24. Frosty The Snowman 2 Turbo
Merry Christmas, Comm-adorers! Park your sleigh next to Hank's dusty old chimney-hole and pour yourself up a tall mug of nog, because 'tis the season to play some Frosty The Snowman 2 Turbo.
FTS2T is a homebrew effort released by Joe Dixon of Beyond Reproach in 2009 and is based on a game originally released with "Your Commodore" Magazine in 1990. From what I've seen of the original, this sequel is clearly superior in the graphics and sound department at the very least, though a game originally intended for release in a magazine may not have gotten as much attention in development and may have purposely been kept simple for ease of re-typing. There are also a couple of different sub-versions of FTS2T itself - I played the floppy version, while there's also a tape version out there that uses a loader with a new intro screen (of which I've sneakily gaffed a screenshot from the internet for re-use here) and changes up the music a little.
The game supports 2 players and is best compared to Pitfall in general gameplay style (though, if we're being 100% transparent, I like this game a lot more - sorry Atari fans). You play as Frosty and travel screen to screen, dodging obstacles, jumping over holes, and probably saving Christmas in some way, shape, or form. The game requires a joystick, though a controller is definitely ideal, as the controls are quite loose and you'll need to be particularly precise in your movements. Frosty 2 Turbo is also somewhat customizable, allowing you to pick from different game speeds and set some extra controls allowing for more competitive multi-play (i.e. the ability for your character to push the other player while platforming - a very un-Christmaslike activity, in this old gentleman's opinion).
This isn't what I'd call a graphically intricate game, though the visuals are pleasant and the action flows smoothly. We get a split-screen, some nice-looking falling snow effects (that can be further tuned to your liking), and clean, discernable character sprites. The game's graphical elements all look consistent. and nothing tends to stand out as tacky/substandard (which is sometimes a concern with homebrew pixel art) or get in the way of the action.
The music is similarly primitive but adequate. There's a selection of 3 songs, though I could recognize only one: a very "demoscene"-sounding take on the 80s charity single "Do They Know It's Christmas After All", as upbeat and enjoyable as the original (I'll leave it open to interpretation whether that statement should be considered a compliment or an insult). The other two tunes are a somber ballad and something vaguely approaching a traditional folk tune, filtered through the SID's retro-futurist subtractive synthesis.
Frosty isn't really deep or broad enough to give me much to say about it, but I already enjoy it greatly and consider it among the better contemporary freeware titles I've played on the C64. In keeping with so many games on this platform, it's simple, fun, and makes for a great short party-session with a small group of friends. Even on a first attempt, I found myself sucked into about an hour's worth of replays, trying to find my way through challenge after challenge, and will likely revisit a few more times and try and complete it before our 12 days of the Christmas season are up.
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