Daze Before Christmas

"It is Sad!"

(If anyone finds this review offensive in some way or form know that it is all just sarcasm—nothing less, nothing more. Thank you)

Santa Clause is a highly known publicized tool. The kids crave for good old Saint Nick, while the brain-dead ones leave cookies and milk in their kitchens knowing that some fat, 80 year old child molester will come one night and take them. While Mr. Clause and his batch of elves are known worldwide, their status as video game characters are not. After all who would want to play as Santa in a video game (we are already tormented with piss-poor movies representing this character almost every year)? FunCom, though, thinks that some people will want to play as Santa Clause (Why, we don’t know).

And with this they then comprised Daze Before Christmas for the Sega Genesis. Daze Before Christmas is a simplistic platform game that follows a simple tone and carries it out quite well. It doesn’t provide much of anything new, and it won’t win any awards for being unique and/or creative, but Daze Before Christmas is more of a game that will keep you entertained for a while and will always be a treat to come back and play it yet again sometime, whereas many other games will simply be stored in a storage bin collecting dust for the rest of your life.

The game follows a simple story that is told in a poetic fashion once you begin and then it extends itself out throughout the many levels in this game. And with so I provide you with the poem from this game:

Only Days Before Christmas
Santa Slept in His House,
An Evil Plot Was Brewing
Cooked Up by Awful Louse.

The Cold and Evil Snowman
Scared All the Elves Away,
Timekeeper Stole Plans
From Santa’s House That Day

But For the Vicious Louse
This Wasn’t Bad Enough
--I’m Really Going to Show Them
That I Can Play Rough.

He Tore the Presents Open
And On Them Cast A Spell
That’s When Santa Woke Up
--Something Wasn’t Well!

All His Elves Had Vanished
His Presents Also Gone
And Threats Were Awaiting
Surely More Then One!

Beware The Magic Potion
Calling Santa’s Evil Twin
The Angry Anti-Clause
The Fiend From Within!

So Anti Must Be Santa
Pick Presents All the Way
To Face the Foes So Bravely
And Make It Through the Day

Go Beat the Evil Bosses
Who’s Lurking in the Dark
Find His Sleigh & Reindeer
Set Out To Make a Mark

Find Every Stolen Present
That Was Unjustly Craved
For Every Kid in the Earth
Christmas Must Be Saved!

Sure it’s not a great poem, but it tells the game’s story very nicely, though it can be hard to follow. Basically, the Evil Louse the Mouse and his henchmen kidnap Santa’s Elves and Presents and now Santa has to stop Louse and retrieve back everything that was rightly taken from him. But to help Santa out is a potion that turns Santa into Anti-Clause, who’s much stronger and can take out enemies in much more fierce ways—ways that Santa would never dream of doing (sure it sounds innovating, though one can feel that it easily is not).

As Santa, making your way through the game’s 24 levels will be a breeze. While looking on the outside you see a fat man who doesn’t look like he can do much, on the inside, however, you see a fat man who moves around like the slyest of the platform genre bunch. Santa’s quick and uses basic attacks, and to my eloquent surprise, I was actually pretty fond of this.

Saint Nick has two moves in his disposal, each looking great and each done very effortlessly. His first attack is his jumping ability, which when pressed to be done twice actually turns to a butt-stomping ability. Hurtful, yes it is. His second attack is his use of magic, which contains two elements—both doing nigh impressive damage. One element of his magic contains ice, which is the default magic component once you start this game. His second element of magic comes in the form of fire, which is obtained by finding a spell book, which contains the anecdotes on how Santa must do this move. Both of the elements do damage in an equal way, though the fire element seems to do more damage to a few enemies every now and then.

All of the levels in this game are somewhat creative, though much variety is lacked. Each of the levels mainly consists of moving platforms, tricky perennial decisions, and enemies who hope to foil your plan of a very merry Christmas. Enemies are not much to look at, nor much to be scared of. A few of the enemies include rats who swerve platforms every left to right to try their best to take you down, evil snowmen who hoist snowballs and pummel you with them, to even odd male genitalia-looking enemies who float in the air hoping to tangle you down with their *sharp edge*.

