Santa’s Xmas Adventure Review (Nintendo Switch)

Game: Santa’s Xmas Adventure
Genre: Adventure, Education, Puzzle, Training
System: Nintendo Switch (also Mobile)
Developers | Publishers: NYX Digital | Funbox Media
Age Rating: EU 3+ | US E
Price: EU €7,99 | USD $8.99 | UK £7.19
Release Date: November 12th, 2020

Review code used, with many thanks to Funbox Media

Santa’s Xmas Adventure is a sweet little puzzle adventure game, from developers NYX Digital and published by Funbox Media.

Help Santa on His Way

As if this year hasn’t been bad enough for everyone. Now it seems on top of everything else, poor Santa has had an accident and he has lost his way! But that’s not the worst of it, Santa has also managed to lose all the gifts he is meant to be carrying. Oh No!!

That’s where you come in, as it’s your mission to guide Santa, helping him along the right path to the goal. Along the way and if you have helped Santa to take the correct path he’ll collect the presents he has lost as he goes.

You have to slide the tiles to form a path for Santa to reach the goal to exit to the next level. Sliding tiles to create a path is a classic mechanic that has been in numerous puzzle games over the years. Santa’s Xmas Adventure has 720 levels of sliding tile puzzling to complete across three modes to master.

There is a timed hint system you can use and it will guide you to move the tiles needed to slide to the correct place. The hint system isn’t so much a hint as it shows you how to complete the puzzle fully. I’d have preferred it showed maybe only one tile correct spot and left the rest for you to work out. However, since Santa’s Xmas Adventure is rated a three, the hint system will work wonderfully for any children that are playing the game.

Three Modes of Play

The three modes are as follows, Gift mode, Classic mode and Moving mode.
In Gift mode, there are 240 levels of sliding puzzles. All are locked until you complete the proceeding puzzle as Santa reaches the end goal. In each level, there will be a few nicely decorated presents dotted along the path. You’re required to make a path by sliding the tiles in as few moves possible.

Once a path is connected to the goal Santa automatically sets of walking to the exit. He does this even when the path isn’t connected properly and he can miss picking up presents when that happens. So you need to be careful to have slid the tiles into the right spot. If you do miss collecting all the presents you can replay the levels again, as you only need one present collected to open the next level.

Lots of Puzzling Levels

Classic mode unlocks after you have collected 100 presents in the Gift mode. Since it’s not an overly difficult puzzle it doesn’t take long to collect the 100 presents. In Classic mode, there aren’t any presents to collect. Your mission is the same as before to get Santa to the exit. You have a set target of moves in the classic mode and you start with 3 presents. If you go over the set amount of moves to complete the path you lose some presents. And the puzzles in Classic mode have only one or two empty spaces, making it slightly more difficult to move the tiles on the board as there is less room.

Moving House mode unlocks when 200 presents have been collected. The difference with the Moving House mode is that Santa starts walking after a very short amount of time. He doesn’t wait until you have finished the path to the goal. Oh no, Santa is determined to proceed and he sets off on his own whether there is a path there or not! If there isn’t a path in front of Santa he will fall into the water and you restart the level.

Unmovable Stone Tiles

All the levels have unmovable stone tiles that you have to workaround. So a little strategy and planning are needed before you make your first move. Though as I’ve said you don’t get punished for messing up, you can just replay the level again.

Visuals and Controls

The whole game is played out in a wintery scene, with snowy tiles to move and water and ice in the empty sections of the board. And it certainly looks the part and has a festive feel to the game, but there isn’t much variety in the visuals of the levels.

Santa’s Xmas Adventure controls using the joy-cons or you can use the touchscreen. I found that both ways of controlling the game do work but unfortunately the joy-con controls don’t feel very intuitive. For instance, to move a tile you click on it with the joystick and press A and move the tile. If you want to move a tile two spaces you have to re-click on it and press A again. Which seems like a lot of re-clicking to move one tile two places.

Conclusion

Santa’s Xmas Adventure is an enjoyable puzzle game though there isn’t anything new in this game, and nothing we haven’t seen before in similar games. But the game would be a great starting game for any youngsters that want to get into the genre as it’s accessible to players of all ages and abilities.

And with its Santa theme it would make a great present for someone to have on their Nintendo Switch at this time of year.

Final Verdict: I Like It