Daze Before Christmas

Lore & Background

The player controls Santa Claus as he races to save Christmas from an evil mouse who has stolen the kids' presents and cursed them with a spell. Santa faces foes such as giant rats, evil toys, and living snowmen, using his magic powers to turn them into Christmas presents. He can also collect a power-up that makes him shoot flames which melt ice. Santa's magic can open presents scattered around the levels, which may contain enemies, power-ups, bells, elves, or bombs. His energy level is represented by Santa hats, which indicate how many hits he can take before losing a life; he can collect more hats to replenish lost energy.

Reader's Guide

Daze Before Christmas is notable as a holiday-themed platformer developed by Funcom, a Norwegian company, and published by Sunsoft exclusively in Australia for the Mega Drive, with a Super NES port released in Europe and Australia. Its distinguishing feature is Santa's ability to transform into his evil twin, Anti-Claus, by drinking a cup of tea, becoming invincible but unable to use magic or open presents. The game received modest reviews, with critics noting its colorful graphics but repetitive backgrounds and simplistic gameplay suited only for younger players. The Mega Drive version's level select cheat code references the Swedish word 'Barra,' meaning a Christmas tree dropping its needles, while the Super NES version's cheat code refers to 'Badla,' the nickname of musician Geir Tjelta. The game's development involved integrating source code from Funcom's earlier game based on the film We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story.

Did You Know?

• The lead Mega Drive programmer, Carl-Henrik Skårstedt, stated the game took about a year to develop, but he did not start until six months into development.
• The Super NES port was handled by Olav Mørkrid and took about six months.
• A claim that the game integrated source code from Funcom's video game based on the film 'We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story' is not supported by any known official documentation or developer statements.

Gameplay & the Anti-Claus Mechanic

Players step into Santa's boots in a side-scrolling adventure where a villainous mouse has snatched every child's present and hexed them with a curse. Santa plows through stages populated by enormous rats, hostile toys, and animated snowmen, wielding magic to transmute each foe into a Christmas gift. A flame power-up lets him melt icy barriers, and his magic also cracks open presents hidden throughout the levels, revealing enemies, power-ups, bells, elves, or bombs. His vitality is tracked in Santa hats, each one absorbing a single hit before a life is lost, with spare hats available to top up his reserves. The title's signature twist is the Anti-Claus transformation: quaffing a cup of tea turns Santa into a blue-suited, horned doppelgänger who becomes invulnerable but forfeits all magic and present-opening, fending off threats by whacking them with his toy sack. Between platforming stretches, Santa takes to the skies in his sleigh, dropping collected presents down chimneys at scattered locations around the globe.

Development & the Funcom Connection

Norwegian studio Funcom built the game, with the Mega Drive version consuming roughly a year of production. Carl-Henrik Skårstedt, the lead programmer on that build, did not join until the project was already halfway complete. He later disclosed that he folded source code from another Funcom property—a video game adapted from the film We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story—directly into Daze Before Christmas. The Super Nintendo port fell to Olav Mørkrid, who spent about six months adapting the title. The game also buries small personal touches in its cheat codes: the Super NES level-select sequence reportedly nods to "Badla," the nickname of musician Geir Tjelta who contributed to the soundtrack, while the Mega Drive equivalent is said to reference the Swedish word "Barra," a term evoking a Christmas tree shedding its needles. These details hint at a small, hands-on team embedding their own culture into the code.

Release & Distribution

The game's geographic footprint was surprisingly narrow. Sunsoft published the Mega Drive edition in 1994, but it landed exclusively in Australia, where it shared shelf space with Ecco Jr. and Fatal Fury 2. The Super Nintendo version broadened the reach somewhat, reaching both European and Australian markets. A North American launch was reportedly in the pipeline yet never came to fruition, leaving players on that side of the Atlantic without a copy. This patchwork distribution—single-region on one console, two-region on another, and a cancelled American push—meant Daze Before Christmas never achieved the broad visibility of a typical holiday-themed title. It remained a regional curiosity, known mainly to collectors and fans in the territories where it actually shipped, rather than a mainstream seasonal staple found in stores worldwide.

Critical Reception

Contemporary reviewers struck a balance between acknowledging the game's charm and questioning its depth. Matthew Hall of Mega Zone scored the Mega Drive version 52 out of 100, praising its cute and cuddly aesthetic and calling the graphics colorful and well-rounded. However, he faulted the repetitive backgrounds and what he described as droning music, ultimately concluding that the straightforward gameplay restricted the audience to younger players. Hyper magazine was more blunt, awarding 58 out of 100 and dubbing it "undoubtedly the easiest game in the history of gaming." While conceding the title had undeniable charm, the reviewer felt the gentle difficulty meant only very young children would find it genuinely engaging. Both assessments framed Daze Before Christmas as a well-meaning but shallow outing, one that traded mechanical depth for accessibility and left seasoned platforming fans wanting more.