*Happyland Adventures theme music and sounds play*
*it's quite pleasant*
Well isn’t this just pleasant!
This being Happyland Adventures, developed by Johan Peitz of Free Lunch Design and released, appropriately
enough, as freeware in the year 2000.
It’s one of those titles that ended up finding its way onto countless PCs in the first decade
of the new millennium, due to its inclusion on software compilations discs, magazine cover
CDs, and being widely shared online.
And it’s little wonder; the download size of Happyland Adventures remained small enough
to avoid bringing a dial-up connection to its knees, yet it was packed with a surprising
amount of content for a game programmed by one guy.
This was made possible in part by its usage of the SpriteLib art library by Ari Feldman,
the creation of which is discussed in his book, Designing Arcade Computer Game Graphics.
This freely-available pixel art set was used for a bunch of Happyland’s map tiles, and
in fact, the game itself was created as an entry into the GameDev.net SpriteLib contest
in April of 2000, where it won the prize for Best Use of SpriteLib.
Nice!
And Mr. Peitz didn’t just keep the fun of creation to himself either, since he included
a level editor and custom map loading tools with the game, spurring the creation of countless
fan-made creations.
The result of all this was that Happyland Adventures was embraced by hundreds of thousands,
even millions, of gamers in a short amount of time, and you know what that means.
Time for a Christmas makeover!
Happyland Adventures Xmas Edition, to be precise, which is what the rest of this video will
be focused on.
The experience is largely the same as the original Happyland Adventures, but with the
requisite holiday reskin.
It begins with our hero, uh, dog.
Seriously does he not have a name, I just now thought about that.
Huh.
Anyway, Happyland Dog gets a call from Santa Claus because, of course, Santa’s terrible
at his job and Christmas isn’t going to happen unless someone random
does something about it.
But that’s fine, because listen to that sampled music!
*Santa Claus Is Coming To Town plays*
Ahh it just makes me want to go and explore the land and have happy adventures!
But before that it might be useful to check out the help section on the main menu, if
only to get a quick glance at the animated characters to see who’s naughty and nice.
After you’ve checked your list twice it’s time to go town with the game itself!
Happyland Adventures Xmas Edition begins with this little introductory map letting you know
the basics of gameplay, although it’s surprisingly devoid of any sort of holiday theme.
In fact, it looks confusingly tropical and actually made me double back to the game selection
menu to make sure I loaded the correct one.
But yep, this is indeed the beginning to Happyland Christmas, making it probably the least-Christmassy
Christmas game opening level I’ve seen.
You just talk to old dudes that tell you how to play the game and you collect fruits and stuff.
But that’s okay, because once you’ve breezed through this tutorial section it’s onto
all the snow and ornaments and holiday tunes you’d expect.
And man, it’s just so... happy!
*The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas To You) plays*
Mm, the snow, the trees, the ornaments, the candy, the synthesized Christmas music, it’s
downright delightful.
As for what you’re doing here, the gameplay pretty much identical
to the original Happyland Adventures.
It’s a side-scrolling platformer with an emphasis on exploration, jumping, and collecting,
as so many games like this tend to be.
But the twist is that the exit within each of the 15 levels is locked until you rescue
a specific number of little creatures.
Not the bigger monsters, those hurt you on contact.
THESE little guys.
They’re specifically referred to as "Santa’s helpers," so I guess in this universe the elves
won their abolitionist movement and Old Saint Nick has
moved onto enslaving cute fantasy animals.
Anyway, these bouncy Happyland citizens will follow you around as soon as you come into
contact with them, just like the Chirps in the 1984 Sega arcade game Flicky, as well
as the flickies themselves seen in games like Sonic 3D Blast in 1996.
Collect five critters at a time and deposit them at the appropriate spot somewhere in the level,
then rinse and repeat.
Often there are many more than five required to unlock the exit, and they’re sometimes
hidden in precarious positions, so be prepared to be doing a lot of backtracking and tricky
platforming to get enough of them.
And thankfully, these companions can’t be hurt by enemies, so as long as you stay alive
yourself there’s no worrying about their safety.
Once you’ve found and deposited the appropriate number of the little beasts,
the exit is unlocked and there ya go.
And man, hopping around collecting creatures while they hop around behind you is strangely
satisfying, with each level providing just the right amount of a hassle to keep you engaged.
Most often the challenge comes from using your platforming skills to avoid hazards and
reach small ledges, but other times you won’t be able to get where you need to go without
unlocking something.
This may take the form of a switch that opens a set of tiles, or you might need to find
a power-up like boots to increase your jumping height.
Then there are plenty of spots where the solution isn’t obvious at all, and you’ll have
to do some wall-humping to find a hidden passageway.
And yeah, if you’re into finding tons of secrets like this, then Happyland Adventures
is the game for you.
Some levels even feature large rooms that you’ll never see unless you uncover a secret entrance,
and of course this rewards the player in bonus items which lead to extra lives, and extra time,
and points, and even bonus creatures to save.
If you collect every single one of them, all the monsters turn into coins which can be
picked up and take you to a bonus room after you exit the level.
There’s no need to collect absolutely everything to reach the end, but if you do take the time
along the way then you’ll be rewarded nicely.
This also applies to collecting passwords, which only happens
if you gather five hidden blue orbs.
Since there’s no saving your game and you only get one continue on dying, having these
passwords is kind of a big deal.
Of course, you can just Google them nowadays and not bother with the orbs at all, which
I totally did because screw password systems and the lack of savegames.
I have zero desire to play for an hour and a half and lose it all just because I died
without finding enough password orbs.
And you know what, while we’re on the topic of irksome gameplay quirks, let’s talk about
the sliding move.
While you don’t have any weapons or actions to take out monsters, you can temporarily
knock them down by sliding into them if you have enough momentum.
This is super useful in some cases where jumping over monsters is tricky, but for some reason
it was decided that using this sliding skill is essential in getting past certain areas.
For instance, there are some jumps that are impossible to make normally, so you have to
slide down an incline, let go, jump, then hold to move in a certain direction for long enough.
This would be fine if the sliding move worked reliably but yeah, it doesn’t.
At least I never felt fully comfortable with it in the few hours I spent playing.
You have to be incredibly precise with your key presses in order to get the right momentum
going, otherwise you come to a dead stop or you jump off in the wrong direction and
ruauhghh.
It's really, really annoying in a few spots where it’s the only way
to get to the end of the level.
But really, that’s one of my only complaints in an otherwise
pleasant and enjoyable little platformer.
Happyland Adventures Xmas Edition is one of, if not THE best,
freeware Christmas games I’ve covered on LGR.
It’s straightforward enough for kids to play, yet still provides some additional challenges
for those that wanting a little more.
And with its hours of appealing gameplay and inclusion of level editing software, it heartily
embodies what I feel is the Christmas spirit with how generous it is
with its content, while remaining completely and utterly free of charge.
Happyland Adventures Xmas Edition is almost too wholesome for this world,
and I can’t help but enjoy it.
And while this may be the final Christmas video for 2017, there’s still plenty more
non-holiday stuff incoming in 2018!
New videos show up every Monday and Friday here on LGR.
So thank you very much for watching, and have a Merry Christmas!