Christmas Double Pack (Game Boy Advance) - Description

Game Ratings

Nintendo-x2.com Rating

Limited to 50 copies, the double-pack (which is a deliberately erroneous title as the cart actually includes a third hidden game..!) contains both Santa's Chimney Challenge and Santa's Skidoo Scarper; arguably the best Christmas themed releases to grace the GBA platform. The latter title is particularly impressive, but we'll get to that in a moment.

To be fair, both of Paradise's Santa titles should really be considered as score-attack style mini-games; the player's goal being to ultimately complete both with a 100% score. The first of the two is 'Santa's Chimney Challenge', an ace little Blitz clone which sees you dropping presents down chimneys as a considerably more festive alternative to dropping bombs on skyscrapers. As with all Blitz style games, the challenge here is in getting the timing right; a task that is made considerably more difficult as you progress through the five stages due to your sledge's ever increasing velocity. Complete the tricky fifth screen and you are given a percentage score based on the time taken and number of presents wasted; it's simple stuff really.

'Santas's Skidoo Scarper' is a considerably more technically impressive game that most noticeably uses a very different perspective to the majority of other GBA releases as it requires the player to hold the console on it's side (effectively displaying the game in 'portrait' mode). Thankfully Paradise have catered for this conceptually awkward method of presentation by arranging the controls so that the game is equally playable on all GBA models (to the point where it makes you wonder why this wasn't used in some commercial GBA ports that traditionally suit the portrait format). As for the game itself, Skidoo Scarper puts the player in a race against the clock to successfully drive Santa's Skidoo through the icy wastes and back to his home, collecting a full set of presents (and avoiding collisions) on his way. There are multiple paths to take through the map, each facing the player with a variety of score-increasing collectables, hair-raising jumps, and brown-pants inducing turbo boosts. Surviving the course without losing all your lives is demanding enough in itself, but on completion you are scored against the time taken and presents collected - your target being to complete the race in less than 90 seconds with the full range of different coloured gifts...