. While snow levels can be lovely and inviting, there’s no guarantee of cosiness.
There’s little cozy about Metroid Prime’s Phendrana Drifts. Uncharted 2’s winter sequence is definitely not warm and fuzzy. In Sonic 3’s Ice Cap, sharpened shards of ice and avalanches try to murder you. Sure, Zelda’s Snowpeak Ruins balances that winter huddling and dungeon-spelunking threat nicely. But my favourite is actual true Christmas levels, because those ones are always cosy, I think. At least, the good ones.
The best of them, for my money, is Banjo-Kazooie’s Freezeezy Peak, a wonderful little pocket of winter wonderland action. Coming roughly halfway through Banjo and Kazooie’s adventure through Gruntilda’s Lair and its attached worlds, this level isn’t supposed to be easy-breezy, and nor is it. But even as it provides an appropriate challenge, it’s just… welcoming.
There are few levels that go all-in on a theme attached to a specific time of year to this extent, perhaps out of worry that a game can be played all-year round and thereby shouldn’t specifically evoke Christmas or what have you. Banjo goes all the way in on this, though. Freezeezy Peak is the most flagrant, but it is true that when I think of Halloween in games, Mad Monster Mansion is always high on the list. For summer seaside vibes, Treasure Trove Cove comes to mind. This is a game that always hammered its level themes, a clear belief visible on the part of its developers that there was no such thing as too much when it came to its theming.
So here you get not just a casual snow level like the contemporaneous Cool, Cool Mountain from Super Mario 64, but a specifically festive charm assault. From the moment Grant Kirkhope’s brilliant theme for the level kicks off, you’re told: this isn’t just a snow stage. It’s a Christmas stage. It does its all to evoke that cheery spirit.
The entrance to the level is shaped like an Advent Calendar, with our heroes trotting in through one of its doors. Inside the stage, you’re suddenly sledding, tracking down Christmas presents for the neglected children of an irresponsible father too busy cutting about on his sled to look after his kids, and completing a series of platforming and combat challenges to quite literally decorate a tree with twinkling lights and then turn them on.
I really do believe that it is probably the best Christmas-themed level of all time.
There are other games that also capture Christmas well, of course. The way it drapes a violent action story in the trappings of the holiday, Die Hard style, is the best thing about the otherwise ill-advised Dead Rising 4. The same is true, to an extent, of Spider-Man: Miles Morales and Batman Arkham Origins. Thinking of Christmas in games, I fondly remember the holiday period’s depiction in Bully.
I also – showing my age – remember being wowed by ‘Christmas DLC’ for Sonic Adventure on the Dreamcast, which just consisted of overlaying some Christmas Music and haphazardly slapping Christmas trees in the stages. That update coming over the internet did feel bloody magical in the year 2000, to be fair. And I also think of Elf Bowling, a weird freeware PC game where Santa Claus bowls, with elves as the pins. The elves would taunt and moon you if you missed. Sometimes the pinsetter would decapitate them. Which, to be fair, doesn’t feel too Christmassy.
But, yes. The best of them, to me, is Freezeezy Peak. Which is funny, really – Banjo-Kazooie came out in the summer, and so when I was growing up I almost certainly never played this game or level at Christmas – but lordy, this level impressed itself upon my mind. I’m sure you have similar experiences – I’d love to read them in the comments below.