Growing up in a house with a goth sibling means I am legally obligated to enjoy The Nightmare Before Christmas and anything that Tim Burton touches with his spooky hands. Every Christmas we sit down as a family to watch it, and every year we debate on if it’s a Christmas movie or Halloween movie. It takes place on Christmas, has Christmas in the title and one of the main characters is ‘Sandy Claws’. It is a Christmas movie, and I will die on that hill.
The other thing about having a goth sibling is we owned a lot of The Nightmare Before Christmas merchandise. Clothes, toys, books, you name it we had it. One of the things we owned was the 2004 PlayStation 2 game The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie’s Revenge. This game is one I look back on fondly, and I would argue it is one of the weirdest, but best games to play on Christmas Day. Move over Die Hard Trilogy, Oogie’s Revenge is here to kick your butt with some sweet, sweet dance moves.
Soul Robber! Soul Robber! Soul Robber!
Oogie’s Revenge takes place one year after the events of The Nightmare Before Christmas and follows our “bone daddy”, Jack Skellington, once again being very bored with his spooky little life. In classic Jack fashion he decides to leave Halloween Town to find “more new discoveries” to make next year’s Halloween even better. Upon his leaving Shock, Lock and Barrel resurrect Oogie Boogie… somehow. It’s not really explained. Oogie Boogie takes over Halloween Town on December 23rd and now Jack has to stop him. See, I told you it was a Christmas game!
Jack saves the town by doing missions for Halloween Town residents across 24 chapters. These missions usually just involve hitting bad guys with his Soul Robber, a green slimy whip-thing with a hand on the end. It reminds me a lot of those sticky slap hand toys you used to get in the early 2000’s.
You know certain noises or pieces of dialogue from video games somehow worm their way into your brain and live there rent free for eternity? This game permanently etched Chris Sarandon screaming “Soul Robber!” followed by a whip noise into my head, as Jack says that line every single time you make a heavy attack. Having this dialogue is akin to Arthur Morgan screaming “Cattleman Revolver!” as he shoots some O’Driscoll Boys at point blank. It’s charming at first but quickly becomes repetitive. There’s only so much “Soul Robber! Soul Robber! Soul Robber! Soul Robber!” one can take.
PS2 era
Feeling nostalgic? Check out our pick of the best PS2 games.
You can upgrade your Soul Robber throughout the game by killing basic enemies for coins and then visiting the Witches’ Shop. At different points in the game you can also unlock two new outfits for Jack – the Pumpkin King, and Santa Jack. These outfits give you new abilities and fighting styles. I always loved dressing Jack up as the Pumpkin King, purely because it looked the coolest and it allowed me to breathe fire on bad guys.
The core combat is very similar to the hack and slash action of Devil May Cry, and the main thing you’ll want to do is string together combos for a better score at the end of the level. The combo streaks have great names, and the way the narrator announces them is really satisfying – the ranking system goes from Spine Tingling for a combo of 10, all the way to Shriekified for 60.
Where boss battles differ is through what I can only describe as the karaoke sections from the Yakuza games during boss fights. As you hit the bosses and string together combos with your Soul Robber you collect music notes which fill up a bar in the top left corner of the screen. Once full this triggers a ‘Let’s Dance‘ ultimate, where you have to press the corresponding buttons at the right time to absolutely obliterate the bosses.
In our town of Halloween!
I remember finding this game to be a delight on the senses, but also one of the most difficult games I played growing up. It didn’t quite compare to the FromSoftware-esque levels of difficulty that Donald Duck: Quack Attack gave me, but Oogie’s Revenge was definitely too difficult for an eight-year-old to happily play. I died frequently, which probably wouldn’t have been too bad if I didn’t have to hear re-hashed songs from the original movie on repeat as you fight bosses.
To be fair to the boss songs, they do have new lyrics and even include Jack reacting to what the enemies say. However, standard enemy combat forces you to listen to This Is Halloween on repeat until you finish kicking butt. What makes it worse is the ambient music around Halloween Town is also This Is Halloween but just the instrumental version. I get it. This. Is. Halloween. I do not need to be reminded.
At a simpler level, I adore being able to just explore Halloween Town. We see so little of it in the movie, it’s a shame. I think every goth would love to spend the day there, and this game lets you live that. Although not perfect, being able to walk around does feel special. You get to meet the characters like the Clown with the tear-away face, or the Corpse Kid. It is just fan service, yes, but I am a sucker for it.
This year, Christmas will be ours!
If you want some silly, gothic nostalgia this Christmas then look no further than Oogie’s Revenge.
Now I know this all seemed like a lot of complaining, but I genuinely really like this game. Exploring Halloween Town, talking to all the characters from the movie and getting to dance battle as Jack is a goth’s dream come true. Maybe it’s the nostalgia running through my veins as I write this, but it is good. When it launched it received middling reviews and was criticized for being unpolished. That’s all true, but there’s just something about playing a game set in a world you love that puts a haze over all the criticism.
If you want some silly, gothic nostalgia this Christmas then look no further than Oogie’s Revenge. Will you hate The Nightmare Before Christmas after playing it? Possibly. Will you have the words “Soul Robber!” in the head for the rest of your life? Oh hell yes. Most of all, you’ll have some festive fun along with firm proof that it is a Christmas movie.
Looking to get into the festive spirit? See our pick of the best Christmas movies.