Santa Saves The World

Santa Saves The World is an indie side-scrolling platform game where you control Santa Claus and must collect scattered presents on Christmas night to deliver them down the chimneys of families around the world. It was developed by Perfect Run and released on August 19, 2019.

The game features a retro style — complete with pixel-art graphics, nods to Super Mario, and 16-bit SNES-like music (if not directly ripped from that console’s titles) — and it also has a speedrun appeal, since there’s a time limit to complete the objectives in each fast-paced, increasingly challenging stage.

Published by Perfect Run itself and available for free on Windows, Santa Saves The World is one of those simple, short games that can easily hook you, especially if you’re looking for something lighthearted to play during the most wonderful time of the year.

Videos

This video brings Santa Saves The World‘s gameplay.

Synopsis

It’s the season for vengeance! Deliver Christmas cheer, and foil evil schemes, in this 2D speedrunner game. Are you a bad enough Santa to save Christmas, and the world?

Gameplay

In Santa Saves The World, a guy known as Mecha-Elvis — who looks suspiciously like Mario (but in white) — attacks Santa on Christmas Eve. The result is a logistical nightmare: all the presents get scattered around the world, and it’s up to the jolly old man to gather them back before holiday depression spreads like the villain intended.

It’s a 2D platformer where the player must collect the presents and deliver them to the houses. For regular homes, you need to drop the gift down the chimney; for children found outside, just walk up to them with at least one present and Santa will deliver it automatically. All of this has to be done within a time limit, shown in the upper-right corner of the screen.

The controls are simple: arrow keys to move, hold Up to jump, press Down to drop a present, and hold SHIFT to run. If you keep running in a straight line without jumping, Santa reaches maximum speed. And here’s a nice touch — after delivering a gift, you can use the chimney smoke as a makeshift trampoline to reach higher or normally inaccessible areas.

The interface displays three icons: the number of unhappy children (presents still undelivered), the total packages remaining in the area, and the number of gifts currently in Santa’s possession. To top it off with some festive flair, you can switch the background music anytime by pressing the keys 1 to 5.

Once all objectives in a stage are complete, an arrow appears pointing to the exit, meaning you can dash off to the next challenge. One thing I’m not entirely sure about: it seems that hitting the man who throws bottles grants you extra presents — but I couldn’t quite confirm if that’s exactly how it works.

Trivia

• Santa Saves The World was programmed by Bisse (@SveTob), with graphics provided by Thomas McCloskey (@Gypopothomas).
• The game’s music files use the .SPC extension, the same used by the SNES/Super Famicom games’ format. Along with the tracks style by themselves, the SNESAPU.DLL library — included in the game’s folder and used to play such tracks — strongly suggests that it’s indeed the genuine SNES audio format. I’m not entirely sure whether these tracks were ripped from actual Super Nintendo games or sourced elsewhere, but if they had been composed specifically for Santa Saves The World, they’d likely be credited. Anyway, just an interesting detail worth noting.

Screenshots

More info and platformers

• Bisse @ X – Official developer’s profile.
• Thomas McCloskey @ X – The profile of the responsible for the game’s graphics.
• Santa Saves The World @ VaLeW Free Games – More info about the game.
• Santa Saves The World @ Gaming Room – Source, with more info and media. In Portuguese.
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