What If Mario Party and Tony Hawk Went Christmas Shopping? Meet Yule Dads

Eight dads, one shopping mall, and Christmas presents worth pulling tricks for

A two-person indie team has turned last-minute holiday shopping into a trolley-riding party game.

Yule Dads mixes Mario Party and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater in a Christmas mall. Dads race shopping carts, pull tricks and hunt for the last presents. Indie team SHUCK is making it.

SHUCK shared gameplay and answered questions on Reddit. One shot shows a dad upside down in a shopping cart beside a Christmas tree. It’s as odd as turning a Game Boy into a drum machine, another project we covered.

See Yule Dads in action

Watch the gameplay clip SHUCK posted on Reddit. It shows the shopping-cart trick system and the Christmas mall the team is building.

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The Christmas shopping trolley is now a skateboard

Up to eight players can race through a mall, grind handrails and escalators, drift around corners, and pull airborne tricks in a rush for presents. SHUCK has even given the trick list its own terrible dad-joke vocabulary: Corkscrooge, Yule Log, and Rudolph Nosegrind are among the names on the official Steam page.

The tricks change how races play. SHUCK told commenters that landing tricks gives a speed boost, while style points matter in trick-focused minigames and Trick Attack mode. Even if you miss a gift, a clean combo might help you catch up.

Shopping carts can grind rails in Yule Dads, and tricks affect movement and scoring. Image: SHUCK.

The mall has more than one way to ruin Christmas

The main Party mode combines gift hunts with minigames. The store description names Snowball Fight, Hot Coal, Grind Gauntlet, and Capture the Candycane. The developer says the current build contains more than 13 minigames, alongside several multiplayer and solo modes.

Four contenders line up with their shopping carts, including a skeleton wearing a Santa hat. Image: SHUCK.

Then there is Man Flu. One dad starts infected, anyone he touches joins him, and the last player still healthy wins. Free Ride drops the timer entirely, while Time Attack asks solo players to collect gifts quickly and climb a leaderboard. Optional rules include low gravity, big heads, and double speed.

Two developers, one mall

When players asked how many maps there would be, SHUCK said the game is set in a single mall rather than several locations. Its different activities and modes are supposed to give players reasons to come back. The team also says it’s just two people working with no budget and going for an old PS2-era look.

Players have suggested different cart types and asked whether grinding helps them win. SHUCK has been answering questions in the comments. Some ideas sound fun, but the studio has not confirmed them as features for release.

A late-November launch is planned, not finished

The Steam store currently lists November 26, 2026 as the planned release date, with SHUCK as both developer and publisher. In the earlier Reddit discussion, the developer was aiming for the end of November. Those are plans, not confirmation that a public build has been released.

A price has not been formally posted on the store. The developer floated a price below $5 in a comment, but it remains tentative. Fix Gaming Channel has not played the game; this story is based on the developer’s footage, public replies, and Steam listing.

In real life, last-minute Christmas shopping is miserable. Here, at least, you can grind a shopping cart along an escalator and score points for it.

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