Just your standard platform fare here. Jump on the enemies to kill them, collect the bonus for extra points and reach the end of the level. As you can see, the graphics use only 4 shades of green, to make the game look like a Gameboy game.

Judging - Chris

GRAPHICS: 17/20
GAMEPLAY: 22/30
PROGRAMMING: 17/20
CHRISTMASSINESS: 14/30
TOTAL: 70/100

Judging - David Newton

GRAPHICS: 16/20
GAMEPLAY: 25/30
PROGRAMMING: 18/20
CHRISTMASSINESS: 18/30
TOTAL: 77/100

Judging - Shab

GRAPHICS: 15/20
GAMEPLAY: 10/30
PROGRAMMING: 15/20
CHRISTMASSINESS: 10/30
TOTAL: 50/100

Judging - Andi Smith

GRAPHICS: 10/20
GAMEPLAY: 17/30
PROGRAMMING: 16/20
CHRISTMASSINESS: 11/30
TOTAL: 54/100

Judging - Assault Andy

GRAPHICS: 18/20
GAMEPLAY: 25/30
PROGRAMMING: 18/20
CHRISTMASSINESS: 15/30
TOTAL: 76/100

CHRIS: This game is a graphical treat. While there are only four colours, to represent a GameBoy game, everything has been sprited away to near perfection. It's a shame there are only two frames of walking animation for the main character (who might I add looks a lot like Asterix). In a way, it's a shame that this colour scheme was chosen, because I don't really feel like I'm playing a game that is particularly Christmassy, even though there are references to it. I never got that warm feeling inside. The game is programmed well. I don't like the platform engine one bit, it feels "floaty" and you don't always jump when you want to (especially on slopes). The enemy movement however is good. The penguins wander up hills, throw snowballs at you and move around on skis. Overall, a solid effort, but this would have been a lot better in colour!

DAVID NEWTON: I was secretly hoping that this game would be dreadful so I could talk about it being all too literally a "mess", but happily, it's actually quite good. I know I'm going to get screamed at by at least someone for awarding a game that uses four colours such a high Graphics rating, but it emulates the Gameboy look so well that after a while the colour deficit goes unnoticed. The Christmas theme is apparent, but not a lot is made of it - Santa, presents and some out of place penguins are all there, and there's a mini-plot, but nothing truly special is attempted here. The game is a standard platformer that uses only three types of enemies - penguins, snowball-throwing penguins and skiing penguins. The levels are surprisingly varied, though having only one or two styles of background does tend to get a little repetitive. The boss was well thought out, using the way that penguins fall off the bottom of the screen when they die as part of the game, and having a boss at all is a good way to show off your programming.

SHAB: Penguins seem to be a growing theme this year... Anyway, emulates an old school gameboy game perfectly; TOO perfectly and TOO oldschool though. Not much more than your average platformer.

ANDI SMITH: Ah, a retro game. I enjoyed this game.. it felt very Spectrum to me (DJ Puff or another Codemasters platformer) - even though the author seemed to be going for a more Mario GBA look. The sound was consistently retro too and enjoyable - except for the horrible score multiplier sound at the end of each level. The game felt retro Christmassy, which was cool.. and the hidden presents was a neat touch. I enjoyed this.. evil penguins, nicely programmed and a nice effort :)

ASSAULT ANDY: Part programming problem, part level design problem. There are certain parts where you are forced to jump while walking down a slope, however sometimes Santa doesn't jump, and it can be quite frustrating. The penguins throwing snowballs would also throw them behind them sometimes, when they weren't looking at you. This looked like a strange graphical glitch. I found the game really quite hard. Graphics were great, the retro gameboy look put a smile on my face when I first ran it. Santa may have needed a bit more animation on his walking, but that may have been in order to keep it looking retro.