Mean Santa

Mean Santa Atari 2600

Entry posted by Kiwi January 9, 2010

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This is a new Atari 2600 homebrew game designed by Tim Duarte. This game is programmed by John K. Harvey. This game was completed and released in October 2009. I got this game as a gift to my soulmate.

I originally chose Mario Bros for the Colecovision to buy for my girlfriend. I tried contacting the developer seeing if I can buy this game via forum messenger and email, no dice. Then I thought to myself, she doesn't have the Colecovision, therefore she would have to borrow mine to play it. Also, it is out on Atari 2600, GBA. I really wanted to get this one for the Colecovision because it's the first game(I think) released to be on the MegaCart, also seeing if there's additional gameplay added in this version. Since Mean Santa is still available and on sale, I decided to get this game instead because it would be perfect Christmas present for anyone who owns the Atari2600.

I finally got a chance to play this game on New Years Eve. This game is a lot like Dragonfire. You have one screen you're on the sledge avoiding obstacles, then another screen collecting toys avoiding obstacles. Just like Dragonfire, where you're on the bridge avoiding fireballs, and then another screen collecting treasures while dodging fireball from the dragon below. Both game get progressively harder as you go along.

This game features 3 different difficulty setting, each one is harder than the next. Easy, is relaxing and a perfect way to get use to the control. It hardly have any obstacles. If you crash into the side of the house and die, you're doing it wrong. You have to land your sledge on the house, which allows you to enter the house. Then collect all the toys and leave. There are 5 houses per block. The flashing house indicates the final house, where you have to get the drumstick from the bottom of the screen avoiding dogs. Normal features 3 blocks of 5 houses with chimney and added obstacles. Hard features 5 blocks of houses and added obstacles. One thing I love about the game, are the unlockable. One of the unlockable added the snow effect on the sledge stage, which was awesome addition. I haven't yet unlock the final feature yet, but eventually I will.

The sledge stage get progressively harder and harder. Obstacles like snow and lightning come into play. Luckily the snow and the lightning doesn't kill Santa, but it stuns him for a few milliseconds as Santa tries to land on the house. Crashing into the house and chimney will knock Santa out of the sky and he will lose one Christmas tree(or Taxi freshener) as lives.

Entering the house also become harder and harder as you play. You have to avoid bananas that will make Santa trip and knock all the toys out of his hands. Eventually, in the later houses, you have the dog come after you. This dog is vertically challenged, so use that for your advantage to avoid this foul beast. For some reason, I like to mock his movement, just to make him even more angrier. Anyway, if this dog get you. You lose one life and go back to the top of the screen, but you'll still have the toys you collected. If the left difficulty switch is set, the dog reset back to the bottom(I think). This dog isn't all that mean. After collecting everything, if he touches the exit, he'll use his 6th sense and teleports you out of the house because he is tired of chasing you and want to sleep. At least he's able to walk across bananas without tripping. One interesting detail that I noticed while I watched my girlfriend play this game, the dog wears a blue collar on his neck. Very good attention to detail!

After completing a house, the house you already visit will change to black. If you land on that house, then you are faced with a mob of angry people living in the house and get beaten to a pulp. That's my logical explanation of that scenario. The final house always flashing. You have to collect a piece of meat on the bottom, and avoid the waves of dogs. The number of dogs are added as the game at higher difficulty. Wait a second, Santa was so mean that he went out of his way to stop by a kennel and steal a piece of meat from horde of dogs. No wonder the reindeers refuse to come with him on his journey.

This is a fun and challenge game to play. It will take you hours to play. The unlockable mode encourages you to play faster and better to unlock these modes. I highly recommend this game.