Door 20 · Catcher
Present Drop: Day 20 of Sunburnt Santa
Santa's ute rattles along an outback road and the presents bounce out of the tray. Slide the sack underneath to catch them, and whatever you do, don't bag a cane toad.
How to play Present Drop
- Slide your finger to move the sack.
- Presents tumble out of the ute as it drives past. Cane toads hop off the road: bag one and it costs a life, and so does a dropped present.
- Catches in a row build a multiplier. The giant present is worth 5x.
Scoring
| What | Points |
|---|---|
| Present | 50 |
| Giant present | 250 |
| Cane toad in the sack | costs a life |
| Present that hits the dirt | costs a life |
Catches in a row build a multiplier: x2 from 5, x3 from 10, up to x5 from 20, so a giant present at x5 is 1,250. Losing a life resets the streak. You have 3 lives, and everything falls 4% faster with every 10 catches.
Stars: the three targets
Stars don't lock anything; they show how you're going, and doors with at least one star count towards the bonus games.
Tips for three stars
- Ride behind the ute. Presents pop out of the back of the tray and mostly fly backwards, so the best place for the sack is just behind the ute as it drives across, moving with it.
- When the ute has driven off the edge of the screen, nothing falls but cane toads. Use that gap to get back to the side the ute comes in from (it always drives left to right), and keep clear of any toad hopping off the road.
- A dropped present costs a life and your streak, which is far worse than missing one catch. From 30 catches presents start falling in twos, so take the closer one first and only stretch for the second if no toad is in the way.
The real story: how cane toads came to Queensland
Cane toads are not Australian. In June 1935 Reginald Mungomery, an entomologist with Queensland's Bureau of Sugar Experiment Stations, travelled to Hawaii, where cane toads had been brought in from Puerto Rico, and brought toads back to Gordonvale near Cairns, where a special enclosure was waiting for them [1]. By August they had bred in captivity, and 2,400 were released around Gordonvale to eat the cane beetles damaging the sugar crop [1].
It didn't work. The toads had little or no impact on cane beetles, and the poison they exude kills many of the native animals that try to eat them [1]. They have since spread well beyond Queensland into coastal New South Wales, and Australia's cane toad population is estimated at more than 200 million [1].
Gordonvale is just down the range from Yungaburra, where Sunburnt Santa is made, so on a wet summer night the toads on the road are part of the drive home. In Present Drop they hop off the road and into the path of the falling presents: keep them out of the sack, because nobody wants a toad for Christmas.
When it opens
Door 20 opens on day 20 of your own calendar (your Day 1 is the day you first play), and for everyone by 20 December. Play the door before it to open it. Once it's open you can replay it as often as you like, and after Christmas Eve all 24 doors stay open. How the calendar works.
Play now
Same kind of game: Mango Madness, Backyard Cricket, Prawn Rain.
Sources for the real story
- Defining moments in Australian history: Introduction of cane toads, Australian Geographic (National Museum of Australia's Defining Moments project)