Quiet Christmas is a game in the “Quiet, Please!” mobile gaming series released by Nostatic Software. The series, which presently stands at four titles, is a charming and nostalgic throwback to graphical Adventure games of old; the sort where plot doesn’t always matter as you run around solving puzzles and performing (sometimes menial) tasks, but often with charm and style that makes it all worthwhile.
Quiet Christmas was released in 2012 and is a short-but-sweet adventure starring a little girl whose only goal is to go to sleep on Christmas Eve so that Santa can come. The trouble is there is far too much going on around the house to get any slumber. Your younger brother is racing about the house, your father is banging away at a malfunctioning furnace and your neighbor’s obnoxious inflatable Santa is “Ho, Ho, Hoing” outside your window. Before you can slip off to dreamland so that the real Santa can approach, you must put these wrongs to right.
The art style is the first thing that stood out to me: colorful, extremely pixelated and yet easily identifiable. It is suggestive of old Sierra or LucasArts adventures done on a smaller, more minimalistic scale. Sound is less primitive but adds to the atmosphere and is occasionally humorous (the neighbor’s horrible attempt at Christmas caroling being a highlight).
The control scheme is simplicity itself, which is a great plus for a mobile game. Complex controls don’t work very well on small touchscreen devices, but movement is kept to left and right with an action and item button the only other keys. It’s all you need to interact with the world around you, and it works like a charm, making the game easy to pick up and play right from the start, no instructions needed.
The game’s only downfall is the very same simplicity that makes it so charming and easy to pick up and play: it is extremely easy. I personally was able to complete the entire thing in about 15/20 minutes. If you’re a novice to the Adventure or Puzzle genres, it’s possible you might spend an hour or more while you wrap your mind around how such games work and the “logic” behind them, but even so it remains a very easy game.
On the other hand, the game never presents itself as anything more than a charming holiday diversion and a throw-back to simpler times in gaming. Despite the short length and ease of the game, it was a lot of fun to play, occasionally made me laugh, and is a perfect feel-good Christmas special for the old-school gamer. Think of it as “A Charlie Brown Christmas”: we’ve all seen it a thousand times, but it brings a little Christmas magic to the season. If you’re a fan of retro gaming, Quiet Christmas is worth spending your coffee break on.
