Santa’s Surprise

So this year Santa ventured deep into the woods to meet with a local sled owner and adopt one of his adorable little huskies.

Published (or updated) in January 1st, 2025.

Santa’s Surprise is an indie platformer with retro 16-bit-like graphics (although a bit more advanced than that in fact) and side-scrolling gameplay where you have to help Santa bring a mascot as a gift to Mrs. Claus. It was developed by Pirate Shell and initially released on December 22, 2021.

The game combines nice and colorful graphics with puzzles and fast-paced action, which includes Santa’s ability to climb walls by doing somersaults and plummet from great heights like a skydiver without a parachute. There is also some stealth involved in the gameplay.

Published for Windows by Pirate Shell itself, Santa’s Surprise is completely free and has received praise from some players who have already had the opportunity to try it.

Videos

About the game

‘Twas the morning of Christmas Eve. The whole North Pole was preparing for the big night of present delivering and joy giving. Only Santa was nowhere to be seen…

He was out in the forest on a very important mission – to get a present for Mrs. Claus.  She had always wanted a cute little puppy, but there was only one problem – the workshop didn’t make any puppies!

So this year Santa ventured deep into the woods to meet with a local sled owner and adopt one of his adorable little huskies. It won’t be easy, but it will be worth it to make the one he loves happy.

Features

• Nimble Saint Nick – Run, jump and fling yourself across exciting levels as you take control of a surprisingly nimble and positively jolly old man!
• Stealthy Santa – Avoid detection as you sneak around, channeling your inner Solid Santa (including alert sound).
• Questing Kris Kringle – Solve puzzles and engage in alternative play styles on your quest to surprise Ms. Claus.

Controls

• Arrow Keys / Analog stick / D-Pad – Movement
• Up / A / X – Jump
• D / X / Square – Attack
• S / RT / R2 – Fling
• Down arrow / LT / L2 – Crouch
• R – Restart level
• Z – Adjust resolution
• Alt + Enter – Full screen
• Escape – Quit

Credits & acknowledgements

• Game Design, Programming, Art and Music: Pirate Shell
• SFX: Pirate Shell + Various people on freesound.org

More info and Christmas-themed platformers

• Santa’s Surprise @ VaLeW Free Games – With more info.
• Santa’s Surprise @ Gaming Room – With more info and media. In Portuguese.
• Santa Games
• Winter Gifts!!
• Santa Run 3
• Santa Runnn
• Vex 3 Xmas
• Xmas Dash
• Jeka Dash 2
• Santa Claus Adventures!