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Your Christmas/Holiday games and memories

I think for a lot of us, Christmas or the December holiday period in general, is a special time of the year to be playing games, especially when growing up. Hell, I'm not even religious and I still fucking love it. A lot of us either received a game (or 2) as Christmas presents or later when were were all growns up, saved one especially to play during this period, I know I did (and still do) anyway.

So, I decided to spend half my night going through lists of releases for the last quarter century and racking my brain to remember what games I played over this period every year and then spend 3 hours writing about it in bed. On my phone. Turns out it's quite a diverse list and there are some nice and not-so-nice memories to go along with them, so here they are. I'm gonna split it into two parts as it's a lot to read through. My childhood years first, I'll post the grown-up years at a later date.

Share your own memories if you can remember. If not the stories to go along with them, then just the list of games themselves.

So without further ado, here's a wall of text...

1991
Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES) & Low G Man (NES)

This is the first Christmas that I can truly remember. I was 7 at the time and we had just moved house 2 months earlier, from the countryside to a average sized town. My older brother had only recently gotten a NES for Christmas in 1990 after we had both grown playing on my cousin's Amstrad CPC up until that point. Low G Man is still one of my favourite games on the console. I actually wasn't a very big fan of Super Mario 3, in fact, I was more into Mega Man and Probotector (Contra in the US) type games at the time and didn't really get into the Mario series until Super Mario World on the SNES the next year.

1992
Kirby's Dreamland (Game Boy) & Zelda A Link to the Past (SNES)

Memorable one this, as I had skateboarded, head first, into a wall a few weeks before while racing some friends down a hill and fucked up my mouth/teeth pretty bad. I was one of those idiots who couldn't stand up on a skateboard and preferred to kneel down (I think all of my friends at the time did this actually). Anyway, a good friend and neighbour of mine and fellow skateboard racer let me borrow his Game Boy and some games while I got better (I didn't get my own Game Boy until next christmas). Kirby is the game I liked the most from his selection of games that included Tetris and Super Mario Land amongst others and is the Game Boy game I still have the fondest memories of.
My brother, meanwhile, got Zelda ALTTP and I spent more time watching him playing it than doing so myself. I'm ashamed to admit that I never actually completed the game until the remake on the Game Boy Advance a decade later.

1993
Links Awakening (Game Boy) & Super Mario Bros. All Stars (SNES)

Along with my shiny new Game Boy, I got what is still my favourite portable Zelda. Spent about 2 months 100%ing it. This was also the first Christmas where I was given games exclusively for me since the consoles were actually my brother's so the games were always either for him or we had to share, however the Game Boy was all mine. The brother got Mario All Stars and I played Super Mario Bros 2(the western version) for the first time. I had just gotten into the series with Super Mario World which was released with the SNES during the Summer and this is why I like SMB2 better than 3 which I hadn't really put any quality time into the Christmas that I got it.

1994
Donkey Kong Country (SNES) & Donkey Kong 94 (Game Boy)

Same as last year, my brother got a console game and I got a portable one. I was truly blown away, as most were, by the graphics in DKC and I actually ended up playing it far more than my brother. He was in his mid-teens at this point and slowly growing out of games (but more on that later) so he didn't play much any more except Street Fighter 2 Turbo (he was a Guile Sonic Boom spammer, I hated him so much) and, later, the International Superstar Soccer series which we played together all the time.

1995
Yoshi's Island (SNES) & DKC 2 (SNES)

The SNES was basically mine at this point and I asked for these two sequels to games I put hours and hours into. I had become kind of a Nintendo fanboy over the early 90's and grew to dislike the Mega Drive which some of my friends had. (Though I still played a lot of Sonic, Kid Chameleon, Streets of Rage & Eternal Champions at their houses). I had heard about the Playstation from Nintendo magazines but I didn't have much interest in it. I was, of course, looking forward to the arrival of the Ultra 64.

1996
Resident Evil, Tomb Raider & (for some reason) Motor Toon Grand Prix) (Playstation)

Well now. With the SNES on its dying legs and the N64 delayed until March 97 in PAL land, my brother picked up a Playstation and those games mentioned above. I never actually played much of it, some Motor Toon Grand Prix but that was it. I did however enjoy watching my brother and cousin play the other two, especially Tomb Raider. I remember I used to be the guide, reading from walkthroughs in a magazine and directing them on where to go and how to find secrets etc. I found the game really difficult and confusing so I actually preferred to watch them play it. My cousin actually played it more than my brother or I did. The only game I got for myself around this time was Donkey Kong Country 3 on the SNES but I remember not playing it very much as I was kinda burned out from the yearly releases.

1997
Goldeneye and Diddy Kong Racing (N64)

This was a fucked up year. Turns out my brother had gotten sick of the Playstation really fast and sold it to a friend to buy an N64 in March. I fell in love with the console immediately and these were the two games I got for Christmas. Then, disaster struck. Right after Christmas, my fucking brother, for some goddamn reason, got rid of the N64 which I loved so dearly and SWAPPED it with the same friend for the very same Playstation he had shown the door earlier in the year. I remember being livid. I hadn't even finished Goldeneye.

However, a couple of months later into 98 my brother was pretty much done with videogames. He never played the Playstation any more. I used all the pocket money I had been saving up for who knows how long and I bought back the N64 from the very same guy again. It was the first ever console that was actually mine! I still have it to this day and play Mario Kart 64 and Smash Bros with my old friends when I go to my home town every Christmas. It is, and probably always will be, my favourite console. It's likely more coincidental than anything. It just came out at the right time in my childhood. I imagine most people have consoles like this. I gave the Playstation to my cousin I think.

