Game: Advent Calendar
Genre: Puzzle
System: Nintendo Switch (also on Steam (Windows))
Developer | Publisher: Mindscape
Age Rating: EU 3+ | US E
Price: UK £19.99 | EU € 24,99 | US $24.99
Release date: November 10th, 2022
Review code used, with many thanks to Mindscape
The Holiday season is approaching fast. Maybe even a bit too fast, because for me, the end of the year always gives me a feeling that there’s still so much to do before the year is over. Which of course isn’t the way to go about the Holiday Season. It should be the perfect time to relax and enjoy the festivities and the lovely music that comes with it.
Maybe the Advent Calendar, which is released on Nintendo Switch and Steam, will put me in the proper mood. A video game that brings you one gift for 25 days, to open up from December 1st to Christmas Day. Fortunately, for this review, I got to open all presents at once. Let’s see what Santa brought us.
A Festive Scene with 25 Game Gifts
The home screen of Advent Calendar presents a festive sight. You find yourself in a big room, with Christmas decorations all around, and 25 packages strewn about. Of course, the intention is to open one for every day of December. You have the option, if you are the impatient kind, to unlock them all in one go.
Every day brings you a puzzle game. There are several varieties: Match 3 games, Sudoku, 2048 games, Candy Lines, jigsaw puzzles and paint-by-the-number pixel art games. All of them are holiday themed. For example, the items to match in the match 3 games are baubles, candy canes and packages. The tiles to match in 2048 are also packages of different colours and sizes and the Candy Lines present you with Christmas treats to combine in lines of 5.
In all, there are 5 Match 3 games, 5 Soduko games, 2 Candy Lines games, 2 2048 games, 5 colouring games and 6 jigsaw puzzles. Of course, the colouring games and the jigsaw puzzles have you working on images that are so typical for Christmas cheer. You’ll see an abundance of snow, reindeer, and Santa in his sleigh and gingerbread houses.
Several Levels and Multiplayer
The games for each day have enough content to keep you occupied. Several levels and challenges in Match 3 and Sudoku, 2 jigsaw puzzles in each gift that you can break up into several levels of pieces. Several of the games also include a multiplayer mode, to get some quality time in this Holiday season.
Maybe there could have been even more variety, as basically, the Sudoku puzzles were the same on various days. But it is a nice touch that reaching certain levels and breaking some of your own records net you in-game coins. And these you can use in every game in the Advent Calendar to give you in-game goodies. Like bombs in Match 3 to gather even more coins.
For every game, the interface was well-appointed. It can be fiddly for example to work on pixel art on your Switch, but you can enlarge the area you’re working on. The Sudoku puzzles used a nice clutter-free way to have you get the right numbers in the puzzle. The jigsaw puzzles offered ways to select the corner and rim pieces, to see the image while you are working on it, and you can even select how you want your puzzle pieces shaped. The developer has brought together different kinds of puzzle games and has obviously given thought to how to approach each of them individually.
Extra Touches to Create the Mood
Aside from the gaming goodies, I found the little extra touches in Advent Calendar pleasing. There’s an old-style gramophone that plays a Christmas tune. A fireplace that you can make the centrepiece of your screen to watch the flickering flames. I liked that, all designed to bring you in the mood for the Holidays.
The controls worked fine on handheld using the buttons, but I found myself preferring the touchscreen option. The use of a stylus would work well, but the puzzles respond well to using your own fingers as well.
In the background, we are treated to a nice Christmassy tune to make the relaxing mood complete. And Advent Calendar comes in several languages, with a short tutorial for each game on the basics and how to control them.
Conclusion
I quite like the idea of an advent calendar in video game form. The individual puzzles offer enough content to keep you interested in short gaming stints, with the addition of multi-player and several levels. The levels also have a short tutorial and are obviously made with care. This will get you in the Holiday mood, and offer some relaxing quality time as well.
Overall, this puzzle game will give you relaxing moments and get you in the holiday mood at the same time!
Final Verdict: I Like it a Lot
I spotted this while browsing the Switch eShop the other day and thought: I’ll never buy it, but I’d love to hear what someone else thinks of it. Thank you Yvonne for the lovely write-up. My curiosity has been satisfied!
You’re welcome, and thank you for the kind comment!
I had no idea this existed, if I buy it now (late Dec) for next year as a gift will it still work or is it time sensitive?
Can this be used nedt year if unopened?
I should think so. The game gives you the option to open one game at a time, or all games at once. It’s not tied the actual date you are playing it.
Vivienne, your question kept bugging me, so when I just now saw an update come in for Advent Calender I tried the game again with a different Switch user. I intended to not unlock all the games at one, but I didn’t get a choice. Apparently, after Christmas, it unlocks them all. I don’t know of course how it will work when Christmas 2023 comes around.