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I know it’s fashionable to be a Grinch when it comes to end of year festivities, but I really like Christmas, mostly because it is a day of simple indulgence. Everyone gets a bunch of stuff they have been asking for all at once, then you eat your body weight in rich and delicious foods before drinking enough tipple to get merry, and then you collapse into a chair and fart yourself into a contented coma that lasts until Boxing Day. What’s not to like?
Christmas is also a time when a bunch of Christmas-related media makes an appearance: Christmas books, films, music and television. Admittedly, a lot of this kind of thing is pants (I would rather drink a pint of regurgitated eggnog than subject myself to New Year’s Eve or Nativity 2: Danger in the Manger), but think of the classics: A Nightmare Before Christmas, The Muppet’s Christmas Carol, The Father Ted Christmas Special, Slade, Wizard, Gremlins, and of course, Die Hard.
Games, however, don’t seem to join in with the festivities. Skyrim has quite a lot of snow in it, Banjo-Kazooie has a Christmas-themed level and Dead or Alive 5 has sexy Santa outfits, but it’s not quite the same thing. Why aren’t there more games that are willing to embrace the Christmas spirit in the same way other media does?
You could have, for example, a game where you play as Santa, where you have to fly the sleigh across rooftops and try and deliver as many presents as you can within a time limit. The game would start with you receiving lists of present requests from children, and you have to decide which have been naughty and which have been nice, and deliver toys or lumps of coal accordingly.
That’s just one idea, so make your own suggestions for Christmas-themed games in the comments. What kind of game would you like to see? A game that deals with the nativity? A game that teaches the spirit of giving? Or a game that simply lets you melt possessed snowmen with giant flamethrowers, like in TimeSplitters 2?
Comments
11 years, 3 months ago
Man, I loved Banjo kazooie's christmas-themed level.
11 years, 3 months ago
The problem with Christmas game is that people want to forget the holiday and put the decorations away as soon as it's over. That said. There's quite a few Christmas games:
Christmas Jetpack (DOS) << One of my faves
Christmas Lemmings (Amiga/PC)
Christmas NiGHTS (comes with NiGHTS on Steam)
Daze Before Christmas (Mega Drive)
James Pond 2: Codename Robocod (various 16-bit era platforms)
There were a bunch of Christmas games on Commodore 64 too. Also games that take place around Christmas like Die Hard and Shenmue.
11 years, 3 months ago
You're idea for a Santa game is a little ordinary. I think you should add a bit more to the idea like getting style points for jumping out of the sleigh and doing several tricks into the chimney. Players should also be careful not to get caught by security systems, get woken up children back to bed, and avoid night owls. Lastly the main premise should be that Santa must race against a Mayan god to prevent the Post prediction apocalypse. Title the game Santa vs. The Mayan Apocalypse. Whaddaya think?
11 years, 3 months ago
Wow I really love that someone else questions this also. Back during the N64/PS1/Saturn era I loved the few Christmas themed levels they would throw into games. Banjo had a great one, Diddy Kong racing definitely had some. I believe Ape Escape may have had one. Christmas NiGHT's was the definitely the pinnacle though. I also remember Shenmue taking place during Christmas as well. I guess it just isn't very politically correct for games to portray a denominational holiday no matter how much they distance themselves from the religious aspect of it. This is the one area I think MMO's do it right, almost every big one has a holiday season that more or less is Christmas with a different name. I remember how much WoW's main cities would transform around the holidays and the seasonal quests were always fun little distractions to get people in the spirit.