Games Of Christmas Past...

[Colin]

I remember one year getting Kenseiden on SMS for xmas. My mum wrapped it and stuck it under the tree, and i sneakily opened the package, took the game out and resealed it. Played the game every chance i got then put it back in the parcel on xmas eve.

[muddy]

Manic Miner!

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/12/18244094_f5530a1847.jpg

yeah, 25 yrs ago, xmas video gaming still makes me think of this!

[samanosuke]

For nostalgic purposes I guess it would be Sonic for me as it was the pack-in game when I got an MD for Christmas. Should also give Sol-Feace, Cobra Command and Arcade Classics a whirl too as I got a Mega-CD a couple of Christmasses later.

I never played Shenmue at Christmas originally as I bought the Jp version second-hand from CEX around Spring '00. Wish I had got it in '99 like Atticus did though

[kryss]

Super Mario Land and a Gameboy for Christmas in 1991.
Best. Xmas. Ever.

[sj33]

Definately Christmas Nights and Sonic R for me. Christmas Nights seems like the obvious one, but I got the above two games for Christmas 1997 alongside my Saturn. I was the happiest pre-teen on the planet, after waiting for three long years for a Saturn. Played it to death. Christmas still makes me think of the Radical City level, and the music.

Then there's obviously Shenmue. Just getting lost in your own world over the Christmas break was an awesome experience, especially when it actually became winter in the game.

[haterzwantwar]

Many years, many games from C64 to present but I'd have to say the one I remember most would be Resident Evil on PSX. I'd had it briefly on rental but had to wait till Christmas day for my own copy, needless to say it got hammered.

Remember getting stuck on the keypad lock where you made the V-Jolt for days before I finally worked out the pool cues.

Still one of the most atmospheric games to this day only others coming close being Silent Hill, Resident Evil 2 and Remake. Maybe it's because I was younger or maybe todays games are just lacking

*Looks at 50+ 360 titles*

YEP they're definitely lacking...

[dotoko]

Sega Rally 2 for me, I first got into gaming when the Dreamcast came out and my console came as an early christmas present with Sega Rally 2, Virtua Fighter 3TB and South Park: Chef's Love Shack. It was all about Sega Rally 2 though that Christmas and it still makes me feel festive even now.

[Sam The Man]

Well for me id say it was SONIC 2 for my XMAS 1992.

I had got a MD with Sonic the previous year and completely fell in love with it and i was only 7/8yrs old back then and didnt read games magazines and so i didnt really know what was coming out and when i saw it in a catalogue (not sure which) that my mum had brought home and saw the case for the game and AVAILABLE NOVEMBER i had a hyperactive fit!
I went with my grandad to get it toward the end of November but wasnt allowed it until xmas day and i actually remember the first time i ever saw it running was a few weeks after my grandad had purchased it. I think it was a week b4 xmas and we were in town and my mum had let me go off and look around for a bit alone. I went into DIXONS and remember seeing it was the beginning of AQUATIC RUIN and i remember just standing there next to the demo TV trying to enhance my calm and not get all excited and look like a spastic in front of everyone in the shop. I actually remember saying to myself in my head ''just stay calm...........oh my god look at that....................calm calm calm.......................wow what the hell was that!!!!!'' as i watched it.
I actually have the image in my head right now of sitting in the room ripping the wrapping paper off and staring at the case on xmas morning. I remember opening the case and it coming with 2 small pin badges 1 of Sonic & 1 of Tails does anyone remember those badges?

My 1993 memory was of a game no where near as good Sonic Spinball for my MD. Even though it wasnt great i was a huge Sonic fan and remember playing it all day.

And another very vivid xmas memory was playing Tomb Raider on my Saturn at xmas 1996. My mate had lent it to me a few weeks prior as he wasnt getting his Saturn until xmas so he lent me the game on the condition i give it him back a few days b4 the 25th and seeing as i was getting the game as an xmas present i agreed. I actually remember it was xmas day and my dad had come to stay with us for a few days over xmas and whilst my sister was downstairs in the room with my mum talking to my dad i was upstairs in my bedroom on the St Francis Folley level getting pissed of at thor's lightning...

