Christmas Craze...a random game I've found on Vizzed that's Christmas related. This is the third Christmas game review. Tomorrow will be the fourth. Now, this game is very generic, so I thought this would be practice for when I review a ROM hack that has a lot to say about. It's obviously Christmas related, and it's a Super Mario 64 (Nintendo 64, 1996) ROM hack. Well, let's see what Christmas Craze has to offer. The title makes this game sound fun, so let's find out...oh, and by the way this is a Super Nintendo game in case the sub-forum didn't give this away.

Overall rating: 5/10
Addictiveness: 6/10

Okay, this is the lowest rating I've given other than the game Pong (3/10). You may be thinking why I'm rating the overall rating a five out of ten. Well, this game doesn't really offer much. This is also the same category where how addicting this game is comes into play. Well, let's start with the story. It's very generic. Usually Super  Nintendo games have good stories to them...this is not one of them. This game offers little depth for a Super Nintendo game, this game is a complete joke when it comes to difficulty, making this game remarkably easy to speed run, and the other categories are positive, but these are the things I DON'T like about this game. And since this game is very generic and broad when it comes to depth, this game isn't that addicting. This game is same-old as the levels pass. Usually arcadic games with generic stories are addicting because the story isn't so complicated plus arcadic games are fun like Super Mario Brothers (Nintendo Entertainment System, 1985). This game is not one of them. This game sports no special characteristics except a few things like graphics, but nevertheless, this game is rather BORING.

Graphics: 8/10

Like pretty much every Super Nintendo game, there has to be revolutionary 16-bit graphics sported by the game. Well, except when I'm playing Final Fantasy II. Christmas Craze has some pretty good graphics. The background is great, the sprites for the characters are good, everything graphical in here is amazing. (Man, why couldn't Final Fantasy II be like this?) The graphics for this game are a revolutionary 16-bit like your average Super Nintendo game, but it kinda looks like this game is sporting 32-bit graphics. The Sega Genesis games had 32-bit graphics on its games like the blue blur (Sonic), Golden Axe, and the Barney game....huh. Who knew a game about Barney The Dinosaur would make it on the Genesis? But the graphics in Christmas Craze are very good, you wouldn't think the MAIN CHARACTER is even 16-bit. I'm not saying these graphics are the definition of 64-bit (Because that would mean this game would be made of polygons like the Nintendo 64), but the main character's sprite looks like a 32-bit figure. Even Sonic The Hedgehog looks worse than him, and that's kinds sad for the Genesis because THEIR GAMES are 32-bit. But you know what I mean, right? The sprites for the snow is rather festive, and I think this game does a good job capturing the Christmas image and also making this game look beautiful, nevertheless. 

Sound: 6/10

There's only one song in the soundtrack, and the sounds aren't very good. The ONE song in the soundtrack is pretty good though. This game does a great job with this one song throughout the game and I'm not sure if Koji Kondo is the composer for this music because this seems like a third party game, but this soundtrack is still LIKE Koji Kondo. By the way, Koji Kondo is the composer for the music in Nintendo games. His top rated work is the Ocarina of Time (Nintendo 64, 1998) soundtrack. But since there's only one sound in the entire game, I can't really say much more. I still think for a Super Nintendo game, this could have more of a variate when it comes to sound, but apparently not in this game. Well this game doesn't have much effort put into it, so figures...