By taking down enemies you will receive the presents that they had stolen. By collecting the many presents from the enemies, you will later be opted to go into a mini-game-kind of level where you will have to drop them. Also, other kinds of presents are strewn around levels as well. These presents, once opened, will either help you in some way or they will try to take you down. They help you by supplying you with extra continues—the little Santa faces that appear on the top of the screen—or by giving you more health—the Santa hats (You already have 5 of them to begin with). However, these presents try to take you down by them leaving bombs, which when exploded will hurt you. Some also contain enemies who will rush to hit you, or they will unveil your trusty elves that were stolen in this Gobbledygook game (this is also a good thing).

Aside from the enemies are the bosses. While poor and uninspired, these guys try to take you down in some simple pattern that could prove to be a little confusing at first. There are four bosses in this game—each one different in looks, though fiercer on attacking you. Bosses include the intrepid Mr. Weather, the cunning Louse the Mouse, the tumultuous Time Keeper, and the chilly Snowman. The first boss, the evil Snowman, is perhaps the simplest of them all. This gargantuan tosses a snowball—which is very easily avoided—and then leaves an open spot, which is your cue as to when you should assault him. Hitting him a couple of times will render him senseless and then in the pity of us all he will melt in a nice, though frosty demise. The second boss, the swift timekeeper, follows a bit of a different pattern. He throws corkscrews and rolls around the place like a Tony Hawk on Vodka. Once he slows down and stops rolling, his weak spot will be in place, and before you know it he will go down as well. It’s not very hard, you see.

After you fight one of the four bosses you will play that mini-game level that I mentioned earlier. In this mini-game you jump on your sleigh and guide all your reindeer (Dasher, Comet, and all those other chumps) through 4 different territories including Russia, U.S.A, and England as you drop a present down chimneys which gives presents to starving kids and the like. It’s pretty easy, but there will be enemies trying to stop you. Parachutes piloted by rats have taken air, as well as short-ranged missiles, which come your way forcefully trying to burn your sleigh to ashes. Luckily all these distractions are easily avoided, and these mini-games, while somewhat innovating, did little to entertain me.

Also mentioned earlier was the ability to play as Anti-Clause. In a few levels there will be potions brewing about and once these potions are obtained Santa Clause turns to the scornful Anti-Clause, a figure who will make Mrs. Clause wet herself with his badness. As Anti-Clause you are impervious of any damage and instead of using magic to take down enemies you will use your sack full of presents. Anti-Clause will remain for about 30 seconds before you change back to your original self.

If you might’ve taken notice I also mentioned that several parts of this game are pretty easy, and so they are. The game’s difficulty is not much, though thankfully you can adjust it in the Options Menu. But even on “Hard” difficulty this game is just still too easy. This lack of challenge, as you see, comes mainly in the form of the game’s levels. I remember near the end of the game all I did was defeat a few penguins in a long snowy, platform and then I went down a ditch. And that was it—Level Completed! Though a few levels—mainly the ones that take place in Santa’s house, or the Steel factory ones—try to be hard, but they just really aren’t at times.

This game is also not that long if you think about it. Like other Genesis platform games like Sonic the Hedgehog, it is meant for one to play this game in one sitting. But even the good old Sonic levels were larger then many of the ones in this game and they even proved to be more of a challenge, though that game isn’t really as user-friendly as this one. This may all prove to turn down some, and it really can, but if you like short, easy games then Daze Before Christmas is truly meant for you.

Graphically, this game impresses. Many character sprites are huge with nice colors to boot. Backgrounds are also amazing, though they do seem senseless in some way as not a lot of interaction is to be done in them. The animation, for the most part, is smooth. It really can feel like a Christmas cartoon at times. I’m serious. Speaking of Christmas, many Christmas tunes lie herein. It’s really impressive, though it really can feel as this game isn’t really pushing the hardware as some games did--example Panorama Cotton.

Finally, Daze Before Christmas is a game with very few faults, though these faults kill the entertainment value of this game amazingly. Some things in this game try their best to be innovating but they really do nothing much other then make you put a quirky smile in your face for a short period. I’m guessing the true entertaining thing going on here is the fact that you play as Santa Clause; seeing as how St. Nick only appeared in one other game before this, Father Christmas for the Commodore 64. If you’re into getting a few laughs and some solid play for a limited time you owe it to yourself to give Daze Before Christmas a try. It’ll probably not be available in many shops today, so you can play the ROM of this game if you’re interested (I’m guessing 24 hours should be enough to fully complete this game; 24 hours of course being the legal time you are allowed with a ROM).

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 08/12/02, Updated 09/03/02