Daze Before Christmas

n/a

Daze Before Christmas
System(s): Sega Mega Drive
Publisher: Sunsoft
Developer: Funcom
Sound driver: GEMS
Genre: Action
Number of players: 1-2 (alternating)
Release Date RRP Code AU 1994 $89.9589.95 FDAZ00SMC
Non-Sega versions Super NES

Daze Before Christmas is a Christmas-themed platformer developed by Funcom and published by Sunsoft for the Sega Mega Drive in 1994 and later for the Super NES. It is notable for being the only Mega Drive game on record to be released exclusively in Australia.

According to interviews with with Funcom programmer Carl-Henrik Skårstedt and Sunsoft developer David Siller, manufacturing was actually cancelled shortly after the first run had shipped due to quality issues. It had been originally planned to release in North America in November 1994.

Story

A gang of miscreants (the Evil Snowman, the Timekeeper, Louse the Mouse, and Mr. Weather) has colluded to steal Christmas. They have kidnapped the elves, stolen the parts from their toy-making machines, and stolen the kids' presents and cursed them with a spell. Santa must stop them and save Christmas.

Gameplay

Anti-Claus

The game is a platformer where the player guides Santa Claus through 24 levels as he races to save Christmas. Santa faces foes such as giant rats, evil toys, and living snowmen using his magic powers to turn them all into harmless Christmas presents. He moves with and and ducks with . He jumps with and stomps to defeat enemies and open presents by pressing again in midair. He can also throw magic dust, a ranged attack, with or .

Santa can find and open Christmas presents scattered around the levels, which may contain items, enemies, elves, or bombs. By drinking a cup of tea, Santa transforms into a blue-suited, devilish looking version of himself. As "Anti-Claus," Santa is invincible but unable to use his magic or open presents. His primary method of attack is swinging his sack of toys at enemies with or , replacing his magic dust.

The game is divided into sections of six levels, which end with a boss fight followed by a flying section. Santa flies in his sleigh over a city around the world and uses the presents he collects to drop them down chimneys with , , or . The player is given a password after these sections for continuing the game.

Santa's health is represented by Santa hats. If he loses all of his hats, he can take one more hit before losing a life. He can collect more hats to replenish lost energy.

Items

	Presents
	Blue presents are dropped by enemies and collected for points. The other presents are found in the levels and contain items, enemies, elves, or bombs.
	Hat
	Restores one hat of health for Santa.
	Bomb
	Explodes and harms Santa if he does not avoid it.
	Lightning Bolt
	Changes the magic dust to shooting fireballs instead, which can melt some barriers to rescue reindeer.
	Cup of Tea
	Transforms Santa into Anti-Claus for a duration, during which he is invincible but cannot open presents.
	Santa
	Gives the player an extra life.
	Bell
	Checkpoint where Santa is revived after losing a life.
	Star
	Goal at the end of the level.

Levels

	Santa's Hallway
	Let It Snow
	Ice Cave
	Blue Magic
	The Evil Snowman
	Over England
	Before the Flood
	Password: G8WTK3A
	Wood Factory
	Magic Cave
	Steel Factory
	The Timekeeper
	Over Russia
	Winter Waters
	Password: X6THTWG
	Steel Elevators
	Gift Wrapping
	Magic Bubbles
	Louse the Mouse
	Over Japan
	North Pole
	Password: KW3TKH4
	Deep Down
	Busy Basement
	Santa's House
	Over U.S.A.
	Mr. Weather
	Password: XAHGK9A

History

Development

“	Daze took about 1 year in total, but the problem was I didn't start until 6 months into the project so I had a lot of art and the code from A Dinosaur's Tale to combine, the SNES version was converting the same code that was already on Genesis so it took me about 6 months (I was on the Genesis version and there was one programmer on the SNES version). Unfortunately Sunsoft USA ran out of money and went bankrupt about the same day the SNES version was finished.	„
— Carl-Henrik Skårstedt

