Top 5: Christmastime in Gaming

by Kaes Delgrego { Dec 22nd 2008 at 12:50PM }

Ahh, Christmastime. Every year, we look forward to cherished traditions such as fighting traffic, stressing out over finding gifts, and even the occasional Black Friday trampling. Yet one would be surprised to learn that December 25th has a history which shares very little with frivolous lawsuits and Bill O'Reilly frothing at the mouth.

Indeed, aside from its litigatious and hostile depiction on the news, Christmas is largely an excuse to shower our loved ones with food, presents, and joy. It's also an easy inspiration for a stressed columnist trying to finish his Christmas shopping to create a Top 5 list. As such examples of religious-based holidays are rare in gaming, this list will not be Nintendo-specific. For those who celebrate the date, I wish you a Merry Christmas. For those who don't, I wish you well just the same.

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The Top 5 is a weekly feature that provides us with a forum to share our opinions on various aspects of the video game culture, and provides you with a forum to tell us how wrong we are. To further voice your opinions, submit a vote in the Wii Fanboy Poll, and take part in the daily discussions of Wii Warm Up.

Tags: christmas, donkey-kong-country, donkey-kong-country-3, hit-and-run, joystiqfeatures, nights, nights-into-dreams, nights-journey-of-dreams, santa, saturn, secret-of-mana, sega, sega-saturn, simpsons, the-simpsons, toejam-and-earl

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Jerry J @ Dec 22nd 2008 1:42PM

Yeah, I remember defeating the Frost Gigas on Christmas Eve waaaaaaay back a long time ago. That rocked.

Mr Khan @ Dec 22nd 2008 2:15PM

Christmas NiGHTS was my avatar at this time last year, mostly to celebrate the sadly under-appreciated NiGHTS 2

Nigeria @ Dec 22nd 2008 4:01PM

The 32x and Mega CD crushed all goodwill Sega had with most people, bar the diehard. I had a 32x at launch and that lasted only six months at retail, if I remember correctly. I know games were no longer being sold for the system after six months - well, that's the line my dad sung. By the time the Saturn was released everybody was holding out for a Playstation and Ridge Racer. Come on, Ridge Racer?

I loved Christmas Nights, mainly because I could run about as Sonic in the Nights universe. The first time Sonic was in 3D - or maybe Sonic Jam was released first. Also, the Nightopians thing was cool. Best magazine freebie ever.