Saccharine

We voice the protagonist of this game and got to beta test for 2.0. The game has only gotten more fun since the original freeware release, a bit sad that some of our lines were cut at the beginning but the new intro gets you into the game much faster. It's cheap, short, and fun. Also it runs perfectly on the Steam Deck.

Short and sweet and worth the price of admission IMO. Reminds me of those late 90s, early 2000s web based FPS's you played during the holidays for free or cheap except this one doesn't suck. Still haven't played their main project yet, Project Absentia, but I heard good things and I do own it. Support Indie Devs, especially good Indie Devs.

Short and sweet little xmas shooter with a fun flash animation aesthetic. Very akin to something you'd find on Newgrounds back in the day vibes wise.

Mega jolly, mega festive.

A highly enjoyable distillation of everything that makes good boomshoots fun to play. Punchy weapons, silly humor and never outstays itself. Well worth a play!

An enjoyable short little shooter; took me less than an hour to beat but it's a Christmas game so really that was a fine length for a game to play before heading off to bed.

I played this the day after Christmas and had a good time. I loved the art and environments and I found the enemy's and voice lines funny. Pretty much just plays like DOOM or any other GZ Doom game but that's great cuz DOOM is the ♥♥♥♥. Anyway after finishing this I immediately bought their main game, Project Absentia because I really like what they are doing with these games and I wanna keep the goofy retro shooter dream alive.

buy it

[h1]The video gaming equivalent to a TV Christmas special[/h1] The Steam Store page doesn't really hide how short it is and admittedly, I'd struggle to recommend it at its base price. For a $3.9 CAD purchase (or $3.11 if you own Project Absentia), you get what can best be described as a standalone Doom mod with a handful of tricks up its sleeve Honestly, the main reason this had caught my attention is because it's the first commercial product to use the UZDOOM codebase. which is fairly significant if you follow the Doom modding community. If you're unfamiliar, GZDOOM was the go-to for making more advanced Doom mods and/or standalone games running on the Doom engine, but some time around May of 2025, project lead Graf Zahl pushed out some AI-generated code in the github repository, and everyone else on the team voiced their disagreement with his actions. Le No Chicken in his infinite wisdom said, in his exact words: "feel free to fork the project under a", and every other project member did. I don't think I can really comment on the artstyle, since it seems like a deliberate choice, being invocative of older Flash cartoons back when animated videos could be compiled for less than 10 megabytes. I grew up in that era, so I have some appreciation of the artstyle, but I also acknowledge that it isn't for everyone. Other than that, I can't help but think that the more advanced features of ZDOOM-based level design are heavily underutilized, though I am willing to praise the interactivity of the game world, being invocative of what the Build Engine offered [spoiler]unfortunately, you can't admire yourself on the mirror with E, or drink coffee from the various pots found in the game[/spoiler]. Another critique I have with some of the design decisions is that killing the first boss you encounter immediately ends the level, rather than unlocking an exit switch. This can be pretty annoying when you realize that you missed more secrets than you have liked, and now you are kiting him while humping the walls like 1993 Doom Other than that though, there are some positives that I would like to point out. While the hitscan weapons are fairly basic, the foam dart launcher, RPG, and firecrackers are pretty satisfying to use, and I love how the Red Ryder BB gun stand-in is also the stand-in for a Quake Engine railgun. I can't say i enjoy the Fondue gun, since the projectiles feel way too slow with the player version, while the mice you grab them from have the same projectile speed as an Arachnatron. One detail I thought was cool with the gameplay is the incorporation of score items, and hitting specific milestones increasing your max health. I would like to see more games with a focus on racking up points and getting rewarded for doing that, and I wonder if something similar will be planned for Project Absentia. And honestly, I think this was a much better way to do score than how the shooters of old did, since losing a life just means you play with a pistol start, and being able to save your game trivializes this. All in all, I can see this game being a fun and harmless gift to anyone who enjoys old-school first-person shooting. [spoiler][strike]And a question to Waffle Iron Studios: What did you guys do to the Phoenix Plush's voice box? >:o[/strike] Phoenix's voice box is back as per the 2026 boxing day update[spoiler]

This is a pretty fun boomer shooter. It's not too long, 5 levels plus a 6th one that's just a massive area for the final boss. The gameplay is pretty expected for a boomer shooter, but the art direction is where this game really shines for me. The look of the enemies, levels, and weapons all carry a lot of charm and is the main reason I did two playthroughs before posting a review. The story is pretty lite, but it's still nice, serving as a nice reasoning for the whole game. I played through once on normal and again on hard. I died a few times on hard, none of which were because of the game being unfair and were all on me. Honestly, I can't think of any Christmas boomer shooters and this was a true gem. If you like these types of games, I highly recommend picking it up if you get the chance