Stream: Holiday Flash games showcase
1I go delving into the Flashpoint archives for a selection of web games themed around seasonal holidays appropriate for this time of year...ish. This includes some Christmas games, Hanukkah games, and even one strange Diwali game, that cover the gamut of licensed schlock, indie fare, and bootleg oddities. Also I'm joined by a special guest: my spouse, Cathy, who brings her expertise on history and Tamagotchi among other things! Check her out at: https://cathywise.net/
Games played:
-Sinterklaas, by Mike Wiering. This depiction of the Dutch take on Saint Nicholas has you sidescrolling around, delivering presents and maybe satsumas down the neighbourhood chimneys. I didn't manage to get all the goodies delivered before sunrise ended my game.
-Robot Unicorn Attack: Christmas. This variant on the popular sidescrolling autorunner has a new song and wintery theming; I did a few quick runs.
-Christmas Cat, by Bart Bonte. Part of the Bonte Cat series, this little point-and-click adventure has you hunting for missing baubles after a feline mishap. It's very charming!
-Wallace & Gromit: Snow Drift. This mouse-driven dodge-em-up sees the claymation star Gromit hurtling into the sky, collecting stars and boosts while avoiding rocks.
-An 8-bit Hanukkah, by ElySarig. This is more an interactive E-card than a game but it's a cute candle-lighting task with a nice Hanukkah chiptune.
-Supersonic Diwali Fun. This silly bootleg has two Sonic the Hedgehogs racing through the sky on fireworks while Scooby Doo's Shaggy repeats a single voice clip over and over. Funny stuff.
-Christmas in the Coral Caves, by kittenm4ster. This Pico-8 sidescrolling adventure has a hapless fish take on the role of Santa, finding presents for their fellow sea creatures. I've actually played this before on stream but I couldn't resist another go at it!
-Hanukkah Runner, by Kieron Scott. This didn't work for me in Flashpoint but it's still live on Kieron's Itch page. Another Pico-8 game, this is a sidescrolling autorunner set in historic Israel, depicting the first Hanukkah. Avoid obstacles and creatures while dashing to get some lamp oil.
-Merry Shrekmas Showdown, aka Shrek: Ogre Resistance Renegade. For a promotional Flash game, this is a pretty elaborate 2D platformer with fun prerendered graphics. Ostensibly promoting the home release of Shrek 4, this is obviously a cheap reskin of an existing game with a layer of snow painted over the existing foresty levels to make it vaguely winter-themed. There are three levels but I couldn't beat the latter two due to some difficulty with the physics and controls.
-Angry Birds Space Xmas. Although there are a lot of official Angry Birds games in Flashpoint, there are even more unlicenced ones including this cheap knockoff. It's a very basic variant on classic Angry Birds gameplay but with only Red (skinned after his Space appearance) and a snow-covered backdrops. No pigs either, you're just trying to knock presents off various platforms. Low effort.
-The Lost Strawberry: X-Mas Edition, by EgorDorichev. This Pico-8 game heavily inspired by Celeste is a sequel to another of the creator's games but with a Christmassy theme and palette. The colours are nice and while it's not as tightly designed as Celeste Classic, there's some interesting and fun platforming challenges here.
-Lego City: Advent Calendar. This is a pretty basic top-down autoscrolling collect-em-up but it gave us an opportunity to talk about Lego for a bit!
-Quiz: Which Muppet Christmas Carol Character Are You? Published on Disney's Buzzfeed knockoff Oh My Disney, this 8-question personality quiz assigns you a character from the classic film. We love the film and watch it every year, so had a good time with this.
-Santaclautchi's Present Delivery Game [サンタクロっちのプレセント配達ゲーム]. This old Shockwave Tamagotchi game has you as the Santa Claus-themed Tamagotchi character finding presents for the other Tamas in a basic but difficult autoscrolling sled ride. We didn't get past stage 3 but it led to much Tama chat!
-Happy Challah Days, by Mboffin. This Pico-8 adventure has you venturing around your village on the last night of Hanukkah, doing little fetch quests to gather the ingredients for Challah bread. It's very sweet.
-Nickellennium. This Y2K game brought to you by Nickelodeon and McDonalds has you as a giant rampaging robot destroying the city and the flying vehicles sent to stop you. Happy New Year!
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