Santa's Xmas Caper (Amiga)

It's a Super Adventures in Christmas Gaming special!

For the rest of the week I'll be playing Christmas related games, one a day until Christmas Day. Assuming I can actually find enough games to play.

Hmm, there's Daze Before Christmas, but I've played that. Plus there's Robocod, but I've played that too. Home Alone, The Firemen, and Parasite Eve all take place at Christmas but I've played them. Damn, I've already used up a ton of Christmas games.

Well, there's always this:

That's better art than I was expecting. It's already started playing annoying Christmassy music, but I kind of knew what I was getting into just from the title.

That's just beautiful. It's a shame they stuck that giant logo over the top really.

Wow, this entire game was made by only two people? Well, an elf and a bear.

It's funny how they totally ran out of Santa Claus related characters after just one name. They could have had Mrs Claus doing the graphics! Or... a reindeer.

Starring Santa Claus, as himself.

That's some pretty creepy looking dessert. Personally there's no way I'd eat anything with a moustache.

And Nobby the Penguin! Of course, can't forget him.

And finally Al Kaseltser. For any poor fool who tried to eat Jelly Foraftas.


So that's the entire cast of this Christmas game then is it? Santa, a jelly monster, a sinister penguin in a bow tie, and an anthropomorphic antacid tablet. Okay then.

More great art. I have to say this artist does really good snowy mountains.

And then the game looks like this. Not a mountain in sight.

(DOS)

Unless you're playing it on PC, then it'd look more like this. A bit less screen space and a weird stripy sky. Plus an extra life on the Santas counter for some reason.

Okay I've got 16 gifts apparently, so I should probably go do something about that. Traditionally I think that involves jumping down chimneys, so I'll go look for one. I'd like to get this done as soon as possible because the game's playing 'Deck the Halls' in the background on a loop and it's already starting to get to me.

My only weapon is the humble snowball, which temporarily freezes enemies in place, making them harmless. But sadly there's no way to get rid of them permanently.

I tried shooting that purple thing flying across the screen above me, but apparently they're immune to my attacks.

You know, I've been carefully jumping from rooftop to rooftop like the pavement's made of lava. I don't know why I'm being so paranoid, it's not like there's any falling damage.

Oh, right. Spiky instakill fence. I probably should have trusted my instincts a bit more there.

Is that a... roast turkeycopter? It's got a little cockpit and everything. That's so weird.

Damn, he just slipped down the middle of the roof onto the railings and died again. I'm losing a lot of Santas onto these things.

I didn't notice at the time, but I guess the snow at the centre of that roof does look pretty obviously treacherous. Fair enough then.

He doesn't even get impaled on the things with a hilarious cracking sound, Prince of Persia style. He just falls backwards like he's bored and wants a nap. Well to be fair he probably is, and he probably does.

Hey, it's that moon again, what's he doing here? I thought I left him over on the left near the start. How many of these full moons are out tonight?

Aw, I can't choose to fall through platforms? I'll have to walk off this ledge, then quickly pull right to grab that item beneath me.

Wait, is that another gift? I thought I was delivering gifts. Why did picking it up make my 'gifts' counter go down? Oh no, don't tell me it's another bloody collect 'em up. A Christmas collect 'em up.

Wow, that makes more sense. I've been avoiding these purple things because I thought they were out to kill me, but it turns out that they're actually friendly moving platforms.

Though I wish they'd move just a little slower, so I can jump across to the next one. Fortunately Santa has a pretty floaty jump, so it's very forgiving.

Yes, I've reached the last gift! Finally I can stop listening to this damn Christmas tune.

What, this isn't the last one? It's just the exit goal disguised as an oversized gift? Great, that means that somewhere on this level I've missed one pick up, and now I've got to go all the way back through and search for it.


LATER.

YES, there it be! The final gift. Now I just have to make my way all the way back to the exit without falling on spikes or hitting an enemy and I'll finally be done listening to this damn music.


LATER, ON LEVEL TWO.

No... NO! The music hasn't changed. It's still 'Deck the Halls' on a loop. No vocals of course, just the melody. Over and over.

Wow, we've totally left reality behind now. No houses here, now I'm jumping between cakes and floating drumsticks over a floor of spikes. What have spikes got to do with Christmas dinner anyway?

Level three finally has a different song. It's still Christmas music though. On a loop.

Except for a scary jump on a fast moving platform over spikes, this is just more of the same. Fortunately these levels aren't as tall as the town level so it's hard to miss any of the gifts along the way.

You'd expect flames to be a hazard perhaps, but nope I can just walk right through them.

Level four! Wait, isn't this just level two again?

And then I ran out of lives on level 5 and died. Game over, I can stop playing!

Uh, ignore the '6' on the 'Santas' counter, that's... uh, a misprint. And now that I'm finally done with this I can play something entirely different!

Oh right, I'm supposed to be playing Christmas games all week aren't I? Great.