1998
Zelda Ocarina of Time & Turok 2 (N64)

An odd Christmas full of mixed emotions, this. Zelda was actually released on the day that my grandmother passed away. She was the one who raised me, not my mother, so it was extra tough. My brother bought Zelda for me and put it under the Christmas tree a week early. I knew exactly what was in the wrapping as I had asked for it and he warned me not to dare open it before Christmas eve. Of course I opened it. Many times. He was working late at the time and most nights I would carefully take it out of the wrapping and sneak in a few hours play before he came home. I always deleted my save file when I was done in case he ever checked it so I had to replay the opening few hours over and over. I think I the furthest I ever got was Lon Lon Ranch before I had to tuck it away under the tree again. I never did get caught and I have no idea if he ever suspected that I was playing it almost every night. The other game was Turok 2 and he played it more than I did as, similar to Tomb Raider, I found it to be too confusing. It's still confusing as fuck even today I think! This was also the last year I saw my brother play anything videogame related. After this, he had completely moved on to other things and never looked back. He was big into dance music and started DJing clubs and shit like that. Totally different world. Kinda sad really, thinking back on it. We used to play so much when we were growing up but went in completely different directions as we went through our teenage years, and now today, he lives in New Zealand and I live in Colombia, both originally from Ireland. We haven't seen each other in 5 years and rarely speak. I'll always have those wonderful memories of playing the SNES with him while growing up, though.

1999
Smash Bros (N64) & Pokemon Red (Game Boy)

I was totally fucking obsessed with the first Pokemon. I had a gigantic poster on the ceiling (yes the ceiling) with all 151 'mons on it that I would mark off one by one as I caught them in-game. I had to put it on the ceiling as I shared a room with my brother and he wouldn't let me take down any of his posters (of Aliens, Friends, The Matrix and various DJs among others) to put up mine, so on the ceiling it had to go. I used to stare at it all night. I never got all 151 Pokemon, I think I got to the high 140's or thereabouts. This was actually the first and last Pokemon game I played. I never got into it again after the year long obsession I had with it. I should probably try again some day.

As for Smash Bros, easily one of my favourite games on the system and still the version my friends and I always return to when we get together. I was happy that it finally got released because it came out almost a year later after Japan, the PAL release delays those days were bloody ridiculous.

2000
Zelda Majora's Mask (N64)

The sequel to the best game ever does not a bad Christmas make. No one died this time either which made it even better. I have one special memory of playing this. It rarely snows in Ireland around Christmas time (it's usually in January or February if at all). So on the day after Christmas, I was in the Snowhead region of the game not paying attention to what was going on outside and didn't notice until I got up to go to the bathroom that it was in fact snowing outside. It was just a wonderful moment. I love snow and I'm fairly sure this was the last year it snowed anytime close to Christmas in Ireland, at least in my part of the country.

2001
Fucking nothin. (Nothing) The worst christmas ever. Not a good time to be a Nintendo fanboy in Europe. The N64 was dead. The last game to be released for it was Excitebike 64 that Summer, again, a year late (14 months after the US!!!). The GameCube had just been released Stateside and delayed until May in Europe) and I was jealous as fuck. All those amazing new games and I had absolutely nothing to play. The game I played closest to the end of the year was Zelda Oracle of Seasons which was ok, not one of my favourite Zeldas. I was such a hardened Nintendo fanboy at the time that I held out on picking up a PS2 or Dreamcast.

2002
Die Hard Vendetta & StarFox Adventures (GameCube)

Almost tied with the previous year as the worst ever but at least I had something to play, even if I didn't like either of them. Starfox bored the ever living shit out of me and I never got around to finishing it for weeks. Does Hard I only got because I was a huge fan of the movie and there was nothing else out. It was ok I guess.
But then to make matters worse, my sort of estranged mother at this point had been diagnosed with terminal cancer in October. It was just awful.

So that was not a good Christmas. At all. My mother passed in March the following year, funnily enough on the day Resident Evil 0, another game I was hugely looking forward to, was released (why does this keep happening to me?!?l). It also happened again last year, stay tuned.

So, between this Christmas and the next I turned 18 and finished school so that's the end of my childhood as a gamer. Next up: the grown up years.

To be continued...
 
December 2003, I was home on winter break from college and had gotten Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic on PC.

It was the first RPG I ever played. I didn't know what to expect, after my first 2 hours with it, I was overwhelmed and confused. There was so much going on: characters, stories, missions, locations, equipment, upgrades, crafting, leveling up, etc. I was ready to conclude that this type of game wasn't for me, and give up on it, but for some reason I decided to play a little longer, which turned into a 4 hour non-stop session. I had gotten a firm grasp on the game mechanics and I was hooked.

I ended up putting 35 hours into the game in about a week. It remains one of my favorite games of all time.
 
Yeah that was great! Let's see part two!

Funny how I can't remember holidays so easily. Perhaps if I went through all the releases like you did, I could remember my childhood in better detail.
 

Kubiubo

Member
Fantastic topic, OP!

I have a few great memories from Christmas,

1998: My father bought me Crash Bandicoot 3: WARPED! and it ended up becoming one of my favorite gaming memories. My father and mother divorced the same year, so we played a ton of this together at his apartment. I remember our memory card corrupted at the very last warp area so we had to replay the entire game. Hahaha.

