awesome.
may not be the very best flash game on Newgrounds.com, but it's certainly one of the best platformers I've played. this game of course has a Christmas theme, as Christmas is drawing in. and I must say, the Christmas theme is used really well. feels Christmasty to me. there is a bit of a story line, so it's not just senseless platforming. basically there is a evil villain named Dr. Zass who never got a Christmas present from Santa. so he captured Santa Clause and gave life to the toys, and plan to have no children with a Christmas present. you play as a boy named Tommy who finds Santa's lost wand and plans to save Christmas. the wand that you use is pretty much all you use through out the game, and while there are some power ups for it I didn't see them do that much improvement. but it could just be me. now, you don't use the wand to destroy the toys. you use it to freeze them, then shoot several more until their in a box, and then you collect them. make sure you do it fast enough too. when you first shoot at an enemy they'll freeze and you'll see a bar above their heads. this isn't a life bar, but more of a time bar. it tells you how long the toy is going to stay frozen. you have to keep on shooting to fill up the bar so you can put them in Christmas gift box, and collect it. if you don't collect them on time, around 3 or 5 seconds later the toys will break free. you should also try not to get hit, as you would lose all the gifts you've gained in that level. this part reminds me of Sonic. because in those games when you get hit you lose the rings. there are a variety of enemies. all of which are toys of course: soldiers ( 2 forms), dolls, cars, train (faster than a car), airplane, jack in the box (can only be "attacked" when jack pops out of the box.) and teddy bear (which is surprisingly zombie-looking). not exactly a huge variety but it gets the job done. there are some pick ups that would usually give you points. such as snowmen, Rudolph the red reindeer, clocks, stars, and some more that I can't remember. I know about the heart, but that gives you extra health (can only carry 5) not points. the hearts are my only complaint when it comes to playing the game, because if you lost 3 hearts and had 2 left, you damage would carry on over to the next level. this kind of makes the game bullshit hard but it's really not that huge of a problem the more you play the game. one thing I forgot to mention earlier about the wand is it's secondary ability. the wand's secondary ability is making ice platforms for those harder-to-reach places. there are plenty of platforms. most of them just stay still, while others would move up-&down, or left-&-right. the green ones always disappear. the high light of the game for sure is the graphics. the graphics are absolutely phenomenal. the background looks amazing, and alot of details are being used. the animation is pretty smooth, and I like how the magical stuff that comes out of the wand looks and animates. the sound is pretty good too. but there are only two songs, and I wish there was more.