
Browser game · Arcade
Make Santa run as far as possible and give out presents as he goes.
4.3Make Santa run as far as possible and give out presents as he goes. However, it won’t be as easy as it seems. There are lots of traps along the way, so be careful. You have to jump over the gaps between houses, avoid falling icicles and throw presents down the chimneys as you jump over them, because knocking into them slows you down. Will it be a merry Christmas with many presents under the tree? It’s all down to you.
You will die a lot, and that is the design. Arcade games expect it. Each run lasts until a single mistake, and then you are back at the start with a slightly better sense of the timing. Over a session of fifteen minutes you might play twenty rounds. Somewhere in the middle one of them goes well, and the number at the top of the screen jumps.
Run Santa is honest. There are no upgrades to buy and no grind, just you and your reaction time. Because it runs free in a browser tab, it is the sort of game you can open on a whim, play for five minutes, and leave without a trace.
Players who miss the directness of old cabinet games, and younger ones who have never seen a cabinet but like a dare. It suits phones well, so it is handy for anyone waiting in a queue.