2001: I got an indigo Game Boy Advance with Mario Kart: Super Circuit, although both were shortly stolen afterwards. I'm not even sure who took it, all I know is that my dad bought me a Platinum Game Boy Advance the following January for my birthday. Thanks, dad.

2003: Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow. My grandparents started a tradition of buying me a Castlevania game for Christmas. Strange, but that's okay, I love Castlevania. Hahahaha. This was my first Castlevania game and I still love it.

2005: Castlevania: Curse of Darkness. Another gift from my grandparents. I remember my mom wasnt too happy about this one because of how 'violent and satanic' it was. xD Whatever.

2007: This year was BIG. I got a PSP Slim & Lite, Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles, Final Fantasy II (PSP) and Daxter. Unfortunately, this was the last big Christmas for a long time. My father and stepmother divorced and we went to being nearly homeless.

2009: I got a Nintendo DSi this year, well, kind of. My dad couldnt afford it, so I kind of bought it as a gift to myself and he paid the difference. Even being dirt poor, he put aside $50 for me to afford it. Video games always helped during that time when things were really difficult.

2011: Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. A great Christmas! My family and I sat around and played this together. It was one of the few recent times where we all played a game together, even if it is single player.


Sorry for the wall of text. Haha.
 

Elitist1945

Member
I got a PSP for Christmas with two SOCOMs and a Medal of Honor. I may have gotten it pretty late after it came out, but boy oh boy was it a treat!
 

Crayolan

Member
I played my first Zelda game (Ocarina of Time) during the Christmas of 2008 when I was only 13. I remember thinking "how the hell have I never played a Zelda game, this is amazing!"

After that Christmas, I went and bought Twilight Princess ASAP and soon after went searching for Wind Waker. I couldn't wait to play Majora's Mask either so I emulated that to play it too. I did buy Majora's Mask as soon as it showed up on the e-shop though, and actually 100%'d it in that playthrough.
 

trifelife

Member
Christmas 2004 I had a good friend staying with me for about a week so I ordered Metal Gear Solid 3 and Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil and either played through the game or hung out and read and ate while he played through the game. That was probably the best.
 

Rival

Gold Member
I played my first Zelda game (Ocarina of Time) during the Christmas of 2008 when I was only 13. I remember thinking "how the hell have I never played a Zelda game, this is amazing!"

After that Christmas, I went and bought Twilight Princess ASAP and soon after went searching for Wind Waker. I couldn't wait to play Majora's Mask either so I emulated that to play it too. I did buy Majora's Mask as soon as it showed up on the e-shop though, and actually 100%'d it in that playthrough.

Thank you for making me feel extremely old....
 

Duxxy3

Member
Christmas was almost never memorable when it came to video games. Most of the systems I owned I bought myself and it was usually the beginning of summer or at system launch.

The last really memorable game related gift was chrono trigger.
 
One Christmas, I got a few presents including a new chess set. After all the presents were opened, my dad asked to play me a game of chess. Opened the chess set and found a copy of Rock n' Roll Racing inside.
 

VinFTW

Member
Could write an endless amount, but I'll make it short and sweet:

Uncharted and Mass Effect, same Christmas. Best VG x-mas outside of opening my OG Xbox + Halo, NHL Hitz, PGR and others.

Switching back and forth between one of my favorite PS franchises ever and my #1 game of all time was a memory and a time I'll never forget.
 
Great OT. Made me smile throughout.

Okay, I'll contribute.

1996: My first memory of video games. We got the Nintendo 64, which was a big deal. The system was really hard to find apparently and my family was really poor. I was one year in remission from leukemia. I was six at the time, and didn't really fully get the idea of games but I had two older brothers and they were ecstatic.

2001: My family got an Xbox. I still was kind of so-so with games at the time but it was a big deal for my brothers. My dad was making more money and I was fully recovered so we could afford such luxuries, I guess.

2006: This is when I turned into a gamer. It was around Thanksgiving and I was at the mall and was able to try out a Nintendo Wii. I thought it was the coolest thing ever. It was different and interactive and just something I never saw before. I begged my mom for one for Christmas. Turns out, she got two, one for me and one for my oldest brother. He got Twilight Princess. At the time, I had never tried a Zelda game but was curious so I put it in and was hooked. All winter I played that game. It was an experience for me. Since then, I have played as many Zelda's as I could and became infatuated with the series and Nintendo.
 

Weetrick

Member
I have two really great memories that stand out:

- Getting a Gameboy Pocket and Wario Land. I had asked my parents for a Gameboy for years and never got one. Luckily, the Pocket was better in every way and worth the wait! It was my first handheld. I also remember being surprised because my aunt had bought me a game (Tetris Attack), which I opened later that day - "How did you know?!?". As if my aunt and mom didn't talk.

- Getting Ocarina of Time and Rogue Squadron. I mean, come on. Too good.
 
my dad got me the Donkey Kong 64 Nintendo 64 bundle for xmas. i was 6(?) and had just got started on the NES so going from 2D to 3D was a complete mindfuck for me. i spent all day just trying to understand the concept of movement and traversal in a 3D world. the games was a blast tho, spent all day playing DK 64 with my dad. great xmas memory.
 

Weetrick

Member
Also I remember getting Paper Mario Thousand Year Door one Christmas and playing the ever-loving fuck out of it during the break.
 
I remember waking up to a Nintendo 64 with Diddy Kong Racing. I didn't know what it was at first...but when I realized what it was I got incredibly excited. Even though I played the Super NES before, I credit the N64 for getting me into video games.
 
