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It's Christmas, and the jolly fat man has presents to deliver and he needs your help. He really does need your help because delivering the presents has become harder as pranksters throw snowballs and other objetcs at poor old Santa as he tries to drop the pressies down the chimneys before the day breaks again. Merry Xmas Santa is a fairly bog standard platformer, you guide the titular Santa on his once yearly rounds across the rooftops using the cursor keys or a joystick (Kempston compatible or cursor keys), each time you pass a chimney it goes green and that's another happy child on Christmas morning. But sometimes you need to jump between roof tops, and a mis-timed jump ends in Father Christmas becoming a christmas tree (nicer than becoming a splat on the floor I guess). Being a platformer there are also ladders to climb to reach the lower and higher chimneys. In a unique twist to make things harder though you also have missiles in the form of snowballs coming across the screen at random times, which you need to jump over, and others coming downwards which you need to avoid. There are bonuses too, in the form of Santas favourite Xmas Eve treats of wine, and christmas pud among others. A nice festive feel to the game with the standard Speccy beepy sounds (even a beepy rendition of Jingle Bells to get you in the xmas mood) and graphics including a little colour clash. The game moves fairly quickly, but there's not that much to move really, only Santa and the projectiles he needs to avoid. All in all a fun game to pick up and play on the Spectrum at Christmas time.

Originally planned as a cassette-based Christmas card from publisher Gremlin, this short adventure in the life of the errant mole eventually found its way onto the cover of the Your Sinclair Xmas issue, no doubt spurred by the cash that Gremlin got for it. By Monty Mole standards (indeed by any standard) it wasn’t a long game. Your task was to guide the hero through six levels, ensuring the tape got duplicated, the magazine got printed and then finally delivered to the shops. Each of Moley Christmas’ six screens was an exercise in platform trial and error; but that was the idea, and fun. Work the right way around the screen and move on to the next, meaning despite the apparent difficulty, the game could soon be beaten. Alas at only six screens it was never going to be a world-beater, but as a nice little exclusive game for a magazine cover tape, Moley Christmas was perfectly acceptable fare and a great way to escape the family and inevitable Bond film back in 1987.

It's Christmas Eve, and you are Santa Claus and have to deliver all the presents to all the good children all around the world in a single evening. Well that sounds easy enough, until you find out that some evil elves have decided to stop you getting the job done, and start throwing toys and things at you as you pilot your sleigh to collect and deliver the presents. Santa's Christmas Capers is at heart a shmup, kind of like a festive version of R-Type or any of the multitude of side scrolling shooters you know and love. The first thing you notice about this festive take on the side scroller is that the graphics are a bit pants, your sleigh is smaller than the toys, and it jerks a little bit. The jerkiness and the large size of everything coming at you makes for very difficult gameplay from the start. Then you realise that the scenery below you can also kill you, overall it's not a very nice experience. There are apparently 3 levels, I gave up before I got to giving out the gifts in the 3rd one as I'd raher see a toddler cry on Xmas morning than waste any more time on it. So as far as graphics are concerned, they are big and OK but not special and jerk a bit and Santa's sleigh is too small. Sound is a bit sparse in the game although the music on the title screen uses the Spectrum beep to wish you a merry christmas in a suitably Speccy way. Gameplay is a little poor really, it's like a christmassy bullet hell but no redemption to be had. Not a game to make Christmas fun, avoid it like a kiss from a drunken aunty.

It's Christmas Eve and as Father Christmas readies himself to deliver the presents around the world the Elves have decided to have some festive fun of their own and have dismantled his sleigh. You now become Santa Claus and the naughty Elves mischief is your problem to deal with, so using your Spectrum keyboard or a joystick you need to find out where the little miscreants have hidden the pieces of your sleigh. Run around the colourful house exploring each room to find the missing parts, each time you find a piece of the sleigh you need to take it outside to where your faithful reindeer are waiting. But those fun loving elves are trying to stop you, and if you run into one while you are carrying a piece they will run off with it again, and you have to find it all over again. Once you have put your sleigh back together it's time to fill the sack with presents, catch the right gifts to fill your sack to complete level 2. Then it's time to deliver, fly your sleigh and drop the presents to fulfill the childrens wishes. The Official Father Christmas Game is a really simple game to play, using just the four joystick directions of up, down, left and right to move the jolly old man in red around the house, and up the ladders or fly the sleigh, and fire to drop presents. You don't need seven fingers to be Santa. The big bright graphics look great on the Spectrum, but sounds are a little thin, except for a rendition of some christmas songs if you pause the game. Festive fun on the old 8 bit Sinclair ZX Spectrum, great for nostalgia, and kids may well enjoy it too.

Who doesn't love the Raymond Briggs story of The Snowman? Each Christmas we all settle down to watch the TV take on the heart warming tale, and thanks to The Spectrum we can now play the game of the book too. You play the part of the small boy who makes his magical snowman which then comes to life but as always things aren't as easy as just wandering around unchallenged, oh no. In this wonderful platformer, you find piles of snow to take back to build the Snowman, but all the while you're thwarted by fiery flames trying to melt your snowy finds along the way back to your chum. Find the ice lollies though and you can dowse the flames. In amidst all of this, you also have a health bar which needs to be kept topped up by eating the yummy Christmas treats (Xmas Pud, Turkey etc. will help to boost the health bar). Bonuses for points are also on offer for finding Christmas related items.Beware the ends of platforms because a fall kills you as quick as runing out of energy or into some of the later enemies. The graphics are very much in keeping with the early ZX Spectrum games but everything moves quite fluidly, and the sprites are all recognisable when they appear. Sound is mostly of the Spectrums beep variety, nothing special but functional all the same. Controls are OK up to a point but can be frustrating when under pressure as you have to be dead centre of a ladder (well the blue sections you can use to go up or down anyway) to go up or down, and dead on a platform to move off a ladder. Overall, a nice little platform game with the Snowman as it's theme. A bit of festive fun to while away the time between Xmas dinner and the Snowman coming on the telly.