Published by Ratalaika Games and developed by FobTi Interactive, Big Trouble in Little Chimney is a short burst Santa/Christmas theme survivors action title. While it doesn’t have much replay value, this five-dollar digital download offers simple fun while it lasts.
Playing as Santa, it is your job to survive against a ten-minute onslaught of goofy turkeys, demonic gingerbread men, deranged pirates, and evil snowmen. If you make it to the ten-minute mark, you’ll face off with a giant game-ending boss. Beat this boss and the highest score gets saved to the local leaderboard.
Gameplay is your typical survivors fare. Meaning, you move around a looping playfield absent of obstacles, and use twin stick controls to move and shoot. However, I found myself getting smoked using the default manual control scheme. Thankfully, there is an option to turn on auto-aim which helps tremendously. Curiously, there is no auto-shoot option so the player needs to constantly hold the attack button. I am guessing this is because the player moves faster when not shooting so having full control of movement gives the player access to this option. Still, having an auto shoot option would have been nice because it gets to a point when you won’t lift your finger from the trigger especially in the last few minutes.
Like most survivor titles, you start as a weakling but slowly grow stronger with each run. Cash can be spent on permanent upgrades that enhance stats but also provides variety in weaponry. Even though there are multiple gun options ranging from shotguns to flame throwers, I found the machine gun to be the most effective and didn’t stray from this standard attack once unlocked. So there is some variety but it is sort of a moot point. Then, once enough XP has been collected from defeated foes, a new perk gets unlocked for that run, which is the reason why this type of gameplay is so addicting and rewarding.
Uniquely, there is another gameplay mode. This single-screen horde mode-style tasks the player with protecting presents from thieves – think those cutscenes in Golden Ax but faster paced. The goal is to protect this presents for as many waves as possible. It is a fun distraction once the main mode has been cleared but lacks depth.
I was able to unlock all the Achievements and gear upgrades in less than two hours, but once everything has been earned, there is little reason to continue the slaughter. Although brief, the time spent this with enjoyable action-romp is quite pleasant while it lasts.
SCORE: 7.5/10
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