2001: My dad spends weeks telling us "This will be the best Christmas ever!" haha pretty much cliche. He keeps hyping it up as the best Christmas I'll ever have, and that no Christmas will top it.

Gamecube. Luigi's Mansion, Star Wars Rouge Squadron II, Super Smash Bros. Melee. 4 controllers. 2 memory cards. I didn't even know what smash bros. was until recently before this day.

Best Christmas I've ever had. Never been topped.
 
edit: removed a joke that did not make sense after reading the post it referenced more carefully

I got two:

Final Fantasy VII.

It was the december my grandma had passed away. My uncle who lived in the States and whom I had not seen for years came to the funeral and also brought some presents for the family. One of them was a big back of pistachious. My family is from northern Finland and at the time, none of us had even heard of them. I ate a huge pile of them while playing FFVII that night.


Command & Conquer

I had managed to let my mom get the GDI disc out before wrapping it, so I got the game two times that Christmas. GDI side beforehand and NOD side later.
 

Strike

Member
1999. Got a Sega Dreamcast. The only console I have ever picked up around launch. Totally worth it.

2002. Got 3 PS2's for $250 (1 from my parents and 2 through two separate matrix sites for $25 each) + GTA III, GTA VC, Max Payne, Devil May Cry, Gran Turismo 3, SSX, Marvel vs. Capcom 2, Spider-man, NBA 2K3, and NFL 2K3.
 
20130223140353!Sands_of_time_cover.jpg


Blew my fucking mind. A game I legit media blacked out on cause I was like 11.

Also had one where I got some remote controlled car and PS1 games such as Spider Man, Smackdown 2, MTV Sports Pure Ride and some other stuff. That was great!
 
I really enjoyed really all of that, OP. Thanks.

My sister bought my brother and I an SNES when I was 6 and he was 9. We had consoles before that but it wasn't ours, so kind of a big deal The game we got with it was Home Alone, which we finished that very same day lol. We kind of enjoyed it though, because it was our only game, and it was the early 90's. We weren't disappointed, funnily enough. I completed the game a handful of times after that, all playthrough's getting shorter and shorter. I was speed running that damn thing.

We had to pawn that SNES to help out the parents at some point but they eventually bought me another one with Link to the Past, which was unlike anything I had played before. I didn't stick with it though, and ended up watching my sister play through the majority of it, something I quite enjoyed. I didn't finish it myself until I was much older.

Another one was when I had pink eye I think 3rd grade, got a week off and I begged my parents to let me open whatever game they bought me for Christmas. It was Destruction Derby for PS1, which is something I had no idea I wanted but damn if we didn't put a ton of time into it. My brother was real surprised when he got home.

We eventually just started choosing our own games for Christmas, to take some pressure off the fam lol, which lead to me getting Resident Evil Directors Cut for whatever reason and getting real deep into that.
 

Nyx

Member
The first thing that comes to mind is the year in which I bought a PS2 with SSX and Tekken Tag Tournament.

My parents went to a family-mini-vacation that Christmas and I was allowed to stay at home alone.

A buddy came by and we played SSX and TTT from 13:00 to 03:00 or so, non-stop…
When I went to bed that night I could see the SSX courses when I closed my eyes..
 
*bump*

To whom it may concern, here's part two of my list from the opening post; the grown-up years

2003
Metal Arms Glitch In The System (Gamecube) & Mario Kart DD (Gamecube)

This year was shaping up to be all about Mario Kart since 64 is probably my most played game ever. My 3 best friends and I used to play it almost every weekend for 13 years, no joke. We could probably play it blindfolded. Nowadays, as we're scattered all over the place, we only play it once or twice a year during the Christmas period when we're all back home where we grew up. I FUCKING HATED Mario Kart Double Dash. With a passion. Probably the biggest gaming disappointment I've ever had. It had a lot to live up to of course, but I really despised almost every single thing about it. Looking back on it now, it's not as bad as I once thought, (Mario Kart Wii is worse) but I'm still not fond of it. It does have a few fantastic tracks, though, probably its only saving grace.

I picked up Metal Arms solely because it kinda reminded me of Conker's Bad Fur Day a little and NGC Magazine were raving about it at the time. It's easily among my Top 5 Gamecube games. Kinda came out of nowhere. Oh how I long for the sequel that will never be.

2004
Half Life 2 (PC) & Metroid Prime 2 (Gamecube)

I got a job this year and so I got my first PC in 2004. Never was a PC gamer before that. The first PC game I ever played was Vietcong earlier that year which was given to me by my cousin. It opened my eyes to online gaming and began a period where I became obsessed with FPS's. I later developed a serious addiction to Battlefield 2 and Counter Strike Source but it was Half Life 2 that really blew me away. I had never played the original (and still haven't, bar the first half of the unofficial remake a few years ago) so this was mind blowing.

2005
Call of Duty 2 (Xbox 360) and Condemned (Xbox 360)

The Xbox 360 had the honour of being my first ever non-Nintendo console. After being burned by the lack of games in the later years of the N64 and with the GameCube heading in the same direction I decided my ridiculous attachment to Nintendo had to come to an end. I adored Call of Duty 2, in part because a lot of the game is set in a snowy environment and I have a great fondness for games with snow. Condemned was pretty good, too. I think I have a fear of mannequins due to it. Hated the sequel, though. What the fuck were they thinking?

