Play Christmas Cracker for Free

Before you can start merrily pulling Christmas crackers, you need to select a character from the trio presented. There’s a cheerful looking snowman wearing a top hat and red scarf. There’s an equally cheerful penguin clad in matching bobble hat and scarf. And there’s a reindeer, Rudolph presumably on account of its red nose, wearing a red and yellow hat and scarf combo. Pick a character such as the penguin and it will flap its arms enthusiastically. You’ll then be taken through to the main game screen. In the background, some traditional Christmas decorations can be made out in the form of chain link tissue paper streamers, a Christmas tree and gift-wrapped presents.

In the foreground, your character waves jubilantly at you every couple of seconds. It’s all very friendly but it’s also a bit intense. It would be nice if Mr Penguin could ease up on all the gestures and let you focus on the matter at hand. Christmas Cracker is a fully mobile-compatible game incidentally, and it will work well on tablet and smartphone, whether your preferred OS happens to be Android or iPhone. The game, which has been built in HTML5, will also work well on desktop, though it won’t take up the full screen so you’ll be left with a load of space off to one side.

Instant win games are meant to be simple, but even so, Christmas Cracker is ultra-simple. All you have to do is click on the box of crackers that’s displayed in front of you. There are 12 crackers in total and you’re aiming to match three identical symbols to win that prize. Find a Christmas party hat and you’ll instantly win 10 coins.

You’re given 9 goes in which to successfully identify 3 matching symbols. What’s cool about this game is that after you’ve selected a cracker, it will be removed from the box and a neat animated sequence will see you and your designated character ‘pull’ the cracker. The cracker will burst open and the prize inside will spill out.

The prize will be just like the sort you’d receive in a regular Christmas cracker i.e something cheap and inconsequential such as a pencil sharpener. There’ll be a prize value assigned to it though, which could be as much as 10,000 coins. The object in question will be placed below the main board and will remain there as you continue in your quest to match three identical symbols.

Other objects you might turn up in the crackers include a red dice, a tape measure, a yo-yo, a whistle and a comb. One of the best things about the game is that when you succeed in winning a prize, you’ll be greeted by a Christmas cracker joke. Each one is every bit as grimace-worthy as a proper cracker joke should be. Sample: “What did the beaver say to the tree? Nice gnawing you.” Expect many sensible chuckles as you play.

Christmas Cracker isn’t quite a cracker of a game, but it’s been very well done all the same. You don’t always need advanced features and mini games. In fact when it comes to scratch cards, there’s a case for saying that less is more. What you do get with Christmas Cracker is a mobile-compatible game that’s easy to play and whose charms are hard to resist. There’s just something about its cheerful characters and neat animations that are extremely pleasing to behold. Christmas has come early in the case of Christmas Cracker.