Snowy scenes and fun graphics are the order of the day in Santa’s Xmas Caper, a pretty good looking platformer with a christmas theme. You take the role of the jolly, fat present giver and your task is to pick up the presents in the winter wonderland.
As with most platform games of the time Xmas Caper was made (1992) it’s a side on viewed affair with the option to go left, right and jump. If you are threatened by one of the enemies in the game then you can paralyze them with a snowball thrown by using the fire button. The enemies are varied and fit with the North pole and xmas theme, with penguins, abd flying toys among others to stop you giving joy to the good boys and girls of the world.
Jumping from platform to platform and using the moving platforms to make the longer gaps is a little bit of a challenge but practise makes perfect. Just don’t forget to go down and get those all important pressies to fill santas sack. Lower down you can find the rooves of houses to walk along but take care though because some of those rooves are slippery and missing your fitting or missing a platform can plunge you to doom on spiked railings or just a sudden stop at the end of a fall.
The graphics are nice and bold with Santa resplendant in red, and the backgrounds and enemies well drawn and animated. It has a very jolly but not too sickly tune to accompany your quest to be the best Santa you can be which uses the Amigas sound capabilities to good effect. At the end of the day though it is just another middle of the road platformer and one with the limited appeal of the christmas season. Good fun for a few days in December then so 5/10
