BY COLE JAQUITH ’16

According to legend, Rudolph the red nosed reindeer was never allowed to join in an reindeer games. You may or may not have wondered what a reindeer game is, but you’re about to find out anyway.

6. Reindeer Xmas Race

In this game, reindeer attempt to navigate an obstacle course while avoiding spiked balls, flying saw blades,  pits of water and fire, and the possibility of being impaled on an icicle. The game is made even harder by the fact that the reindeer only jumps about 50% of the time when you tap the screen,  but that may be because it seems to only have two working legs. Rudolph may have faired better, but this obstacle course is perilous for any reindeer.

5. 2015 Reindeer Hunt

Rudolph definitely wouldn’t have wanted to play this game. This user chooses either a regular rifle, a sniper rifle, or an assault rifle, then moves the scope while shooting reindeer who scamper across the screen. This game is in clear violation of reindeer rights, and is pretty much pointless because the player doesn’t even receive a score. Many reindeer most likely escaped unscathed because the scope gets stuck in the corner of the screen most of the time.

4. Hungry Reindeer

Probably the simplest and least dangerous of the reindeer games. The user essentially controls a floating reindeer head while dodging a constantly bouncing snowball and falling snowflakes while picking up the occasional present or carrot. You could possibly play on easy for eternity, but once you get up to two and three snowballs on intermediate and hard, the game becomes almost impossible.

3. 8 Bit Santa Flappy Reindeer Run

This game is essentially a direct ripoff of Flappy Bird. Reindeer fly through the air directing santa through a series of green pipes. The sleigh falls and rises a lot slower than Flappy Bird, making the game quite a bit harder. If you liked Flappy Bird you’ll probably like this game, until you remember how frustrating Flappy Bird was. I’m still not sure what giant green pipes are doing in the North Pole.

2. Christmas Reindeer Runner

This game actually wasn’t bad. The user controls a running reindeer while it jumps over igloos, ice hazards, snowballs, and small children, as well as sliding under Christmas lights that are hanging from the sky. The further you go, the faster the reindeer, who is somehow running on two feet, runs and the quicker the obstacles come. I bet Rudolph would’ve had a lot of fun playing this one.

1. Airborne Reindeer Christmas Swinging Adventure

This game was actually challenging and probably required a decent amount of skill to design. A reindeer falls from the sky and shoots a cable (don’t ask me how) that attaches to a tree or house. The reindeer the swings and releases the cable and attaches it to something else. You actually have to using timing and trajectory to keep the reindeer swinging, or else it will fall to it’s death. Rudolph probably would’ve gotten a pretty good adrenaline rush from this one, until he inevitably lost momentum and plummeted towards the earth.

All in all, Rudolph wasn’t missing much. I never knew reindeer games were so dangerous.