Gamemill Entertainment does a lot with licensed properties. Sometimes it works, like Nicktoons Dice of Destiny, and Nickelodeon All Star Brawl 1 & 2. Sometimes, like in the case of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, it does not. And I am the unfortunate person to tell you that I fell for the nostalgia. Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer for the Nintendo Switch 2 needs a patch. Badly. This is not to dunk on Gamemill, or Nintendo for that matter, so if you're here for that, you can leave now. If you're here to read about what my 4-year-old and I experienced, then you're in the right place.
Right from the gate, the game starts like the 1964 movie, introductions and all, but immediately tells us to move the camera around to see the face of the snowman. The camera is super sensitive, and has a slight delay to it, so doing that was a little difficult for a 4 year old, and also for a couple of adults that have played Spyro for the first Playstation.
The game lets you control the snowman for the opening, and then says you can jump, but if you fall into the pit, the camera pulls in behind the snowman, and all you see is the wall behind him. There didn't seem to be a setting to automatically reset the camera, so that in itself was very difficult to explain. The voice acting here was a saving grace, because either the lines were lifted straight from the movie, or there are some very talented voice actors out there.
Once you get to the main idea, the goal is to save Christmas, but in order to save Christmas, you must complete tasks to receive one of Santa Claus's Bells atop of a small rock formation. Here it teaches you that you can double jump, and even float if you hold the button before AND after the double jump. The twist is, that if you hold the button before the double jump, you no longer get the double jump. Once you get the bell, a whole slew of challenges open up, but my kid is already kind of done. And this is the same child who can sell her items on Animal Crossing, so she can use the money to buy a Princess Peach Dress.
As she hands me the controller, the game opens up more characters to interact with, and some reindeer games. When you do the tasks they present you with, you get a bell. However, you can complete these tasks without being prompted to. I found the dentist book for the elf who wants to be a dentist before he told me he needed it. You still have to go through the task prompting dialogue. Then you have to interact with him again to give him the book. It's nothing the kid will notice, but it's definitely something the adult who plays a LOT of video games to notice.
The last straw was when the game notifies you that you can play two player split screen, and now you have two adults playing a game where there are camera problems, and questionable interaction mechanics. Every time there was a cut scene or an interaction with an NPC, the game just focuses on the player that is doing so, cutting away from split screen mode. This means that if one of the players is mid-jump trying to escape a secret cave, they just missed their jump, because the other player is talking to Clarice, or Yukon Cornelius. My kid proceeds to ask if she can go to the playground. That's right. My kid asked to go touch grass instead of playing this game.
There's a difference between buyer's remorse, and getting swindled. This isn't as bad as the Virgin interactive game of the same name, released for the Wii in 2010, but it's not good either. GameMill, please take this article with grace. Releasing this game in October was questionable enough, but releasing it in this state, where even a kid doesn't want to play it, is diabolical. Through a chat bot, Nintendo refunded my $40. Yes, THAT Nintendo. And I played this on Nintendo Switch 2, so there shouldn't have been performance issues. Please keep us posted on if you want to make this game playable, because at it's current state it is not. The release trailer makes it look like gold, but then, I threw my pickaxe at it, licked it, and got...nothin.
(Editor's Note: In the interest of fairness, PR for GameMill reached out to clarify that many of the issues detailed in this article, while verifiable, are specific to Switch 2. The game was built for use on Switch 1. Joseph is examining the game on other platforms and will offer further commentary as is appropriate.)
