Ever feel like playing a game based on Christmas and that jolly ol' bearded fat guy in the red suit? Well, back in 1994, Sunsoft provided us with the opportunity to do just that...And suprisingly, it wasn't a terrible game. In fact, it very well could hook you after you spend a few minutes with it.
Let's start by talk about the basics, your job, as Santa, is to run arround collecting presents and rescuing elves. Sometimes you'll just find the presents laying around to grab and other times your enemies have them and you have to kill them by spraying a Christmas mist at them...Which I'm convinced is anthrax. After killing them, they disappear with a poof and leave behind a pretty blue present for you to grab.
The elves are hidden in gifts of different colors than the ones you can pick up...You get them by having the Christmas anthrax ravage the giftwrap, allowing them to escape...But look out! Sometimes the gifts contain bombs and such; while are both deadly and a time-tested staple of the festive holiday season.
After completing levels, you're brought to an advent calendar. However, instead of being treated with chocolate goodness after opening up the appropriate date, you're treated with another level...Which, suprisingly, may be just as good. As you advance on, you'll begin to rescue the reindeer along with the elves which will lead to levels where you deliver the presents you collected to children as the reindeer you find guide the sleigh as Santa tries to drop presents down smoking chimneys...Sounds like a fire hazard to me.
But here's the real hook to the gameplay, you see. Santa apparently isn't always a jolly fat man in a red suit. When he drinks a hot cup of coffee/hot chocolate/warm brown liquid, he transforms into a blue-suited satan-like creature, complete with horns. In this form, he doesn't want to kill folks with Christmas anthrax...Nope, he wants to bludgeon them to death with his sack full of goodies. So, while there are a lot of creatures trying to murder Santa, ol' St. Nick ain't goin' down without a fight. It's similar to Bonk in this aspect...Santa gets angry, turns red and powerful, then after a few seconds, he returns to his fat ol' self.
As far as everything else goes, the game is pretty solid. The controls work smoothly and the animations are just as smooth. The graphics are fairly bland, but since you're in a varity of locations throughout the game, it can be forgiven. The gameplay does feel a little repetitive after a while since there usually isn't too much of a challenge (even the boss fights are pretty easy), but the 'delivering presents' levels serve well to give a change of pase and prevent you from feeling complete repetition as you play. The music isn't that great, either...It really sounds nothing like Christmas-type music (aside from Evil Santa music, which is a modified version of Jingle Bells) which kind of takes away from the whole Christmas-type theme, I feel.
All in all, there isn't much to complain about with this game. The gameplay can get repetitive, the music really doesn't fit, and the graphics are bland...But the controls are solid, the concept is fun, and before the repetition kicks in, it's a pretty grand time. This isn't a timeless classic by any means, but it is a game that you can pull out every holiday season and enjoy Santa Claus killing creatures with anthrax, drinking coffee, transforming into Satan, and beating more creatures to a bloody pulp with his bag of toys. Afterall, that's what Christmas is all about. - Ape
1993