2006
Zelda Twilight Princess (Wii) and Wii Sports (Wii)

The PS3 was delayed 'til March in Europe but I did get a Wii with the two games above. Zelda finally returned to my Christmas schedule after a 6 year absence and it was...ok. I don't dislike it as some do but it was a little disappointing and I'd say it's the Zelda game I remember the least about apart from Spirit Tracks which is the only Zelda I never finished. It's a better game than Skyward Sword, though, just not one that I remember as well, if makes any sense.

Wii Sports Bowling replaced Mario Kart 64 as our 'go to' Friday night game for a good while, and there aren't many games I can say that about (Worms 3D was another curiously. It really struck a cord with our little group for some reason). I never fell in love with the Wii the same way I did with the N64 or Cube, maybe it was the waggle, maybe it was me getting older or the fact that I had other consoles now. Probably a mixture of all three actually. It was a little underplayed compared to the 360 and PS3 apart from the big 1st party releases.

2007
Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare (Playstation 3) & Mario Galaxy (Wii)

Got a PS3 in March and it quickly became my primary console, in part due to the exclusives like Motorstorm which I loved and my online friends from the forum being on PSN and not Live. Picked up Modern Warfare of course and played the hell out of it. I had nightmares about some of those co-op missions.

However the big one that year was Mario Galaxy obviously. Not much to say really. A masterclass in gaming.

2008
Prince of Persia (Playstation 3) & Motorstorm Pacific Rift (Playstation 3)

I loved the original Prince trilogy (even the often maligned second one) and I like this a lot too, although it didn't half play itself and Nathan Drake being the lead character was a little of-putting.

Now Motorstorm Pacific Rift. My favourite PS3 game by far and the best game released during the entire generation and if you don't like that I'll fight ya'! This was the first console game that I really got into online and boy did I get into it. Played it for 2 years every Monday with a wonderful group of people on another forum. We had a teams and played tournaments with seasons and everything. At one point were were so big that the developers of the game said they used to read the thread and watch the videos I made of us playing it. Doesn't get any better than that. At least I thought. When we finally brought Motorstorm Monday (as we called it) to a close in December 2010, Matt Southern, lead game director at Evolution studios, contacted me and wrote this:

Hi there,

My name is Matt Southern, I'm a Game Director at Evolution Studios currently finishing MotorStorm Apocalypse.

I hope you don't mind this PM but on behalf of the development team we wanted you and the rest of the 'MotorStorm Monday' guys to know we've all loved what you do. The last video you posted made us feel slightly sad that you were wrapping things up but also very nostalgic :)

By way of thanks I've arranged to send over 20 codes for free 15 month subscriptions to 'PlayStation Plus'.

I won't receive the codes for 5 days but if you drop me a mail I can arrange to mail them back to you over the holidays or when I return to the office on January 3rd. Then you can distribute them.

Happy Holidays, and thanks again for all the passion, commitment and humour you and everyone else involved in MotorStorm Monday have put into our game.

Matt

Not even exaggerating, this was one of the greatest moments of my life. To have the guy who made your favourite game contact you directly and thank you like that is just unbelievable. I will forever love Evo, despite all their various cock-ups, for this kind and wonderful act. I gave out the codes to the bunch that played with us. It was a pretty great christmas gift for a tiny dedicated little community.

2009
Uncharted 2 (Playstation 3) & Zelda: Spirit Tracks (Nintendo DS)

Uncharted 2 had snow levels and you know what that means. Better than the original in every way and still the best in the series by a long shot. Really enjoyed ploughing through it over 2 or 3 nights after Christmas.

Spirit Tracks. I hate this game. I've blocked most of it out of my mind, all I can remember I that I fucking hated it. Didn't even finish it as I mentioned earlier.

2010
Donkey Kong Country Returns (Wii)

A huge year, this. First off, my brother made the decision to move to New Zealand after getting a job offer. He left early in the year and so for the first time I was living alone. He has New Zealand citizenship now so his life is there and he will probably never come home. He comes back to visit once every year and a half or thereabouts but always at different times to me. I haven't seen him since he left and we don't talk much at all.

That year Ireland's economy was heading down the tubes and I was only working part-time at this stage because of it. Earlier in the year I did a lot of online dating and met a girl from Colombia. Long story short, we got to know each other and about 8 months later I went to visit her for 2 weeks. I thought it went well and so I made the biggest decision of my life: to go and stay there for 6 months starting Summer 2011. It was a crazy thing to do and I would never do it again, but at the time I didn't really care. There was nothing else going on in my life and I was gonna lose my job sooner or later anyway. I spent from then until the next Summer saving so I didn't play much that Christmas, only Donkey Kong Country Returns. I loved it. Drove me mad with its difficulty but I loved it.

2011
Zelda Skyward Sword (Wii) & Uncharted 3 (Playstation 3)

I sold my Xbox 360 to a friend, my Wii to my cousin and my PC to some dude on eBay. All I had left was my PS3 and DS which I was gonna bring with me to Colombia. I left in May. Short history on what happened: The girl I made the trip for broke up with me (not sure you could say we were "together" in the first place) in February, 3 months before I planed to travel. I had my flights, host family and Spanish school course all already paid for so I was fucked pretty much. I went ahead with it anyway. I met another girl that July and we've been together 3 and a half years now and I'm still living there.

Anyway, that Christmas sucked. I vowed never to spend Christmas in Colombia ever again. It just wasn't for me. Hot weather, noisy neighbours, girlfiend's parents that didn't take to me, food I didn't like and none of my friends and family to spend the festive period with. Never again. It got worse when I played Uncharted 3. What an utter disappointment. An unfinished game that drove me to frustration. And no fucking snow levels.

