Enduro meets Frostbite.
The bad: Oversimplistic; a little bumpy sense of speed; short soundtrack.
Antarctic Adventure is one of those NES games released before the revolutionary Super Mario Bros, and that means it plays just like an Atari 2600's game--with little better graphics and sound, of course. Thus, you know what to expect: Only one gameplay screen, only one action button, no ending at all.
Your objective here is to take a penguin (Penta, which later became a fairly known Konami's mascot) to the next research station within a given amount of time, in a game genre formerly known as "barefoot racing" (believe me, it did exist--take a look at the good SNES's Tazmania for more). By running from station to station you'll eventually complete a lap around the Antarctic continent and the game will start itself over again while you keep your score. You got only one life and no continues.
You can see the 'road' from behind Penta and the gameplay consists of dodging holes and seals while grabbing items as flags and fishes to raise your score. You can also increase/decrease your speed by pressing up/down in the control pad and you can jump with the 'A' button. Aside that there's a little button mashing here--you got to press 'A' quickly to get out of a hole in the case you fall and to float with an helicopter-like hat (a special flag is required for this one). Presentation was OK for the time: big sprites, amusing music (four tunes only, though) and a charming main character.
What keeps it from being a better game is the fact that it can even lose to some older Atari games in comparison. Enduro (a rally game with hundreds of cars in the track) and Frostbite (where you play as an Eskimo jumping from an icy tile to another and eating fishes) are both Atari games that provide a better sense of speed and a more fluent gameplay than Antarctic Adventure.
In the end Antarctic Adventure is charming and fun but not much more than that.