In this digital age, gaming is almost synonymous with Christmas. There’s no better time of year for the younger generation to ask their parents for a new game console, gaming credit vouchers, or an assortment of new releases. For the older generation, Christmas also represents a time to catch up on games they may have missed out on or play multiplayer titles with the family.
Additionally, shops are lined with gift ideas for gamers – everything from PlayStation branded mugs to Xbox socks. And lots of joypad shaped soap, for some reason.
Ever since the humble ZX Spectrum, the Atari 2600 and LCD handheld games released in the early ‘80s, Christmas memories can be linked to gaming. Below are five games (well, four and one console) that are intrinsically linked to Christmas in some way. Even if they fail to stir a hazy memory, you might learn something.
Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles – 1990

The NES failed to make much of an impact in the UK at launch, arriving in 1987 via Mattel – two years after the US – and with the main stockist being Boots. Yes, Boots the Chemist – larger stores stocked media in the ‘80s before high street gaming stores were commonplace. UK gamers were already invested in the Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum, while the Amiga 500 had launched around the same time. These formats were supported by inexpensive pocket money priced software – the thought of paying £30-£40 for a single cartridge based game didn’t hold much appeal. Additionally, critics weren’t too kind to the NES launch titles, especially the ‘black box’ sports sim, some of which harked back to 1984. The likes of Donkey Kong and Popeye had also gained conversions on Atari 2600 and ColecoVision a long time ago.

Christmas 1990 saw the console’s fortunes change for the better. The Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles (the term ‘ninja’ was deemed too violent for the UK market) were generating a huge buzz, with reports of action figures selling out the moment they reached stores. San Serif took the reigns from Mattel and devised a new marketing plan – to bundle the NES with Konami’s Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles and run an advertising campaign in the run-up to Christmas. Dubbed the ‘Mutant Machine’ bundle, it was a huge success. According to this brief interview with San Serif’s Mike Hayes – which also clarifies the situation the NES was in at the time – sales soared 2000% and ultimately put the NES back on track in the UK, ready for the impending arrival of the chart topping Super Mario Bros. 3.
Konami’s original Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles tie-in is seen as a bit of an oddity these days. Not so much because of its vexing difficulty, but because it launched early into the TMNT craze and consequently only had the comic books to draw inspiration from. In fact, the front cover (infamously featuring the turtles wearing red bandanas) uses one of the first colour images of the turtle gang – a 1987 reprint of issue #4. This non-linear platformer had a peculiar assortment of bad guys, including eyeballs and a mixture of robots, while the plot saw the bros attempt to retrieve a ‘life transformer gun’ to turn Splinter back into a human. As we said, it’s an oddity.
Contrary to popular belief, the NES wasn’t the only way to play Konami’s premier TMNT tie-in. It was licensed to Mirrorsoft for the European market, resulting in conversions (of varying quality) for the C64, Amiga, Atari ST and PC.
Rise of the Robots – 1994

A few Christmases ago the YouTube community latched onto the travesty that was Rise of the Robots, leading to numerous videos covering the topic. It’s a fascinating tale of greed and how hype can be a double-edged sword. It’s also a story that could only exist in a pre-internet era.
After designing a bunch of edgy looking computer-drawn robots and cyborgs – rendered using Autodesk 3D Studio – UK based development studio Mirage hatched a plan to incorporate them into a 2D fighting game for high end PC and Amiga platforms. The genre was incredibly popular at the time, fuelled by the success of Street Fighter 2 and Mortal Kombat, and these two formats were yet to be oversaturated with wannabes. The gaming press quickly latched onto the project, impressed by the visuals and animation sequences, along with Mirage’s claims that it’ll feature complex AI routines that would learn and adapt to player’s strategies.