Production credits

• Inspired By: Rita Zimmerer
• Executive Producers: David Siller, Erik Gløersen
• Producers: Sam Patel, Henning Rokling
• Main Programming: Carl-Henrik Skārstedt
• Additional Programming: Olav Mørkrid
• Engine Coding: Roar Flølo, Morten Ofstad
• Environment Programming: Eivind Eklund, Ivar Just Olsen, Johan Køhler
• Data Crunching Program: Eivind Hagen
• Technical Manager - Sunsoft: Al Artus
• Music and Sound Effects: Kim M Jensen, Geir Tjelta
• Main Graphics Artists: Joachim Barrum, Tore Blystad, Ole-Petter Rosenlund
• Main Character Animation: Ole-Petter Rosenlund
• Additional Graphics: Lars Petter Anfinsen, Erik Bakken, Torkell Bernsen, Christophe Branche, Ronnie Jensen, Glenn Kristoffersen, Colin McMahon, Tommy Svensson
• Level Editing: Jack Kristoffersen
• Game Design: Gaute Godager, Bjørn Røstøen, Tommy Sydsæter
• Play Testing: Sam Patel, Steve Rizor, Rene Boutin, Steve Gehrke, Dan MacArthur, Justin Siller, Mario Zavala
• Chairman, Sunsoft: Masami Maeda
• Vice Chairman, Sunsoft: Tad Shimamoto
• Director, Sunsoft Japan: Kiharu Yoshida
• General Manager and International Development Coordinator: Kenji Yoshioka
• Marketing Director: Karen Shadley
• Game Play Manual: Alison Quirion
• Executive Assistant: Nanette Hyssong
• Customer Service: Kaz Harman, June Eckert, Connie Perez, Julie Williams, Jamie Jorgenson, Erin Berry, Jaupale Laster
• Best Regards To: Mari, Sonja, Merethe, Marte, Tone, Silje, Karoline, Maria + Pusen, Endre, Heidi, Alta, Walt, Trond, Skynet, Mack, Cheese & Inger, Roar, Andre, Anders, Tommy, Lisa, Erik + Janne, Super GB, Vebjørn, Thomas, Stein, Supergei, Jens-Harald, Kælliførd & Pāl, Vegard Og Gjengen, Kølla, Badla, Øks, Zumo, Antimon, Richard & Marius, Spacey, Tomten, Sonrop Ad, Jonathan Skārstedt, Sebastian Skārstedt, Martin Ranang, Diderich Buch, Slumsøstrene, Bruce Reilly, Cathy Juby, Darin Horgan, Mark Luszcz, Toko Okano, Kazuaki Goto, Masato Kawai, Akito Takeuchi, Karen Lillie, Sherry Ross

Happy Holidays from Sunsoft and Funcom

Source:

In-game credits

Magazine articles

Main article: Daze Before Christmas/Magazine articles.

Physical scans

Sega Retro Average
Publication Score Source

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Based on 0 review

Sega Retro Average
Publication Version Score 1700 igr dlya Sega (RU) 59 1700 igr dlya Sega (RU) 50 Entsiklopediya luchshikh igr Sega. Vypusk 1 (RU) 50 Hyper (AU) PAL 58 Sega Megazone (AU) PAL 52

	54
Based on 5 reviews

Daze Before Christmas

Mega Drive, AU
Cover
Cart Manual

Technical information

Main article: Daze Before Christmas/Technical information.

ROM dump status

System	Hash	Size	Build Date	Source	Comments
✔	CRC32 b95e25c9 MD5 334d109c48ed477ad00eaaf7e38c6813 SHA-1 240c0d9487d7659a4b2999e0394d552ab17bee8a	2MB	1994-08	Cartridge (AU)
?	CRC32 317c9491 MD5 cc52c1838eb1a7e2bb968e6ff619e6ce SHA-1 a63cdb54c31b1c1219467987a81e761ee92feee3	2MB	1994-08					Page