Leave Luck to Heaven #3: Christmas Blues? A New Addition to the Island of Misfit Toys

I’ve never played a specifically holiday themed game before on a console. So when I came across Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, I thought this was a sign of something I had to play and talk about. The game is available on both the Wii and DS.

The objective of the game is to assist Santa Claus in preparing for Christmas. The game is designed for one to two players and I definitely suggest the two player option. The game itself is a series of mini-games with no real explanation of how your help gets things done any faster.

Now being a console game made up of mini-games I wasn’t expecting a deep story or anything but I did expect some game time. However, instead this “bargain” game consist of only four mini games that when played through in the story mode take less than 15 minutes to finish. This means that even though the game is only 20 USD, you still pay more than a dollar per minute of game time. I say it this way because once you play each game once you will get more use out of the disc as a frisbee.

The mini-games have no real replay value as either their simplicity makes high scores easy or their awkward control schemes make them unenjoyable. The first of the four games is the only one that I really suggest playing alone. In this one you help an elf decorate the tree by bouncing items across the screen. This is done by tilting the Wii remote and shaking it to jump. The second player in this case is more of a distraction and the controls are unbearable without the frustration of competing or trying to cooperate.

The other games really just require the remote to be shaken violently either with timing or without. Either way you can get pretty good scores. I actually didn’t mind this aspect but by buying a disc, I kind of expect a full-fledged game. This would have been better marketed as either a downloadable game on the Wii Shop channel or maybe even released as an app for the iPhone or iPad. I’m still not sure the $20 would be worth this game but I definitely wouldn’t feel as cheated.

The game is clearly geared toward a younger audience difficulty wise. Within each game there is no minimum score to make. So you can sit there decorate nothing, paint not one toy, bake not one cookie, and even decide not to deliver any toy and the game still treats you like a winner.

Really the only enjoyable part of this game is seeing Sam the Talking Snowman at the beginning and end. Unfortunately, even this is tainted as the voice they got sounds nothing like Burl Ives. I do of course understand that Ives has passed away but getting a sound alike should not be impossible.

This game should be marketed as our generation’s version of coal for bad children. I think that would justify its existence at least a little.

– Jasmine, founder of Super Happy Sparkle Onigiri Brigade.