There are an awful lot of games that take place in December. Maybe there's games that take place during other times of year but the ones in December stand out for me. I do like this time of year a lot and I like to play December games during December.
What I like about these games in that most of them are about things other than Christmas but Christmas is happening in the background.
The first one I‘ll get out of the way is Christmas NiGHTS. Ive been doing yearly playthroughs of this for a bit where I start around the first week of December and try to unlock all the presents before Christmas. There’s certainly plenty of content in this demo disc to keep me occupied for a month.
The next one is Snatcher. I love Cyberpunk in the winter. Just fits the noir aspect of this story a lot. I've been doing yearly playthroughs of this the last couple years.
@“milo”#p49699 Great idea for a thread. Blue Stinger is a must here. I just played this for the first time and was totally charmed by it. It takes place in December which to me just tapped into the Christmas = video games instinct I developed as a kid. I wouldn‘t say the Christmas theme is blended well into the story or characters or anything, which is sad, but it’s still cosy and fun for a game about killing freaks and drinking so many sodas that your liver should give out.
Secret of Mana also has a section where Rudolph tells you to rescue Santa, and after you beat the Frost Gigas boss it turns out, it was St. Nicholas all along. So be sure to keep believing in Santa unless you want him to wreak havoc upon all of us.
@hellomrkearns Xmas Lemmings! What a flashback; I had completely forgotten about it.
Many fine choices above already. Maybe I’ll replay Snatcher this Christmas… I mainly associate the Christmas season with games I played during the holidays, so on a most personal note The Legend of Zelda, Gyromite, Castle of Illusion, Altered Beast, Tiny Toons Buster’s Hidden Treasure, Ganbare Goemon 1•2•3, Sonic Adventure, Shenmue, Phantasy Star Online, Ridge Racers, Mahjong Fight Club, Metal Gear Acid, Cave Story, Uncharted: Golden Abyss, Airborne Kingdom come to mind but this is obviously not directly linked to how the season was depicted in the aforementioned games (Shenmue being a notorious coincidence).
More on topic, Linda3’s scenario A has a major Santa theme introduced by its main antagonists. One of the climatic battle themes is literally Jingle Bells. Note that the game has a calendar system with seasons passing by and a time limit to finish the game (thirty-two seasons, i.e. eight years) but Scenario A is not related to Christmas at all. These weirdos are just really into Santa.
Tengai Makyō Zero includes an internal clock that reacts in real time according to when you play it, and obviously this allows for both a Christmas event and a New Year event.
So did the Saturn version of Sega Touring Car Championship which offered a special online time attack challenge if you connected to the Global Net Challenge on Christmas. (Or use a cheat code to access the event offline.)
Animal Crossing could fit any monthly topic obviously but December is especially eventful and heartwarming in terms of character interactions.
Pokémon Platinum doesn‘t feel very Christmas-y, but it definitely has a decidedly Wintery vibe, mostly because there’s so much freakin snow. I think it stands out from diamond or pearl because the outfits are way different, especially for Dawn. Love that coat
This disc is actually luxuriously packed with these demos and promos that show off some great intros and cutscenes.
Godzilla - Opens with this lovely festive Toho logo. Get to fight a couple of monsters
Super Darius II - Decent chunk of it
Ys IV - The whole intro and opening town part
Sol Moonarge - Interesting demo that jumps around different short segments and end on a dramatic sunset
Bomber Man '94 - Has 5 player multiplayer support
Tokimeki Memorial - This is in-engine gameplay overview promo with work in progress intro and unique animations and voice overs. Pretty hefty extra material for tokimemo fans
Yawara! 2 - This is not in the demo but apropos of cozy winter times, the full game has this wonderful beef stroganoff recipe
Faceball - You know, like Wolfenstein but with faces
Flash Hiders - Good chunk of opening cutscenes and few super cheap cpus to fight against
My partner and I have been playing Ghost Trick in short bursts for exactly the reason of this thread! It‘s been just about 10 years for me so I’m enjoying rediscovering it.
i just got the strangest hankerin‘ for D2. since i can’t play it at the moment i started watching a longplay of it, and learned i had forgotten it started on Christmas. 'tis the season!
Seeing as nobody‘s yet mentioned 1999: Christmas Eve, I’ll take it upon myself to do just that.
It's a visual novel made in the same engine that would power stuff like the *Fate* and *Nekopara* games, and from what (little) I understand, it's more a light horror game that happens to take place on Christmas than it is a Christmas game. Video on it is a little hard to come by; in fact, this Let's Play is the only thing I could find on it on YouTube.
I see some games here I haven‘t thought of in years, so it’s nice to be reminded of them. Also a lot of new ones I need to put on the list to check out next year.
The Firemen on SNES is a fun action game where you respond to a fire that breaks out during a company holiday party. It's kind of a challenging shooter, with some wild bosses, backdrafts, and collapsing floors. Still great to play as an alternative to Die Hard if you want some holiday action.
