The Christmas Gifts Reviews

Glitchy as hell, no game balance. If I didn't pay pennies for this, I would get a refund...

So I thought it would be fun to play a Christmas game in October because why not? It's a cute little time waster, very colorful. It has some issues. Some of the traps and dangers are a bit too sensitive, and I wasn't aware (my bad) that you have limited ammo, but whatever. I played the first two levels and you can check out my Let's Play if you want to see the game in action. You can't beat the price though, so there is that! https://youtu.be/4maAg5RTf_g

Looks great but doesnt currently support Steam controller, would be great if an update was released or if controls could be manually configured!

[h1]Mediocre action platformer with bad trap design and other odd game design choices.[/h1] [i]Disclaimer: I have played some of Anamik Majumdar's other platformers so I knew what to expect. This is very similar to the rest of them.[/i] For the holiday season I decided to play through some of my holiday-themed games with achievements. Anamik's [i]The Christmas Gifts[/i] was the first in alphabetical order, so despite not expecting much (I've played [url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/989250/Fight_For_Love/]Fight For Love[/url] before), I played it anyway. It's pretty much like other Anamik's action platformers. You collect ammo, kill the enemies and gather the collectables to complete the level. It's Christmas-themed: there's a wall-of-text explaining why you go shooting after elves who stole your gifts. I believe the story would have been better illustrated with 2-3 pictures instead. Starting with a positive, this time around the enemies are not bullet sponges - at most 5-6 hits from the better weapon kills the strongest of them, so that's nice. However, the rest of it is not that great. [h1]List of annoying oversights[/h1] - There's over-sized traps that are easy to hit by accident, thinking that you can go under them. - Since the screen is zoomed fairly close, it's easy to jump down into a trap you didn't know was down there. Some moving saws are tiny. - Touching an enemy kills you instantly. See the point immediately above. - Jumping feels weird: the guy hops and bounces off ceilings instantly, falling super-fast. - Also if you keep pressing 'up' below a ceiling, you could create a perpetual motion machine from the associated jumping guy oscillator. - The protagonist can take an awful lot of beating, although this is almost good since it's very difficult to dodge enemy projectiles because of the jumping. - Boss fights *are* bullet sponges. However, they are super easy: there is a spot where you can stand and shoot without the boss being able to hit you. This appears to work for all boss fights. - Text cuts off in several places, particularly in the final scenes (this might or might not be due to my 2560x1440 monitor but it's hard to tell). It's mostly the same sort of problems as for some other platformers by this developer. I think many of the issues are due to the odd choice of jumping mechanics and the game being balanced around it. [h1]Controls and other tech stuff[/h1] I played with keyboard+mouse but there's also pure keyboard and gamepad controls. Arrows and/or WASD moves, both 'up' and 'space' being jump and clicks being shooting. Sound and music volume can be adjusted together. Game runs in fullscreen, though alt+enter lets you play in windowed mode. [h1]About visuals[/h1] You can see the artstyle in the store's screenshots. Personally I'm not a fan: e.g. the protagonist is a kid but he looks like a leprechaun wearing a Christmas cap. The environments look alright, and the enemy graphic design is nice enough. However, sometimes it's difficult to see some of the traps in the level due to the background. There are also boxes that you can jump on, but the background boxes look quite similar to them. [h1]Conclusions: not recommended[/h1] It's fast to play through despite several deaths that felt unfair. Respawns are fast, and levels are short enough that the annoying deaths are quickly forgotten. My playthrough (+ all achievements) was about 30 minutes. It's not necessarily a bad game. However, as platformers go, there are way better ones even at similar prices or free. I sadly wouldn't recommend it. Nevertheless, I wish the developer good luck and patience to keep improving, as from previous communications I know they are passionate about making video games. [url=http://store.steampowered.com/curator/9997062/]~Twistorian Curator~[/url]