Hey-o!

Jaz the Anatotitan here! I'm The Speed Gamers' Official Artist! Which means I wear my eyes out for the sake of charity! And this month, I'm doing that for the greatest fake holiday in the history of fake holidays! Of course I mean OBLIGATORY ICE LEVEL DAY!

What is Obligatory Ice Level Day?

OILD is a celebration of ice levels in games. Just about every game series eventually includes an ice level, you know. There's snow everywhere, low friction on icy platforms, it's easy to get frozen, snowmen wear fezzes, and YETIS ABOUND.

All through December I'll be updating The Speed Gamers' blog with screenshots and write-ups of different ice levels. I'll even link to different ice level songs and show you where to download great ice level remixes! And as a gift from me to you, I've drawn 25 ice level wallpapers for you to download! Additionally, the thumbnails for each post are the perfect size for user avatars and forum icons, so feel free to use them! There'll be something new every day, so keep checking back!

How Do I Get Involved?

This holiday is admittedly ridiculous. Don't take it seriously! Let anyone get involved! Don't be one of those jerks that excludes people from a fun, silly holiday. So how do you participate? Well, just follow these simple rules:

HELP OUT CHARITIES:

You know what? The Speed Gamers are having a Kingdom Hearts marathon from December 17-20 to help out BestFriends.org! Tune in and donate to a wonderful cause and just join in on the fun! And even if you can't donate, you can be a huge help by promoting the marathon all month! And if your usual forums and sites don't want you to promote a game marathon, you could promote in a roundabout way by posting about OILD instead! You can help spread the word, one way or another! Beyond that, try to volunteer or otherwise help out charities! Or heck, help out your friends and family if you want! Do whatever you can!

GIVE SOME CHEER:

Just generally make people happy. It doesn't have to be in the form of material presents. Just make everyone's day a little bit brighter! Really this is more about helping people and making them happy. The video game angle is more of a nerdy joke than anything else. If you nag someone for not knowing some weirdly specific nerd trivia, you're doing it wrong. If you hug your friends and tell them they're awesome and not even mention games at all, you're doing it right!

GIVE MORE THAN YOU GET:

Say someone does something nice for you this season. Well guess what? Now you need to give out TWICE as much happiness! If all goes well, it can turn into the fluffiest, goofiest arms race ever. An arms race... THAT CAN HUG YOU!

SPREAD OBLIGATORY ICE LEVEL DAY!!:

Ok this is more just for fun than anything else, but regardless! Send your fellow nerds to this site! Tip off gaming websites and tweet about it to game developers' official Twitter accounts! Make everyone download the soundtrack!

What? A Soundtrack?

Yeah you heard me! A SOUNDTRACK! There was an Obligatory Ice Level Day 2009 soundtrack and now there's an album for 2010! Some truly rad video game remixers made the tracks for this, and now you can download it absolutely free! And you should because it's a work of geek art, I say.

• Download the Obligatory Ice Level Day 2010 Soundtrack!

• Download the Cover Art!

• Download the Back Cover!

TRACK LISTING (with samples) :

1. DCT - "The Polar Express"
    ("Take the Snow Train" from NiGHTS: Into Dreams...)

2. Joshua Morse - "Rondo Sanctuary"
    ("People of the North Pole" from Final Fantasy X)

3. Joshua Morse - "Ice Cave Dynamo"
    ("Artic Caverns" from Battletoads)

4. Joshua Morse - "Frost Byte"
    ("Don't Freeze" from LaTale)

5. Select Start - "Rainbow Resort"
    (from Kirby's Adventure)

6. Select Start - "Nite of Fate"
    (from Kingdom Hearts)

--Plus a Special Bonus!--

7. Select Start - "Yo'ster Island"
    (from Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars)

Artist's Sites

Be sure to check out the remixers' websites too! And their social networking pages! Direct other people to their sites too! Make them the most famous anythings ever! They worked real hard on these and they're promoting a good cause so they've earned it!

DCT:

Joshua Morse:

Select Start:

Joshua Morse's Spacius OST:

Preview: Youtube

Buy: Store

Desktop Wallpapers Too?

That's right! On top of everything else, I've made some wallpapers for you to download! There's a new one posted every day on the blog, so check back! Unfortunately they're not widescreen this year due to technical problems, but they're still nice, right? If you want last year's wallpapers, here's the OILD 2009 page!

OILD 2010 Wallpaper

Narshe - (Final Fantasy VI)	Artic Land - (Kid Dracula)
(Make a) Snowman - (We Love Katamari)	Kreeli Comet - (Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction)
Snow World - (Dream Diary)	Frozen Grounds - (Etrian Odyssey 2: Heroes of Lagaard)
Alpinia - (The Legend of Kyrandia, Book Two: The Hand of Fate)	Otherworld - (Silent Hill: Shattered Memories)
Glacial Rift - (Astal)	White Glacier - (Bomberman 64)
Hollow Bastion - (Kingdom Hearts)	Chill Man - (Mega Man 10)
Ice Age - (E.V.O.: The Search for Eden)	Kamui - (Okami)
Winterspring - (World of Warcraft)	Misty’s Long Bony Road - (World of Goo)
Ice Castle - (Castle Crashers)	Walrus Stage - (Bio Miracle Bokutte Upa)
Isabella's Castle - (King’s Quest 5)	Let’s Melt Snow and Rebuild N.Y. City - (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: The Arcade Game)
Shadow Moses Island - (Metal Gear Solid)	Yeti’s Lair - (Metal Slug 3)
Shiver Region - (Paper Mario)	Snowman - (Mother)
Snowpeak Ruins - (The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess)	Yo’ster Isle - (Super Mario RPG)