At least I had Zelda. I'm still not fond of the motion controls and I despise all the hand holding it does but it's a solid game which I powered through over a 2 week period. Seemed rushed, just like Uncharted 3, mind.

2012
Super Mario 3D Land (Nintendo 3DS) & Hotline Miami (PC)

Came home to Ireland for the first time in a year and a half and got a 3DS from the GF as a Christmas present along with Mario Kart 7 and 3D World. Loved it as I do all mainline Mario games. I discarded MK7 fairly swiftly, didn't enjoy it at all (which is strange as I love MK8 and they're very similar.

One of my most memorable moments from that Christmas was being stuck in Madrid Airport overnight on my way home and completing Hotline Miami from start to finish on my laptop. Bought it on a whim after a friend linked to one of the songs from the soundtrack on Facebook. Enjoyed it immensely.

2013
Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons (Playstation 3) & Zelda A Link Between Worlds (Nintendo 3DS)

Bought Brothers in a sale the week before Christmas for peanuts. Hadn't really any interest in it but it had a great effect on me. I guess it was probably because of my history with my own brother but I adored every minute of my two nights with it.

The Zelda I love finally had returned in 2013. Being a huge LTTP fan, this was never going to let me down. After so many years of disappointment Zelda was brilliant again.

The biggest bummer for me this year was my dog of 18 years passing away on the day The Last Of Us came out. Like I said, this keeps happening to me. Proper depressed me for a long time especially as I was 8000 miles away and couldn't be with him at the end. I didn't sleep that night I got the news, instead I stayed up all night going through my new game to take my mind of it and cried a lot.

2014
Captain Toad's Treasure Tracker (WiiU)

I bought a WiiU this year and it's now the console I spend all my time on. The PS3 is dead, I can't afford a PS4 however I will get one in a few months and then after probably an Xbox One as well.

As I sit here typing this after midnight on Christmas Day I have Captain Toad right beside me, unplayed. Got it in Colombia before I came home and have been fighting off the urge to play it for too long. Finally I can open it. Time for adventure!

Merry Christmas everyone!!!
 

SugarDave

Member
Awesome topic and stories, Chalky! Don't know why there seems to be such little interest.

I don't have a lot to contribute really as my memory is awful but I do remember the Christmas that me and my brother got the PS1. I couldn't even tell you what year it was as I was very young so I'm not sure if we were late to the party on this one or not but I always assumed our family could never afford that kind of stuff growing up. Our family always goes over my uncle's across the road after Christmas morning and this year was no different. We got whatever it was that we had that year and went over as usual, only to find a giant Christmas cracker sitting on the dining table. One of my earliest memories that I can picture clearly may actually be me bawling my eyes out at the sight of this since I was terrified of them and thought it would blow us all up after being told to dig into it. Anyway, I eventually did along with my brother only to find that beautiful console hidden inside. The PS2 is the only other Christmas surprise that has come close...

Which leads me to that one. Nothing so extravagant this time, the PS2 was sitting on our home dining table instead, only we completely missed it at first and headed for our individual sacks of presents. The confusion then pure joy that followed as me and my brother opened our copies of Star Wars: Starfighter and Smackdown: Just Bring it is one of my fondest Christmas memories. I still remember getting used to using the analog sticks. We bought Timesplitters before New Years arrived, which remains one of the best co-op experiences I've ever had.

I want to go back. :(
 

maxcriden

Member
Loved reading your update Chalky! It was great getting these biographical snippets, too--what an interesting life you've led thus far!
 
Super Nintendo - Super Mario World (later, Donkey Kong Country for Christmas another year)

Nintendo 64 - Diddy Kong Racing (later, Goldeneye and Ocarina)

Game Boy Colour - Mario Golf and Link's Awakening DX
 

maxcriden

Member
Super Nintendo - Super Mario World (later, Donkey Kong Country for Christmas another year)

Nintendo 64 - Diddy Kong Racing (later, Goldeneye and Ocarina)

Game Boy Colour - Mario Golf and Link's Awakening DX

I try to listen to the Diddy Kong Racing OST on the regular. Really snazzy tracks and they bring on those nostalgia feels strongly!
 
I try to listen to the Diddy Kong Racing OST on the regular. Really snazzy tracks and they bring on those nostalgia feels strongly!

That's awesome. It had good music.

You know, I went through the whole game (up until the final boss) without knowing about the tap A trick. I couldn't beat him, found out about it and then kicked his porcine ass.
 
I remember playing Scott Pilgrim with my friend near Christmas one year, the cold weather outside and the first level music "Another Winter" playing, it gave me such a warm feeling inside.
 

Aesius

Member
My brother and I got Chrono Trigger, a Playstation, and a computer on the same Christmas in 1995.

1998 is up there with it too. Got Ocarina of Time for my birthday, then Xenogears, Turok 2, an N64 expansion pack, and a Gameshark Pro for my PSX on Christmas.
 

Retro

Member
Heh, none of my stories compare to that great OT... all of mine are kind of semi-depressing.

For reference, I was born in 1982 and have two brothers, one older by five years and one younger by just over a year. I mention it because they figure into a lot of these. I'll also boldface the games and systems so you guys can skim, since I can be a little TLDR at times.

1987
My brothers and I received our NES for Christmas. My family had owned an Atari 2600 since before I can remember and we enjoyed playing Combat, Pitfall, PacMan, etc. on it, but the NES was on a completely different level. Back then a console shipped with two controllers, two games (Super Mario Bros. / Duck Hunt) and a light gun.

