On the first day of Christmas, Pocket Gamer gave to me...
An indeterminate mass of feathers and gore that could have once been a partridge before it came into contact with the Happy (pear) Tree Friends
Yes, it is Christmastide (aka The Twelve Days of Christmas). So in the spirit of the season, Pocket Gamer is bringing you a selection of vaguely irrelevant handheld and mobile interpretations of the festive rhyme which marks the period of feasting and merrymaking that will climax on Twelfth Night, the traditional end of Christmas.
Our first take pushes the partridge – that pleasant-tasting game bird – through the bloody adult cartoon mill that is the internet, TV and million-selling DVD series Happy Tree Friends. (We're not really bothering with the pear bit; neither should you get too sniffy about the fact there aren't any birds in the show – this is hard enough work as it is.)
Anyhow, the reason for this particular selection is the news that Happy Tree Friends will be spreading itself all over gaming platforms in 2008. An Xbox Live and PC download game has been announced, but our attention will be firmly set on the mobile-bound Happy Tree Friends: Blood Money.
This simple little game sees you taking the roles of Shifty and Lifty, two green kleptomaniac raccoon twins, who are helping out their local blood bank by dropping their chums onto a trampoline and thus towards various sharp implements, such as chainsaws, barbed wire, axes and scissors, collecting the falling liquid in return for cold, hard cash.
Surely it's nothing more than a thinly-veiled modern parable concerning the commerciality of Christmas itself?
No, come back. There's only 11 more of these to go, so until Epiphany (or January 6th to us and you), hang on tight.
