The 10 Most Stunning Uses Of Snow In Video Games

I always liked the idea of snow more than shoveling it or letting it fall into my boots. When I lived in Western New York state—one of the snowiest places in the U.S.—every snowdrift pressed against my front door or patch of slush I’d sink into on my walk to school would make me huff white clouds into the freezing air. “This?,” I’d think, “Again?”

I moved eventually, and I didn’t think I’d miss the snow. Western New York could keep its frozen sidewalks. But, recently, the trees have been bare and brown, and the idea of real, piled, unavoidable snow has been getting more persistent. I do miss it, and I’ve been finding solace in video games.

There is a lot of wonderful video game snow. Billowing, twinkling, 8-bit, etc. All with their own distinctive character, style, and crunch. To me, video game snow is perfect for stoking cozy memories of flakes collecting across the windowpane, deep impressions made by your hands or hat when you drop it into a powdery mound, loose like piled sugar. So to help cultivate a wintery mood, as we get deeper into the season but maybe miss the ones that have passed, I collected some of Kotaku’s favorites instances of snow and paired them with a winter poem.