1989
My brothers and I got Godzilla: Monster of Monsters (NES) for Christmas and stayed up late on New Years to beat it. I remember watching the ball drop at Times Square on TV and then rushing back downstairs to un-pause the game and watching my older brother beat it. It was the first time we had been allowed to stay up after midnight.

1990
My mom hated video games and tried everything she could to curb them as much as possible. We were only allowed to have one console at a time (e.g we had to sell our Atari 2600 at a garage sale to get our NES) and if we wanted a game for Christmas, all three of us had to agree to ONE GAME and it was considered a gift to all three of us. I wanted Mega Man 3 (NES), but neither of my brothers wanted to give up part of their Christmas for it (yes, my mom seriously gave us a budget on what "Santa" would bring us).

Christmas morning rolled around and tucked way back into the tree was a box labeled just for me, and you can probably guess what it was. My dad had (wisely and accurately) predicted that all three of us would probably end up playing the game no matter who "officially" asked for it so he went out and bought it on the sly. This was basically my "Red Rider BB Gun" gift; the one you really wanted, didn't think you'd get and only received because one of your parents was cool enough to "get it." This was the first game I ever "owned" for myself.

1992
My mom was in the hospital in the spring of '92 and while she was gone my dad took some time off work and we rented both a Genesis and SNES and played video games, ate junk food and lived as free men for a week (did I mention my mom was kind of an ultra-controlling, manipulative manic depressive?). While Super Mario World was amazing, my younger brother and I fell in love with Sonic the Hedgehog (GEN) and after that we were pretty much going to have to get a Genesis for Christmas. We sold our NES and games at a garage sale (R.I.P) and used the money + Christmas to get a big gift pack from Sam's Club: the system, plus an extra controller and Quackshots.

Little did we know, my dad had noticed that Sonic the Hedgehog 2 had just come out (we were oblivious, this was before the internet and we weren't allowed any gaming magazines) and bought it for us as a surprise. He had also smuggled everything into the back of the car so when we got to my grandparents' later that day we could play with the only gift we had been allowed to get that year. My mom was furious but my grandparents saw the wisdom in keeping us occupied while the adults were all cooking, talking, drinking, etc. The car ride home later that week was memorably shout-y. I mentioned my mom is kind of a crazy bitch, right?

1995
Glider PRO (Mac). I remember sitting at the computer, listening to Christmas music on my cassette radio, smelling the smoke from my dad's first attempt at using our new waffle iron and just being in total bliss. A few people are probably familiar with the PC version of Glider (which was Glider 4.0 on the Mac), PRO was basically that with a lot more powerful editing tools (custom artwork, sounds, etc.), outdoor areas, non-linear goals... I spent all day building custom houses (levels).

1996
My younger brother and I went in together on an Nintendo 64 and Super Mario 64 (N64), which my older brother (who was working at that point) got on the cheap and chipped in some money for too (They were pretty damn expensive at launch). My grandparents came to visit and everyone sort of hung around the TV talking and watching us play.

1997
My older brother had bought a Playstation just after they'd first came out, but had moved out at this point (my mom was jealous of his girlfriend and was making things unbearable) so my younger brother and I picked one up for Christmas. Getting tired of the demo disk and Warhawk (which we borrowed from our brother) after a few days, we decided to rent something. I'd heard about this great game called Final Fantasy 7 (PSX) and settled on that...

Up to that point the only RPGs we'd played were Dragon Warrior and Phantasy Star IV (on a rental). We had no memory card, so the first night we just kept trying to get as far as we could until my older brother picked one up and dropped it off for us. We made a serious effort of trying to beat it together, checking the AOL message boards when we got stuck (and meeting a lot of people who would become friends, including my future wife), sleeping very little and living off Christmas candy.

We got fairly far (I know we got past
Aeris' death
, don't remember exactly when we stopped), and were incredibly sleep deprived (at one point I spotted a Nerd candy on the kitchen floor and put it in my pocket, thinking it was Materia).

1998
We're including the whole holiday season, right? I had gotten Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (N64) the day it was released (at that point I was working and could buy my own games) and I remember playing it almost non-stop, going into work exhausted, coming home and picking right up where I'd left off. I remember working on the Forest Temple while my dad was preparing Thanksgiving Dinner, and both he and my older brother would give advice on the puzzles and such as I went along. I associate Thanksgiving with this game to this day.

2014
Since I was buying my own games at this point, I don't really associate anything with the holidays until I was married and my wife started to get them for me as gifts again. This year she really outdid herself and found an out-of-print art book for Guild Wars 2 (PC). What made it especially special (other than the fact that the book regularly goes for +$150 yet she somehow got it for under $50) is that the buyer neglected to mention it was part of a press package or something. It came in a really nice cardboard package with an enormous mouse pad and a flash drive with the logo and everything on it (Pictures here)

She couldn't wait until Christmas and gave it to me this weekend (we're terrible at keeping surprises for each other, she got her gift early too).
 
That wasn't so depressing at all! Some nice memories. Why did your mother hate video games by the way?

Loved reading your update Chalky! It was great getting these biographical snippets, too--what an interesting life you've led thus far!

It has been interesting indeed. Trying to come home to Ireland for good now, though. 4 years is a long time to be away. Also, games and consoles are ridiculously expensive in Colombia and there are no dedicated game shops like GameStop or whatever so no sales or discounts. It really sucks, I miss buying games for €5 or €10.


Awesome topic and stories, Chalky! Don't know why there seems to be such little interest.