Story: 4/10

...What on Earth is this? This story has got to be one of the worst video game story lines I've heard! What is this supposed to be? Did the writers realize that this is basically Mario and Earthbound mixed together? Because it basically is. This is basically someone/something being CAPTURED. How does Earthbound contribute to this? Aliens. Yeah...this game has aliens. A Christmas game has aliens, who would have THOUGHT? Anyways, the story is about these aliens who steal the Christmas presents of everybody in a small town that's name is not even mentioned. This one kid embarks on a journey to retrieve everyone's presents from the evil aliens to save Christmas. THIS is very broad, if you ask me. This can be a change of things and there wouldn't be a difference to Mario. The aliens might as well be Bowser and his minions..leaving Peach to be square. Literally, she is such a square. And the main character resembles Mario. But this isn't the game format of Mario if you were wondering. This IS a platforming game, but this isn't a 2-D side-scrolling adventure. I think the story of this game was supposed to be like Mario because if Mario never existed (and Nintendo still managed to be in business because of this), then I think the story of this game AND Legend of Zelda (Nintendo Entertainment System, 1986) would be a lot more sophisticated. Well, Legend of Zelda's over-arching story sure has advanced when A Link To The Past and so forth came in the picture, but Mario is still Mario. And I think this story line was inspired by Mario. Come on, can you tell me at least one game where there's someone or something who captures a person or thing? But I think I've gotten a little off topic, so let me just sum this up by saying this story is horrible.

Depth: 5/10

This game really offers no depth to it. Which is odd for a Super Nintendo game, but let's just get to the controls. If you're playing this on an actual Super Nintendo, you press A to jump, down to crouch on snowy platforms to pick up a snowball, and B to throw a snowball straight across used to stun alien ships for a limited time. Let me get to the GAME-PLAY. Oh, the game-play, the worst part! You will be amazed but this entire game is just jumping platform by platform avoiding alien ships to grab all the presents in each level. This game is WAY too easy for my tastes, and the levels don't offer much. There's no power-ups, a special currency, items to buy, none of that. This is basically jumping to platforms to collect the presents in the level..which by the way are all identical so you can't really tell who to give the presents to, so the main character is kinda just guessing who to give these presents to. Well....there's about 20 levels in this game, I'm sure, and all of them are quite boring. This game really offers nothing, and the depth of this game is QUITE low for a Super Nintendo game. MARIO PAINT for the Super Nintendo has more depth than this game, and Mario Paint is just painting..this is a lot more exciting and boring than you think. It's sad that this game doesn't give much, which is kinda disappointing if I haven't made this clear already. Well, let's get to the final category, there's nothing more to see here.

Difficulty: 4/10

Okay. let me make this clear..every level is a joke. The levels are short, the aliens are really easy to dodge, snowballs make this a LOT easier, and this game is just too short. I mean, all it is is jumping to platforms. This game provides no challenge whatsoever. What were the developers thinking? Well, this is really all I have to say for difficulty, so let's end this already.


Sorry this review is short, but this is long for a game like this. Don't even dare play this, this is not a good game. This has been my review for Christmas Craze

tgags123 : Review done
mohammedroxx3 : Review is done
Razor-987 : Another review
Eniitan : Thought you'd like to read this.

I don't remember asking you to summon me to your review but anyhow, thanks for the summon! and I guess you may also summon me to your future reviews if you like!

Anyways, you have done one heck of an amazing job here! It's categorized pretty well with an awesome amount of detail saying almost about everything for this game. Plus you have said it in a very good tone that will make the reader interested to read your review. And you seem like you are making game reviews typically like everyday! lol. I also like your humorous and yet informative ways in your reviews. 

Anyways, I look forward to your future reviews!

Glad you summoned me to your review, are you going to try and do one every day? That would be awesome if you did. Anyways, you did a great job of keeping it both organized and very well categorized, neat and detailed, which are 3 major components of what  a good review should always have. I concur with mohammedroxx, I enjoy your little humorous and informative ways of presenting your review, it is original and it is a personal pizzazz to your review, so I think you really made it work out quite nicely. 

Overall this is another amazing review done by you and I am happy you summoned me to this awesome review, I would change a thing about this review, keep up the awesome work as always and I look forward to reading your next review which will probably be tomorrow XD

This is a Homebrew game that wasn't released for the system FYI...so the people who made it were probably pretty new to the world of game development at the time.

This game wasn't too special for something homebrewed. I suppose this goes to show you that not all homebrew'd games aren't greatly made. Oh well, good job reviewing the game, btw. Well done.

Good job on this review Pixel. And that game wow....it sounds really bad....but never the less. I look forward to your next review, keep up the good work! ^-^