By Bill martens
Candlestone Productions has released a nifty little Christmas game / adventure game which is directed primarily at kids. Yule's Christmas Quest is a freeware package that focuses on the idea of finding all of the gifts from the twelve days of Christmas. Santa apparently forgets where he puts things and it is up to you to help Santa's helper puppy, Yule, find the gifts so that they can be delivered. The program is available for both PPC based Macs as well as the Intel machines.
Installing the Game
The game comes in a zip file and unpacks to a single file, making it easily transported around your machine. The lightweight 6.5 mb program is refreshing since most programs these days take far more drive space and accomplish far less. But then you are up and running in two minutes. Perfect instant entertainment installation.
Game Play
The controls off the game are run by moving yule around the screen collecting the different items on the screen. There are blue bears that will run into Yule and send him back to the point he started in the current screen. The timer also must be renewed with the clock icons around the game board. As each item is collected, there is a counter beside the particular item that will increase. Once all items of a particular item are found, the item becomes highlighted.
This game should have had a nice little game ending such as some type of musical act on the screen. However, it abruptly ends the game and returns to the game start screen. This could be particularly disheartening for a kid who has just sat there and collected everything essentially winning the game but no prize. The one aspect of the game that is definitely appropriate is the time out screen with Yule's face coming up in a frown with a clock in his hand.
While the graphics are cute and will draw children's attention, the actual play is a bit too precise in its required movements at points. The game also did not quit gracefully and I had to force it to quit. There is definitely room for improvement in this game but it is a good first effort worthy of mention.
Downloads
Candlestone Productions Website : http://www.candlestoneproductions.com
Intel Based Download : http://www.candlestoneproductions.com/YuleIntel.zip
PPC Based Download : http://www.candlestoneproductions.com/YulePPC.zip
Rating
3 out of 5 Apples
About the Author
Bill Martens is the user group Ambassador for Apple Pugetsound Program Library Exchange (A.P.P.L.E.) and is also the production editor for Call-A.P.P.L.E. Magazine. (http://www.callapple.org. Non-commercial replication of this article is permitted for User Groups.
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