In this twisted Christmas game, Santa has gone a little… funny… in the head. So he’s armed his sleigh and decided to blow away all the things that symbolise a commercialised Christmas, including but not limited to, Pikachu, Barney the Dinosaur and the Tellytubbies.
As Santa, flying through the night sky, you will see pretty much only stock images of the critters you are destroying, so for that part of the game, no points are won for originality but somehow, the pictures and the game play come together, and in all, it’s not that noticeable and not really all that bad.
The gameplay is fairly standard 2D side scrolling fare, but as stated, some how it works, it comes together. Perhaps due to the sense of satisfaction you get from actually being able to destroy these things.
Some of the sounds come from the actual toys you are blowing up, which is a nice touch and the merry jingle in the background is very enjoyably juxtaposed with the action happening on screen.
In closing, this isn’t the most high-brow game around but it is a good stress reliever for those times when you’ve just had enough of that Christmas rush.
The Other Side Of Santa is a Space Invaders styled platform game but instead of a space ship you are Santa flying in his sleigh through the night sky and instead of monsters and asteroids coming at you there are toys!
The graphics are not diverse but they are attractive and the game play is fun. As you fly through the stages many different toys start coming at you; Barny, Pickachu, Telly Tubbies, Gremlins are just some of the characters that will be out to get you! You can shoot stars from your sleigh to kill the attacking toys and you can dodge them using your arrow keys, but be on the lookout for the flying elves they are good and give you points! At the end of each stage you will face the stage master toy which is much harder to defeat.
Nothing out of the ordinary or exciting but it proves to be a fun game to pass the time.