The Legend of Santa

Visually the game looks fine. It tries to emulate Mario from NES/SNES. You can play with more than one character at a time, but where the aesthetic is charming, the difficulty is frankly hard as balls. NES/SNES I don't think ever had as steep an emulation of jumping physics, and at a 60FPS rate of modern times, it makes for a test of reflexes that would translate better to a CRT. Is there a reason why lives are all lumped together and not independent of character? The episodic structure is good, but only if you have players who understand the difficulty. Where I understand the difficulty of the game, trying to expose the game to children between 6 and 8 makes for a difficult frustrating experience. Basically, it's a cool idea, but an experience that could last an hour or two is minimized to 20 minutes of frustration once you realize the familiarity isn't there. Buy on discount.

👎

Certainly not a bad game, but there are few things stopping me from recommending it. What you see is what you get. It's Super Mario but with a Santa suit. Controls feel a little off and not quite as precise as Mario Brothers 3, but it is manageable. There were multiple times where I needed to make a tight jump, but I'd either overshoot or undershoot the jump. Not a huge deal, but it feels different from Mario. The biggest crack to the nuts in the game is the lack of save system. Some of these levels can be tough and quite rage inducing. If I get that angry at a video game, I have to walk away. Unfortunately if you do so, you will have to start at the beginning of the chapter. I know that's kind of how it was back in the SNES days, but a save system after each level would have been preferred. Fortunately you can select whatever chapter you want, but still, having to repeat large chunks of gameplay is a bit demoralizing. Honestly at my age I just don't have the patience when I have other games in my backlog staring me down. Like I said, not a bad game but the frustration became too much. If you are thirsty for a Christmas themed game and you like Mario, you may enjoy this one. I just…

Did you look at this game and think this was a christmas Mario clone? Well you'd be right! A nice simple little Super mario santa clause platformer and a decent number of stages to beat. The Troll boss is probably the hardest because he doesnt seem to stick to a pattern. Its hard to tell if he is going to jump or throw his hat at you. Also the jack in the boxes aim directly for your head. So don't think they will jump right over you like I did lol Game beat and secrets found. Can you do the same this christmas?

Fun little game. Basically an homage to NES Super Mario style play with a fun Christmassy wrapping to it. Good news is it gives you double nostalgia and intuitive play. Bad news is I want my game genie. Works just fine with Steam Deck.

Great Christmas platformer! Love the retro SMB3 look and feel of it. Only wish you could save your progress somehow as sometimes I don't always have the time to play through all the world levels.