You are Stelf. You have been shunned by your people (The elf people) of the northpole, after a seige of toy soldiers on the toy factory. You single-handedly defended the area, but at the cost of most everything else. Once the elves saw what you were capable of, they banished you into the wastelands never to set foot on north-pole territory again!

That is, until Santa turns up missing from his morning walk...

Now you must run, jump, duck, sidle, swing, sneak, toss, stab, slice, float, zipline and ride your way to the truth, to uncover the mysterious kidnapper's identity and retrieve Jolly Ol' Saint Nick! With your trusty sharpened candycane, a bit of tinsil for stealth-dispatchery, and the very shadows of this festive underworld, you set forth on adventure!

Judging - Chris

GRAPHICS: 15/20
GAMEPLAY: 24/30
PROGRAMMING: 16/20
CHRISTMASSINESS: 17/30
TOTAL: 72/100

Judging - David Newton

GRAPHICS: 15/20
GAMEPLAY: 20/30
PROGRAMMING: 16/20
CHRISTMASSINESS: 25/30
TOTAL: 76/100

Judging - Shab

GRAPHICS: 15/20
GAMEPLAY: 25/30
PROGRAMMING: 20/20
CHRISTMASSINESS: 7/30
TOTAL: 67/100

Judging - Andi Smith

GRAPHICS: 17/20
GAMEPLAY: 12/30
PROGRAMMING: 9/20
CHRISTMASSINESS: 5/30
TOTAL: 43/100

Judging - Assault Andy

GRAPHICS: 19/20
GAMEPLAY: 10/30
PROGRAMMING: 10/20
CHRISTMASSINESS: 25/30
TOTAL: 64/100

CHRIS: A more interesting take on the standard platform game. Silent Night is, to an extent, a 2D version of Metal Gear Solid. Stelf is the central protagonist, and true to his name, he must save Santa from a mysterious kidnapper. Cleverly, the game engine is quite advanced. Ziplines feature, as do ceiling bars from which Stelf can hang. Additionally, Stelf can hide in shady areas, and this is essential to guarentee safety - a great touch. The ingame graphics are almost stylized; clear, crisp and highly detailed - although the snow effects aren't too hot, and another person created some of the graphics. It's quite a tricky game to get the hang of as well, and you may be put off by the stealth elements - don't be. But (and this is a big but) the Christmas aspect isn't really consistent throughout. In fact, it's almost non-existent, aside from the winter environment, the enemy soliders and the admittedly neato light effects that represent your health. Nonetheless, Silent Night is a very solid effort.

DAVID NEWTON: After a rather unexpectedly morbid introduction, this is another Christmas platformer. The approach is different this time, though, with a more complex control and attack system, along with special features such as pipes to be climbed across and ziplines. All these are in keeping with the Christmas theme, with the areas being decorated with lights (even the health meter is composed of them), the enemies including toy soldiers, and the use of snowballs as weapons. I found the game itself a little sluggish, though. Particuarly attacking enemies seemed rather difficult, as you have to charge forwards with your weapon and jump to avoid their bullets alternately. There's also a very tricky section late in the tutorial level where you have to use snowballs to attack a soldier, and if you fall down the nearby pit you've little hope of escape. It's certainly not a bad game, but it does take a lot of perseverance and patience to get far in it at all.

SHAB: Ziplines ARE fun.

ANDI SMITH: I really liked the graphical style of this game, and I could see a lot of effort had gone into producing it. There were lots of things to do.. but the game was quite difficult! It didn't have too much of a Christmas theme though, just the normal snow and pressies. Oh, and the Jesus laser firing end game boss.. it was nice to see a game use a religious theme instead of just Santa.. even if this particular one would have Jack Thompson up in arms.

ASSAULT ANDY: I felt like this game suffered from bad level design and gameplay. It was a nice attempt at something a bit different to the average platformer and I'm sure it could have become much more polished given the time, however at it's present state it's not much fun to play. Here's a glitch: When you are shot once, if you don't press any keys no other bullets will be able to hurt you.