Topic: Games of Christmas Past

Since it's that time of year, I was thinking about games I've received as gifts for previous Christmases. Some that spring to mind straight away:

Sega Rally Championship - 1996
@carlos82 mentioned the Sega Saturn in today's 'What Are You Playing This Weekend', which is what got me thinking about this topic. I'll never forget watching my relatives (the elderly ones in particular) trying to do a lap in the Toyota Celica. It was a small game in hindsight - three tracks would be nothing today, but on Christmas Day 1996 it was all I needed.

Abe's Exoddus - 1998
I'd got my Playstation a few months earlier, but without any games (this was in the days when you could pop down to the local video rental shop and grab something to get you through the weekend). So when I got Abe's Exoddus for Christmas, I played it for the next few months. When you're young and you only get a new game for occasions such as birthdays and Christmas, you have to make them last!

Silent Hill 2 - 2001
This was a gift from my parents. I'd just bought a PS2 with my own money that September. It was the first time I'd fully paid for a console myself, so I was feeling pretty grown up, and here was a grown-up game to boot. My friend and I played this non-stop over the following weeks, we absolutely hammered it.

Fallout 4 - 2015
My wife got me this one. Because it's such a busy time, it's usually a few days before I play whichever game I got on Christmas Day, but this one was in the disc tray before the turkey had barely gone cold. I couldn't wait to get stuck in. Although 4 was probably a disappointment overall compared to 3, I still enjoyed it, especially those first few days of being in that world. The initial hours of any Fallout game are the best, I think. They're the toughest, but they're full of wonder.

The Last Guardian - 2016
My mother-in-law got me this one, would you believe. I've never completed a Christmas game as quickly as this - I think I'd finished it by January 5th, something like that. I remember her asking how it was, and when I said I'd finished it, she looked disappointed, as though it had been a waste of money. I had to explain that the speed I'd played through it meant it was a very good game indeed.

Has anyone else got any games that will forever remind them of Christmas? Or has anyone been given any games that were terrible and had to play them to the end through fear of insulting their gift-giver?

I'll always remember the games I got with my PS1 for Christmas - Die Hard, Alien Trilogy, Tomb Raider, Crash, Porsche Challenge, International Track & Field and the almighty Final Fantasy 7!

@kyleforrester87 That's a hell of a lineup, back in the day that would have kept the teenage me busy for about three years

@Gremio108 I'll have to get Sega Rally, one of my favourite games for a long time and weirdly never felt like a small game back then and because of this the Toyota Celica was my favourite real world car for some time 😂 I'm having so much fun with the Saturn and it was a very underappreciated console at the time

As for Xmas games the one that springs to mind is Mario 64 and getting the N64 at the same time. Up until this point I was playing the SNES and Megadrive and had seen this game on Gamesmaster and that incident and couldn't wait to get my hands on it. It was the single biggest change I've ever experienced in gaming and one that no generation leap has ever come close to since. Mario 64 will always have a special place in my collection and is one of my favourite games ever.

I can't even remember last week let alone previous Christmases lol.

I don't think I've received games as they've always been too expensive or my fam never knew which ones to buy me, so ended up with money or vouchers which were used after Christmas.

Street Fighter 2 Championship edition - Megadrive

The most popular game at the time and I didn't have a Snes. When it eventually came out for the MD I had to wait until Chrimbo. Played it for months afterwards.

Halo Reach - Xbox 360 - Super special version which even came with badges only throbbers would wear.

One of the first mega editions I owned (which I now try to avoid) my wife bought me this and it had some crazy crap inside. Like a scientist diary and a download code. Amazing game but it goes to show you how much of a waste of time these things are when I can't remember what was inside. The reason I remember this is I didn't have space on my dvd storage unit so it did my head in until I threw the box in my wardrobe just after new year.

I was going to mention more recent memories like my sons switch, PSVR, beating ff15 just after chrimbo, surprise vita etc but the above 2 examples stand out loads more as Christmas memories.

Let’s see. I got LoZ: Skyward Sword one year. Great gift as I loved and wouldn’t have bought it on my own.
Another year I got Destiny. I was really ticked off becjsse that was the year the idiot took down PSN and Xbox Live. Other than that lived my 130 hours before I felt the greed was too much with $40 for The Taken King.

I guess the only big Crimbo gaming memory I have is Christmas when I must have been around 7 years old and woke up to find the little telly in my room had gone. I was devastated and thought someone must have nicked it.

When I eventually went downstairs, I found it set up in the living room with my brand new Mega Drive and Sonic 2 playing.

I was rather happy.

Here's me and my brother rocking the C64.. several Christmases ago lol (I'm at the back!)

@kyleforrester87 Dont lie, that was you and your brother earlier today!

@JohnnyShoulder i couldn't grow hair like that again even if I wanted to 😂

I remember getting Ocarina of Time one Christmas and absolutely loving it for months and months and months. Shenmue was also one of my favourite Xmas gifts.

Christmas games i remember the first game i ever got was at Christmas and it was Scooby Doo on the C64 and it was on a AUDIO TAPE

man i'm old

The only game I've received for Christmas was Scooby-Do and the Mummy for PC. Cheep and simple game on disc.
The disc was broken and I was not able to play the game. I was upset. We had to return the game to the shop and I've chosen smth like 'Barbie: fashion show' there instead. Later it turned out the game about Scooby was saved on my PC and I was able to run it. I've got 2 games instead of 1 that time. Merry, merry Christmas!

It's been so long since I've gotten games for Christmas, I barely remember when I got them.

Xmas 2002 was when I first got my PS2, and with it Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex and Rayman Arena. I distinctly remember not having a memory card, so I had to restart every game from scratch for a time. I enjoyed Crash for a while, but as I got older I felt it was just a budget version of the PS1 games, if that was possible. Rayman Arena I had good dumb fun with.

2005 was when I got my Nintendo DS if I remember right. It was a Mario Kart bundle that came with a red DS and Mario themed decals. I also got Mario 64 DS with it. I still have that same DS, but it has clearly aged and the connecting parts between the two screens are breaking apart.

2007 I got Super Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime 3, and Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction. Mario Galaxy was a classic, but I never finished Metroid Prime 3, a mistake I need to correct one day. Ratchet & Clank was a major reason why I wanted a PS3, and I'm happy I managed to beat it before my first PS3 died. I actually kept the game's manual for years, hoping I'd play it again when money was stable.

That's about all I can remember.

Remember getting Zelda Link to the Past (still my favorite game of all time) got a Ps2 with NBA street, Gran Turismo 3 I think, and Unreal Tournament and those 3 kept me busy for quite a while.