RGR016 - Inclement Weather

Once finished with his latest round of present-delivering, Santa begins the final leg of his journey, leading to more factory locations, deep underground ice caverns, and finally back to his house where yet another conspirator lies in waiting. After a visit to the gift-wrapping plant, Santa treads flying carpets and fights off toy helicopters to free more elves and gather more stolen gifts before reaching the North Pole once again. Inside his house, he follows the trail of evil RC cars (the first normal enemies of the game to take more than one hit to destroy) into his basement, only to run into the third mastermind behind this rotten plan to destroy Christmas.

Don't let him wake up, don't let him wake up...

It'd be funnier if the chain came from his nostril.

Santa goes in...

Neatly wrapped Santa comes out.

Found any good lamps recently?

See, THAT'S how he climbs down the chimney.

Third Boss: Louse the Mouse

Louse the Mouse is the most complicated boss thus far, requiring more than just brute force to defeat. As Santa approaches Louse, he begins chasing Santa, apparently intent to beat him with the bat-like object in his hand. The floor in the center of the room is a conveyor belt, and a 10-ton weight moves back and forth overhead. A switch has been kindly provided to release the weight, which reappears quickly after falling off the bottom of the screen.

Louse is initially immune to Santa's magic, possibly because his thug-like ways prevent him from believing in magic, but that's nothing ten tons of iron to the head won't cure. Once Louse begins his chase, Santa must quickly reach the switch to release the weight on top of Louse, stunning him and making him vulnerable to a single dose of Santa's magic. Several repetitions of this pattern bring Louse the Mouse down, returning safety to Santa's home and giving him just enough time to bring presents to all the kids in Japan and the US.

Man, the rats are big around here.

And the 10-ton weight only stuns him.

With a sleighful of giant robots, no doubt!

Every Christmas Eve, it's the same thing.

Look, a convenient landmark!

Take that, symbol of freedom!

Final Boss: Mr. Weather

In a last-ditch effort to ruin things for Santa, Mr. Weather himself appears to try and knock Santa out of the sky. But the epic intro screen portrayal of Mr. Weather is quickly discarded in favor of the ridiculous-looking little cloud guy you see below. The battle is actually pretty clever, though. See, the cloud Santa rides on can only move vertically, and Santa's magic can't reach Mr. Weather. But as Mr. Weather attacks with his lightning bolts, those bolts will sometimes pass through the wisps of clouds in the center of the screen, giving them a charge. Santa can then use that charge against Mr. Weather by adding his magic to the cloud itself, causing a lightning bolt to fire back at Mr. Weather. After absorbing enough lightning, Mr. Weather evaporates into the night air, leaving clear skies and smooth flying for the rest of Santa's flight.

I think he means business.

But he's much less impressive up close.

He dies like Pac-Man!

Santa should hire some guards... just in case.

So not only is Santa able to rescue his elves and reindeer, recover all the stolen presents and annihilate his enemies, but also still manages to get all the presents delivered on time. How's that for dedication?

Well, that concludes the latest chapter in the ongoing story of Retro Gamer Ryan. I know I had a lot of fun playing Daze Before Christmas, and I hope you had a good time reading about it. And I know not everyone out there celebrates Christmas or believes in Santa Claus, but remember... it's just a game.

If you've got a holiday to celebrate right around now, I wish you the best. If not, I still wish you the best.