Spud! The so-bad-it's-really-bad Christmas adventure

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Features by Adventure Game Hotspot staff
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Apparently Adventure Game Geek didn't get enough coal in his stocking this Christmas, because in his latest quest for holiday-themed adventures, this year he ignored all urgent warnings and landed on one of the genre's most abysmal clunkers: Charybdis's Spud!

Despite some suspiciously overzealous raves upon its arrival in 1996 ("The world's first interactive cartoon" – no. "The most beautifully crafted game of the year" – heck no!), the only way Spud could be considered a "good" game is if prefaced with "so bad it's..." And even then, yeah, no.

Contrary to what its title suggests, you don't play as a potato but rather the grandson of Santa Claus, who must set out to thwart the plans of the cackling villain Dr. Chillblane, who has kidnapped old Saint Nick and stolen a secret toymaking machine from the North Pole to create an army to take over the world. Mwa-ha-ha-ha!

And so begins a "submersive" point-and-click, first-person adventure filled with all the usual festive Christmas traditions, from "manic penguins, crazed pixies, paranoid polar bears and dangerous dragons" to tropical island orangutans, gnome massacres, gun-toting reindeer, fluffy bunny sacrifices and peeping creepily on Donner in the shower.

Okay, maybe not so traditional, for good reason. But what Spud lacks in narrative coherence and seasonal cheer, it more than makes up for with its hideous graphics, dead ends, unfunny double entendres, and repetitive trial-and-error gameplay that blatantly rips off Indiana Jones in places, minus the entertainment.

Incredibly, the Danish magazine PC Player gave the game 83%, while game historian Allan Christophersen gave it only 15%. So where does Adventure Game Geek's final rating fall? You're just a click away from finding out!

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