The 12 Days of Last Christmas

Shenmue - SEGA Dreamcast

As we hunt for Christmas games, it seems that more and more of them are demos, add-ons or other short lived entities designed to capture the fleeting essence of the holiday season. Shenmue, on the other hand, isn't specifically Chrimbo themed, and yet for many gamers it represents an intangible link to Christmas past that will never be forgotten.

The impressively deep storyline of Shenmue begins on November 29th, and although the events occur in China and Japan - where Christmas is nothing more than a confusing, foreign sales period - there's so much to the game that signifies the essence of what many Westerners associate with a traditional, long forgotten winter holiday; not least of all the time of year in which Ryo's incredible journey begins.

Much of what makes Shenmue great is the explorative premise that leaves much open to the interpretations and subjectivity of the player. With so many clearly significant elements being discovered, investigated and their relevance understood on such a personal level, it's easy to begin drawing parallels between the game and what we remember as a time-honoured Christmas. The symbolic tree at the centre of the strange events, the struggle to return to a familiar state and the search for mysterious items of sentimental value - it all points into the past, toward a recurring story we regularly try to recapture, but ultimately only manage to add another chapter to; different from the last.

But there are other reasons to bring Shenmue out at Christmas that aren't quite so cryptic. The game was released in December (or very near to it, at least) across the world, and since Christmas was always the prime time for acquiring a new games system, the biggest title of the Dreamcast's short, but illustrious life was a natural choice to accompany a new machine.

Alongside this association felt by people who first met Ryo and the Dreamcast at Christmas is the amazing weather system that works throughout the game. Random climate conditions are in a state of constant flux when playing Shenmue, and when it inevitably begins to snow (what with the time of year in which the game is set), the winter sensations that permeate the gameplay are quite awe-inspiring, and it suddenly becomes that Christmas when you first fell in love with SEGA's swansong console.

The fact that Shenmue might appear to be an obscure Christmas choice is remarkably fitting to the game's gradually enlightening plot, and there'll be plenty of people out there who are drawn - for some unknown, unacknowledged reason - to take Ryo's journey every time a Christmas tree adorns their home.

The Great Escape - ZX Spectrum / Amstrad CPC

There's one or two British necessities when it comes to a complete Christmas experience: hearing Noddy Holder's winter war cry floating on the thrice conditioned air of an overfull shopping centre, selection boxes that are twice the price of the individual choccie bars contained inside them, your grandmother making you drink Advocat "snowballs", socks and aftershave, the cat pulling over the Christmas tree and The Great Escape on the telly.

Well, since those trendy, ex-yuppie dorks who now run the BBC have decided that good viewing is filling the Chrimbo schedule with morbid soap operas and poncy dancing programs, we purists must turn to the good old Speccy to ensure our Yuletide celebrations involve the cheesy embarrassment of stiff collared Gestapo.

Fortunately, The Great Escape is perhaps the finest RPG ever seen on the Spectrum, with game mechanics so subtle and advanced we're only recently seeing their like again today. Players take on the role of All 'Mercan Steve and attempt to bust themselves (not the entire prison population including the mole faced forger played by Donald Pleasance) out of the POW camp. But stay your itchy trigger finger, Mr McQueen, because The Great Escape is more a cerebral challenge than the "boots first 'n' brawn" we might expect. This intriguing title is a brilliant meld of many multi-coloured genres, and could perhaps best be described as a Skool Daze-Tenchu-Dizzy-Zelda-Head Over Heels crossbreed (even though it came out before most of those other games, but you get what I'm saying).

Surely the first game to ever take the central character's morale into active consideration, much of the sticky sweetness of the movie inspiration is gone, replaced instead by a more cursive approach to war crime imprisonment. The guards fear the patrolling Commandant every bit as much as the player, while the hide and seek gameplay establishes a very personal link between the prison leader and the player. A brilliant cross and change betwixt protagonist and antagonist that even Steve failed to portray so expressively.

Running through the Great Escape on your Speccy is a terrific way to spend Christmas, and for all the traditionalists out there, I'd like to suggest there's no finer homage to classic holiday entertainment than spending Boxing Day in solitude, bouncing a ball against a wall.

Daze Before Christmas - SEGA Megadrive / SNES

Interesting Santa fact: Old white- beard suffers from a rare psychosis, triggered by caffeine that manifests itself in dual personality schizophrenia. At least that's what Funcom would have you believe (obviously explaining the 'daze' in the title).

But we'll come to that later.

Daze is another rare seasonal game in that it isn't a demo, cut down mini-game or blatant advert for some other game or product. It is a full sized, full quality, commercially released game from a semi-respected developer. It follows the tale of Saint Nick, who is dismayed to find that an evil snowman has imprisoned all Santa's elves in ribboned gift boxes and is holding his reindeer captive.

Your task is to guide Santa through 24 levels (each amusingly illustrated by an advent calendar window), freeing your vertically challenged friends. The game is pretty much standard platform fare, but everything it does is wrapped in such lovely Christmassy jingles and bright colorful graphics that the moment you load it up you get a warm glow that doesn't leave you until your adventure is over. The game is incredibly easy though, so one play a year will suffice, but I defy anyone not to be charmed by the sleigh ride across the rooftops of London (and other major cities).

So with all this cuddly cartoon fun, what's all the schizo stuff? Well for reasons that I have been unable to fathom, if Santa collects a cup of coffee power he immediately transforms in his alter ego 'Anti Claus'. In his new horned and blue-suited form he loses all magical powers, but is able to whack the various enemies with his sack. This is so out of keeping with the rest of the game and is therefore only worth doing to hear the sinister music that plays whilst in his evil guise.

Strange it may be, but then it was made by Scandinavians so I suppose being closer to Lapland makes them a better judge of Santa's eccentricities than I.