Snowshovel Jam

What do you do when there's eighteen inches of snow outside and your significant other is 30 miles away? You've already shoveled, and the snow is too powdery for a good snowman or snow fort. There's no killer sledding hills to be found, thanks to rural developers. 'Nutes.

It's cool--literally! Why not get the warm drink of your choice (anisette and coffee for me) dust off your NES Advantage and try out one of these chilling wintery games instead:

ICE HOCKEY
This is my favorite sports title on the NES, ever since it was released when I was six. It's especially good with two players. For added fun, mix and match your team! Nothing beats 4 fat guys for sheer muscle power. A blast through and through.

ICE CLIMBER
Another entry by Nintendo. Here, you take control of an Inuit (with a massive ice hammer) who is trying to get to the top of the mountain to gather... um... eggplants. Whatev. Anyway, you gotta dodge birds, snow monsters, and a polar bear in a Speedo while climbing upward through the ice. While the horizontal jumping problems can make this one occasionally frustrating, this is a fun one to pop in and play.

FIRE 'N ICE
This one was released towards the end of the NES's production run. It's a fun puzzler, very much in the vein of Solomon's Key. You control DAna, an adventurer with a wand which he uses to create blocks of ice. Your job is to extinguish all of the flames in the kingdom. The puzzles range from "simple" to "throw the controller into the wall," so there's a little something for everybody. Definitely not a letdown.

SKI OR DIE
This is... okay, I honestly have never played Ski Or Die. All I know is that it's a winter-themed follow-up to the popular Skate Or Die series, complete with our favorite skate shop proprietor Rodney and his boy Lester. I've heard mixed reviews, so I'll check it out for myself. Skate straight!

What are you waiting for? It's either this or hibernation.