Santa Saves The World

Santa Saves The World is a quirky independent 2D platformer where you take control of Santa Claus on a chaotic Christmas Eve. After being ambushed by a bizarre villain named Mecha-Elvis — an evil version of Mario dressed in white— Santa loses all his gifts, which end up scattered across the world. Now it’s up to the old man himself to recover every single present and save Christmas from turning into a worldwide depression fest.

Developed by Perfect Run and released on August 19, 2019, the game channels pure retro energy with pixel-art visuals, SNES-style 16-bit tunes, and an old-school arcade tempo that rewards quick reflexes and memorization. Each stage comes with a strict time limit, encouraging fast and precise play that makes Santa Saves The World unexpectedly appealing for speedrunners.

Santa Saves The World is available for free on Windows, directly from the developer’s page. It’s short, it’s simple, and it’s exactly the kind of bite-sized retro distraction that fits perfectly into the holiday season.

You can download this free game here!

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About the game

It’s the season for vengeance! Deliver Christmas cheer, and foil evil schemes, in this 2D speedrunner game. Are you a bad enough Santa to save Christmas, and the world?

Gameplay

The gameplay is straightforward but surprisingly tight. You move with the arrow keys, hold Up to jump, Down to drop presents, and SHIFT to run. Keep running in a straight line without jumping and Santa builds up to full speed. Delivering gifts is your main task — throw them down chimneys to reach the houses, or simply walk up to children you find outside and Santa automatically hands them a present. Once a delivery is made, you can even use the chimney smoke as a trampoline to reach higher spots.

Three little icons at the top of the screen tell you how many unhappy children remain, how many presents are still undelivered, and how many you’re carrying at the moment. And to make things merrier, you can change the background music anytime by pressing keys 1 to 5. Once all deliveries in a level are complete, a glowing arrow appears, showing the way out to the next stage. Oh — and apparently, if you manage to hit that bottle-throwing guy, you might even get more presents. Maybe.