Earlier this month it was announced by Ishisoft that veteran XBox Live indie hero, Johnny Platform, had finally made his way onto PC as a festive gift to desktop gamers. The title, released back in 2009 on the Microsoft console, sees the little java junkie battling to save Christmas over one hundred levels. Best of all? It’s absolutely free.

If you’ve never experienced this game’s predecessor, Johnny Platform’s Biscuit Romp, the appeal with these games comes from the simplicity of design. Each level plays out on a single screen and your goal – without dying – is to jump on and kill all evil robots present in order to open up a nearby exit. Collecting coffee mugs on your travels will increase your available lives whilst presumably allowing Johnny to sustain his crippling caffeine addiction.

Perfecting your jumps, ducks and rolls to avoid spawning back at the start of each level is where the challenge really lies, but it’s entertaining rather than frustrating. The game saves every five screens so if you do suck enough to lose all of your lives then you’ll only be required to retread a modicum of familiar ground as punishment.

In order to play Johnny Platform Saves Christmas you’ll need to have the XNA 3.1 and .NET 2.0 runtimes installed on your system. Don’t worry though, detailed information on where to get these is included in the ReadMe.

This is good, clean family fun. It’s eminently playable, but more importantly… Christmassy!

[Ishisoft]