SantaCraft

This is a [b]really[/b] tough review to write, and another example where I wish I could give a "mixed" rating. Let me be clear: [b]SantaCraft is NOT a bad game.[/b] It's charming, it plays very well, and it's cheap. There aren't many games like this, and I definitely recommend this for kids. The couple of Animal Crossing jokes made me laugh. It's all there, but... it's a lot less magical than I was expecting. Unlike what the screenshots may suggest, this is not really a building-focused game; rather, it's more of an RPG-lite where you complete a bunch of fetch quests by crafting things, and sometimes it'll involve building a structure. It took me less than 1.5 hours to complete all of the quests. At that point, you enter a more sandbox-like experience, but it's not a true sandbox (insert joke about it being snow instead of sand); you still need to clear map tiles, craft tools that eventually break, and collect resources to actually build anything. There is no omnitool, and there isn't even any omnigear that has all the benefits of your older gear. You'll find yourself switching your equipped items and re-crafting multiple tools quite often. There is no camera control at all in this game. In fact, there's no keyboard support, either. You have to click to where you want to go/interact. The only minimap system is the "GPS pants," which you only find about halfway through. [b]You have to switch your pants if you want to see the minimap.[/b] It's a funny sentence to write, but it's annoying to play. I say "switch" because you don't want the GPS pants on permanently; switching to Santa's classic pants gives you a chance of receiving more item drops, which you'd want most of the time because of the grind to build things. Elements like this really put me off. There's a few puns, but the "characters" only serve to give you fetch quests. Building up a village doesn't really do anything, and since you have to grind out the resources, it's even more of a time-waster than a true sandbox would be. As someone who loves Christmas train aesthetics, even the train doesn't really excite me. There is no day-night cycle, so you don't get to see the North Pole at night with lights here. It's especially unfortunate because you can build street lamps but they subsequently serve no purpose, like all other buildings. tl;dr SantaCraft is a game I would have loved when I was a child. If you have children, I highly recommend picking this up for them. As for kids-at-heart, if you were tempted by this game, and everything I said doesn't deter you, then go for it. I just can't recommend it to most people. I don't think I wasted my time, but there are better ways for me to spend this money. If you're going to pick it up, at least get it on sale; $10 is too much for what little is available. $5 is definitely the sweet spot.