Santa Smash: a Sunburnt Santa bonus game

How to play Santa Smash

• Heads pop out of the burrows. Tap them with the squeaky hammer. 60 seconds.
• Elves 100, the cheeky possum 150 (let it get away and it nicks a present), the golden reindeer 500.
• Don't boop Nan! It costs 300 and your combo.
• Boops in a row build a multiplier; a miss, or a head that gets away, breaks it.

Scoring

Boops in a row build a multiplier: x2 from 5, x3 from 10, up to x5 from 20, so a golden reindeer at x5 is 2,500. A tap on an empty burrow, a head that gets away, or booping Nan resets it. Heads stay up for less time and more pop up at once as the clock runs down; the last 10 seconds is the frenzy. Opens once 4 doors have a star.

Bonus game: opens once you have at least one star on 4 doors. It has its own top 100 for signed-in players.

Tips for a big score

1. Let Nan go. When Nan sinks back into her burrow untouched it costs you nothing, not even your combo, while booping her costs 300 and the whole multiplier. If you're not sure whose head it is, wait a split second.
2. Don't tap empty burrows hoping to get lucky. A miss resets the combo just like an escape, and the combo is worth far more than any one head: at x5 a plain elf is 500.
3. Possums are worth chasing twice over: 150 if you get them, minus 50 (and your combo) if they get away with a present. The golden reindeer is only up for a moment, so when it appears, it goes to the front of the queue.

The real story: who really lives in the backyard burrows

The burrows in Santa Smash are wombat burrows, borrowed for the day. The bare-nosed wombat is a serious digger, built with powerful limbs, short broad feet and flattened claws, and it spends about two thirds of its life underground [1]. Mainland adults average almost a metre long and about 26 kilograms, and they are mainly nocturnal, staying out mostly at night in summer to avoid the heat [1]. They once ranged widely across south-eastern Australia, but their distribution today is patchy and fragmented [1].

The cheeky one popping up in the game is a different local. The common brushtail possum has adapted well to city life, rests by day in hollow logs, tree trunks or any dark spot, including the inside of house roofs, and in the suburbs will eat almost anything [2]. That appetite is why, in the game, a possum you miss runs off with a present.

No real wombat would put up with elves, a golden reindeer and Nan using its front door, but that's Christmas at Sunburnt Santa's place. The hammer is squeaky and every head just ducks back down. Meet the family on Nan's page.

When it opens

Santa Smash opens once at least 4 doors have a star. How the calendar works.

Play now

Sources for the real story

1. Bare-nosed Wombat, Australian Museum
2. Common Brushtail Possum, Australian Museum