Originally published in print December 2020.

Folks, it is that time of year again. Radio stations have dusted off ‘Last Christmas’ (1985). Your least favourite friends are reigniting arguments about whether or not Die Hard (1988) is a Christmas movie. The festive season is in full swing and I, as always, am here for it. I love bopping to Bublé, crying to It’s a Wonderful Life (1946), and falling asleep to A Christmas Carol (1843) (sorry Dickens, you just don’t do it for me). Yet, I find myself, as I do every year, looking for a game to scratch that Christmassy itch only to come up short. Every form of popular media has its Christmas traditions, its classic favourites, except for video games. This ends here dear reader. Allow me to break down exactly what makes a Christmas classic and find you the perfect game for this and every holiday season.

Let’s start with the obvious, the argument most used when talking about Die Hard, for example, it should be about Christmas. That said, Christmas doesn’t have to be the main part of the text. It’s a Wonderful Life only becomes about Christmas in the last third. Similarly, Meet Me in Saint Louis (1944) only has one vignette about Christmas, the rest being set at other times of year. Multiple Christmas songs don’t even mention Christmas, like “Let it Snow” (1945) or “Jingle Bells” (1857), but instead, rely on imagery of winter more generally. So, textually it should be partially set during Christmas or, at very least, winter.

Secondly, it should be nostalgic. Christmas songs, for example, broadly fall into three main categories: Christian hymns, 40s-50s Crooners, and 80s-90s pop (thanks to the popularity of Top of the Pops). They all evoke fairly specific, simplified pasts. Christmas movies work on the same general principle, though the cycle seems a little different. Yes, there are the classics like Miracle on 34th Street (1947) and White Christmas (1954), but people also tend to gravitate to whatever they watched when they were a child. For me, born in 1999, when I think of Christmas movies, I think of The Grinch (2000) or The Santa Clause (1994) or other Christmas movies RTÉ had the syndication rights to in the early 2000s. Regardless, Christmas is a time for tradition and reminiscence, the chosen game should reflect that, playing on that nostalgia.

 

Next, it should be about family and togetherness, be it a biological family or a found family. Practically all Christmas movies have some message about how the real meaning of Christmas is about the people you love. Sometimes that’s your biological family, as in Home Alone (1990). Sometimes that’s your close friends and neighbours, as in The Grinch. Sometimes that’s both, as in It’s a Wonderful Life. In songs, they have less time to flesh out the specifics of relationships but still allude to families and friends in one way or another. Barring the odd outliers like ‘Last Christmas’ (the song not the movie), Christmas content tends to avoid loneliness in favour of family and friendship. Furthermore, traditions like caroling and cinema screenings of old movies are meant to be experienced with people. This can be easily realised in a video game context through multiplayer. It should also be noted that if we really want to push the idea of togetherness and family, it should be co-op and not competitive. Working together to win, rather than beating each other down, is much more Christmassy.

 

Finally, and this is less of a concern for other media, it should be able to be done every year. Whatever game is chosen has to be able to be played or completed in five hours or less. We can’t go recommending that every December you bust out Final Fantasy VII (1997) for a 35-hour campaign. That’s just not a sustainable tradition. 

And this is where I must be honest with you, I did not have a game in mind when I started writing this article and the search for a wintry, nostalgic, short co-op game has been tough. For a while I thought it could be the free DLC for Overcooked! 2 (2018), ‘Kevin’s Christmas Cracker’: a fun, adorable, hectic co-op game choc-full of Christmas cheer, with something for everyone, that can be completed in under three hours. Unfortunately, the first game was only released in 2016 and is nowhere near nostalgic yet. 

But there is another. A game about a nephew and an uncle working together to reclaim what was stolen from their family. A game that takes about four hours to complete. A game that has an entire world dedicated to winter. A game released the same year as other nostalgic Christmas classics such as Mariah Carey’s ‘All I Want for Christmas (is you)’ (1994) and Tim Allen’s The Santa Clause (1994). The official festive game for now and evermore: Donkey Kong Country (1994) on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Switch (Nintendo Online), and probably some dodgy emulators. You’re Welcome.