After falling madly in love with Back Cat's Push Push Penguin back in 2004, Pen-Pen Olympics is a game that I've been desperate to play ever since the project was first announced over a year ago. Following many pleading emails sent to Army Of Trolls regarding it's status, the game's main artist finally got in touch earlier this month to advise that there were plans to release a Christmas-themed version of the game as a special gift to the retro-gaming and remakes community via Retrospec's festive advent calendar. And here I am, days before the official release playing a near-complete alpha build under the guise of reviewing it for RGCD! (I knew this magazine editing lark would eventually pay off).

Predictably, Pen-Pen Xmas Olympics is multi-event skiing game consisting of 16 different challenges (namely downhill, slalom and ski jump) that are played against the clock; your goal being to rack up as many points as possible in order to compete against other gamers for a top-ten position in the online high score table. To progress through the game you have to meet each track's qualifying requirements, usually involving a tight time limit, coin collecting or a jumping distance to beat, and there's not much room for mistakes; fail to meet the objectives and you'll lose one of your three credits (with new ones being earned by releasing a star-sprite). There are no passwords of save states, so to win the game you have to complete each stage in turn - and don't be fooled by the deceptively cute visuals - Pen-Pen Olympics is one bitch of a game to beat. The opening events act as a gentle introduction, but the difficulty knob is turned all the way up by the time you've reached the middle of the game, with the last few challenges requiring ninja-like reflexes and pixel perfect timing. It's incredibly addictive stuff though, and despite the punishment the game serves out you can't help but come back to it over and over again, slowly improving your Xmas Olympic skills with each turn.

In terms of presentation, pixel art really doesn't get any better than this. I'm a sucker for retro design, and Pen-Pen Olympics features some of the best graphics that I've seen since video gaming's Golden Age - in my opinion, Army Of Trolls are right at the top of the league alongside pixel-superstars Eboy. Also, and much like the previous game in the Penguin series, the old-school, jazzy music and sound effects are ideally suited to the game and perfectly compliment the 1990's arcade-style atmosphere. One day, I swear, I'll have to build a custom coin-up cabinet just for this and Push Push Penguin...

Arguably, the most exciting thing about Pen-Pen Xmas Olympics is that this is really just a preview of the forthcoming final game - and from the limited information I've managed to obtain, the complete version is likely to be considerably more balanced (in terms of learning curve), have a far greater number of levels and there's even the possibility of a track editor being included - a feature that I can see becoming massively popular (especially here at RGCD HQ). I can only hope that the final build also incorporates some sort of multi-player hot seat mode whereby you can challenge your mates for the highest score over a range of selected (perhaps unlockable) tracks; after all, that's what sports games are all about!

Christmas is a time for miracles and magic, and Black Cat together with Army Of Trolls have delivered on both accounts with this superbly presented and lovingly crafted retro-gaming gem.