One of the great aspects of writing about old games is discovering ones that not many have heard of. Hindsight is also a wonderful thing, games we would have simply dismissed back then can become the interesting curios to report on today. Daze Before Christmas is one of these oddities. To any serious Mega Drive collector they will know this Australian exclusive is rare to find and it commands a high price tag. It was released in 1994, with a SNES port making it to Europe and the USA. Daze Before Christmas was developed by Funcom, a Norwegian developer, and published by SunSoft who went bankrupt shortly after release.
You play as Santa who is trying to save Christmas after his elves have been scared away by the evil Mouse the Louse. Yes, the story is as paper thin as a Christmas Card from the £1 shop but about what you would expect from a 16bit platformer. But how does it play? Is it worth spending a small fortune on? The headline is a resounding no, there are much better platformers, but fun is still to be had finding the presents and destroying evil snowmen. And for the curious out there, it is an interesting piece of gaming history. We were about to embark on a 3D adventure with Saturn and PlayStation while still seeing the last of the 16bit games in development being released.
The game is broken down into 24 different levels, each with a unique location. They range from icy caves to snow covered peaks with many set inside as well. Every five levels or so you come face to face with a boss. These bosses are not very challenging and although they look great have basic attack patterns. After each boss you jump into your sleigh and take to the skies. These bonus stages allow you to drop presents into chimneys while avoiding obstacles and enemies. Each location looks great, the pixel art is detailed but the stages themselves are lacking scenery and imagination. It appears as though most of the development time was spent on Santa’s animations and the enemies.
The enemies are varied and most are based on animals such as mice with a few snowmen and jack-in-the-box thrown in for good measure. The are easy to defeat, Santa has a magic projectile that takes each enemy down in one go. To say the gameplay is basic would be an understatement. Except the odd long platform jump the game is very easy to complete and short. Even trying it on the harder difficulty does not seem to do much to make it challenging. This mixed with the simple bosses puts this game squarely in the ‘kids’ section of the Mega Drive’s library. It is a shame because the game looks decent. With some harder sections and more interesting level design this could have been a fantastic platformer.
The only interesting mechanic is when you find a hot cup of tea, or perhaps its cocoa? Drinking this delicious beverage transforms you into the Anti-Santa who is an evil version of our beloved festive mascot. Anti-Santa swings a sack of presents to defeat enemies but oddly cannot collect any of the presents. It would have made the game a little more interesting had the developer added more of these transformations. Maybe switching to become a reindeer or an elf? The only other gameplay here is climbing candy canes and bouncing, Sonic spring like, on sofas. Sadly, the gameplay feels more like stocking filler than main present. It is not hard to imagine with the impending doom about to hit SunSoft that maybe they just wanted to get something out there to recoup some losses.
The less said about the music the better. It’s repetitive and annoying, using re-mixes of Christmas themes that grind on the ears. You will thank your lucky stars that the levels are so incredibly short and easy that the music stops for a moment between stages. Daze Before Christmas is not a bad game it just feels unfinished and uninspired. The graphics are good if bland and the controls are tight for the most part. It is a case of what could have been and with a little bit more development time this would have been a festive treat. I cannot recommend laying out the large sum it will take to own this game, only the hardcore Mega Drive fans will want to take the plunge or those going for a full set perhaps.
This review has been republished from Fusion Annual 2022