That big wall of text in the OP is probably a little off-putting. But thanks for reading it!
 

Retro

Member
Why did your mother hate video games by the way?

It's hard to say. She's a diagnosed manic depressive but several of her doctors thought there was a lot more going on there (we've heard everything from borderline personality disorder to schizophrenia), especially with the manipulative, sociopathic behavior.

Without going into a lot of detail, she basically had a cycle where she'd go from manic high (obsessive, outgoing and prone to impulsive behavior) to depression (lack of interest, lethargy, suicidal tenancies) over the span of a year or so (more or less depending on stress, medication, etc.), then check into a mental hospital (or, more often, have no choice but to go). Then the cycle would start all over when she was released.

Depending on where in the cycle you caught her, she might be obsessed with religion and view videogames as the devil, or trying to be a "cool mom" and buying them for us, or in a depressed purging mood and start throwing things away she doesn't think are necessary, or she might think one of my brothers or I was 'bad' and take it out on anyone who didn't align with her insane world view.

Her manic episodes also resulted in a lot of impulse shopping. At different points she was obsessed with Beanie Babies, Elvis memorabilia, Native American "stuff", books, ceramic figurines, plants, religions, home decor, etc., and there just wasn't room for video games in her mind when she was spending hundreds or even thousands of dollars on stuff that, when her manic cycle ended, she'd throw it all away.

For example, when she was in her Elvis phase, she bought all of his albums (Vinyl and CDs), books, trading cards (did you even know there were Elvis trading cards?) rare pictures and posters, autographed stuff, ticket stubs, bootleg concert videos, trashy nick-knacks (wall clocks, lunch boxes, whatever), made us take a trip to Graceland, joining fan clubs and online communities and calling people long-distance to gossip... That sorta thing gets expensive and when you're out of your mind the decision between a dirty band-aid somebody found in the record studio's trash in 1967 and your kids asking for a video game for Christmas is alarmingly easy to get wrong.

Oh look, this ended up going into a lot of detail =p
 

spookyfish

Member
1978 and the Atari VCS (later to be called the 2600). The family was so excited to play Space Invaders -- which didn't work.

Still, Combat was good for a few days until stores got some new Invaders cartridges in. The first "sold-out" Christmas video game I remember.
 

Wensih

Member
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Blew my fucking mind. A game I legit media blacked out on cause I was like 11.

Also had one where I got some remote controlled car and PS1 games such as Spider Man, Smackdown 2, MTV Sports Pure Ride and some other stuff. That was great!

I have fond christmas memories of the PoP series.
 
Bumpity bump.

2015
Destiny The Taken King (PS4) and Mario & Luigi Paper Jam (3DS)

Bit of a shitty christmas for me this year (I guess I was due one, it had been a while). On the games front I got Destiny The Taken King from my cuz which I've wanted for a while and I bought Mario & Luigi Paper Jam for myself but kept it for christmas morning to play in bed, so that aspect of it wasn't too bad, I'll get stuck into them over the coming days. However, personally It was a bit shitty. I left Colombia at the end of October with the intention of returning to Ireland permanently but my wife was denied a student visa to enter Ireland and so we had to spend christmas apart and probably won't see each other again for the next three months, which sucks a lot. I've gotten through the festive period alright so far but it does get kinda depressing now and then. I kinda just wanna have it be over and done with as soon as possible this year which is a huge departure for me as I usually love the season. Oh well. It still isn't as bad as 2001, though! lol

Here's to next year being a much better one!
 

Retro

Member
I have a few, but I'll just put in the big ones that people might actually read;

1995
I received Glider PRO (Mac) and spent the morning in the level editor making custom houses. I can still remember how the house smelled (like smoke, my dad had gotten a waffle iron and was working out the kinks, heh), what was on the radio, how cold it was... probably one of my happiest memories because this is when gaming sort of stopped being just 'a fun toy' and turned into more of a creative outlet. 13 year old me would have gone thermonuclear over something like Minecraft.

1997
We got a Playstation for Christmas, but no games (we figured there was the demo disc, and my older brother had some games he was going to let us borrow), so we decided to rent one. I had heard some amazing things about a game called Final Fantasy 7, and we decided to give it a try. We had no memory card the first night (luckily, my older brother worked third shift and bought one for us on the way home). We took turns playing / watching and lived mostly on leftovers and candy, getting very little sleep. I remember going into the kitchen at one point and seeing a candy Nerd on the floor, and in my sleep-deprived state I picked it up and put it in my pocket thinking it was materia.

We just didn't understand how big the game was, we'd never played anything like it (the only RPGs we had were Dragon Warrior). We didn't beat it on a rental, but we got pretty far (definitely past
Aeris' death, which hit us like a ton of bricks too.
) and knew we had to buy it. While I was looking for help on AOL to get past a part we were stuck on, I ended up visiting the FF7 Message Board which is where I would spent a lot of time hanging out as a teenager and eventually met my wife (d'awwww).

2014
My wife surprised me by managing to find a press kit with a copy of "The Art of Guild Wars 2" in it, which is a fantastic art book that's out of print (it was basically $80+ on ebay whenever i looked). It also had a mousepad and thumb drive. It was completely unexpected and out of the blue and is easily the best surprise gift I've ever gotten.
 

Mathieran

Banned
I don't remember what games I got when, but I do have a lot of fun memories of playing Goldeneye and MK64 with my brother, uncle, and cousins. Those were really fun times, and I think about them every year, wishing I could recapture that magic.
 
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