From 1996 onward i had paper rounds so i had the money to buy most major games on the day they were released so xmas from then on wasnt so memorable from a gaming perspective.

[JazzFunk]

Rolling Thunder 2 on MD, Xmas 1993. Got that and cassette copies of Ice Cube's 'Lethal Injection' and 'Strangeitude' by The Ozric Tentacles.

We were all very poor back then, and that Christmas was very minimal, but Rolling Thunder 2 was sooooooo jazzy and vibrant, even better than how Rolling Thunder1 felt in the arcades, I was very impressed. No other PAL MD game - bar, maybe, Side Pocket - exudes such effortless, stylish jazziness.

Couple that with extended periods of listening to Ice Cube's 50/50 'see-saw' 4th album, half brilliant, half ****e, and the satisfying prog-rock synth noodlings of the Ozrics, it made for a refreshingly weird Christmas.

[jimmbob]

Resident Evil 4 this year. It's not Christmassy, just awesome.

LOL, 7 year old threads.

[redstar_dan]

Mine was Super Mario World and Gradius 3 for the SFC. My father was working on a project out in Hong Kong at the time, and he got me a SFC with those two games. It was a glorious time in my life. I didnt understand the Super Mario Worlds story at all, however even if it was in english, it wouldnt have mattered at the time. Best present I have ever recieved in my whole life to date. I dont think anything can top it tbh. Wow, i have floods of memories coming back. I remeber a christmas when I got that super spacecore lego railway set, i forget its name. I wish I still had that, I might need to wrap up super warm and raid the shed, although I doubt its in there now =[

Edit - LEGO 6991- Space Monorail Transport Base. Thats what it was called!

http://www.retrojunk.com/img/art-images/69911.jpg

[Wools]

Resident Evil 4 for another year? I love that you've gone from Mario Bros. 3 in 2003 and now you've migrated across to pure carnage!

I've got nearly a month off work starting this weekend so I'll be dedicating some of it to gaming. I've got intrigued by Kane & Lynch's development & story so that's winging it's way to me, along with the already completed Tomb Raider Underworld (Completed it 2 years ago on 360 but want to revisit it on PS3) and I'll be spending some time on Gran Turismo 5. However they are games I'll be playing over Christmas, and not what reminds me of Christmas and what will I be dusting off...

Although games like Fable, Elder Scroll IV: Oblivion and others remind me of Christmas, my favourite are games I got for Christmas in the past; that have a slight winter spark. Whether that's atmosphere, memories, or simply because I played them over the Christmas break! Sonic the Hedgehog, Ridge Type 4, Shenmue, Tomb Raider, Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, GoldenEye and a hell of a few more, take me back to opening them on Christmas day and are really special to me. However, I always return and re-play Resident Evil 2.

As years have passed, I've become even more fond of the Resident Evil trilogy and I always find the sequel to be a Christmas game. It may not seem suitable for Christmas (With it being full of death, empty streets and zombies) but whilst being tucked up indoors during the winter, and my memories of playing it over Christmas, it seems pretty much perfect!

Out of all the games that feel suitable for Christmas, whether it's wondering through the snowy streets of Dobuita, driving through a snowed in London in PGR4 or warping into Ice World, I will actually find the time to sit down and complete Resident Evil 2 this year. Shame there's no snow in Racoon City.

[BigDeadFreak]

Edit - LEGO 6991- Space Monorail Transport Base. Thats what it was called!
http://www.retrojunk.com/img/art-images/69911.jpg

You lucky ****, I always wanted one of those

[tokyochojin]

I think that I've already posted somewhere in this but what the hell!


I have so many but for me Mario Bros/Duck Hunt for the NES is one of my fondest Xmas gaming memories. I got the system for Xmas and spent the afternoon with my cousins flailing our hands around on Mario as we were unable to keep them down, and then cheating on duck hunt by putting the "zapper", right on the screen and shooting!

Another memory I have is off getting the time crisis box set for the psx one year. Great game and really felt that I had "the arcade in my home". Next year I think that I got metal gear and that was a similarily epic xmas.


In recent years I can list Jet set radio/Shenmue,resident evil 4 and fallout3 as my christmas games but the first two are my most clearly rememberd.