As hype began to spread, suggesting we had a new all-timer on our hands, Time Warner Interactive stepped in as a publisher. This saw the amount of target platforms swell beyond computer systems – it eventually released on the Amiga, PC, SNES, Mega Drive, 3DO, Amiga CD32, Philips CDi, and even the humble 8-bit SEGA Game Gear. Word has it that Game Boy and Master System versions were originally in the pipeline too, which would have made this one of the final Master System games had it been released.
The majority of versions launched in November 1994, with reviews appearing in the January issues of gaming magazines. To put it politely, they weren’t kind. Amiga Power dished out a shockingly low 5% review score, while the PC version garnered a miserable 2/10 from EDGE. While the visuals did receive some praise, the gameplay was billed as woeful. The advanced AI promised was nothing but pre-release fluff – in fact, the AI was considerably poorer than what was common at the time – and the experience was further dragged down by odd design choices, such as being unable to jump over enemies, and the single player mode only featuring the blue-hued cyborg as a playable character. The Amiga CD32 version used just one button despite the controller having four, while the Amiga 1200 version ended up shipping on 12 disks.
Many of the later added formats also couldn’t do the visuals justice, with the Mega Drive version looking particularly scrappy due to the console’s limited colour palette.
While reviewers were honest with their verdicts, it was too late – Rise of the Robots had already launched and due to the amount of pre-release coverage it had gained, along with a big budget marketing campaign, it had found its way onto countless Christmas lists. The Amiga CD32 version was allegedly one of the biggest sellers on the platform, with almost half the user base purchasing a copy. The very definition of a Christmas turkey, Rise of the Robots taught a generation that it’s sometimes wise to wait for reviews to drop before forking out £30-£40.
There is a slight twist in this tale. A few critics rated Rise of the Robots highly, including an 81% score from CU Amiga. It has been speculated that they were ‘paid off’ in return for high scores, but it seems wiser to suggest that they too were blindsided by hype, or perhaps felt that telling gamers the product they’ve been hyping for months is rubbish would cause more harm than good. The Philips CDi version was rated highly too, presumably because the competition on that format was almost non-existent. Anything resembling a contemporary video game was a boon for the CDi.
The Commodore 64GS – 1990

Who launches a new video game console in December? Commodore, that’s who. Well, Commodore and Nintendo. It’s easy to forget that the Wii launched in December across Europe. Nintendo’s peculiar timing isn’t the topic of discussion for today, though.
After noticing the rise in popularity of gaming consoles – specifically the NES, Master System and Mega Drive within Europe – Commodore made the decision to release a cartridge only platform based on the Commodore 64’s hardware. The Commodore 64GS was, essentially, a C64 without a keyboard and a tape deck, able to play cartridges only – with a small library already available. It launched at a low £99.99 price point with the pack-in cart featuring four games – Fiendish Freddy’s Big Top O’Fun, International Soccer, Flimbo’s Quest, and Atari’s popular puzzler Klax.
While this may sound reasonable enough, with the Mega Drive priced at £189 at the time, Commodore’s plan was severely flawed. By 1990 the C64 was showing its age considerably, originally hitting the market in 1982. For the same price, it was entirely possible to buy a second hand C64 – usually with a box full of tapes thrown in. Even new C64 bundles weren’t far off the £99.99 price point, offering full support of the platform’s software range. Commodore cartridge games were also more expensive than tape versions, while the selection was far more limited, with only a few publishers putting out carts.
Now here’s the clincher – and you may want to hold onto your hat for this one. Some cartridge games required keyboard inputs, such as pressing the ‘Enter’ key to start. As the C64GS lacked a keyboard, this made numerous games unplayable…and there was no way of knowing which prior to purchasing. Ocean’s Terminator 2 was billed as the console’s killer app, even mentioning the C64GS on the packaging for the cartridge release, but it was unplayable due to the aforementioned reason. This means anyone who received a C64GS for Christmas that year, along with an additional cartridge game or two, may have ended up with something they couldn’t play past the title screen.
Suffice to say, the C64GS wasn’t a success. Not by a long shot – it has even been referred to as one of the poorest selling consoles of all time, with sales estimated to be as low as 2K units. Pity those who received one for Christmas 1990, especially if they hoped for something SEGA or Nintendo branded instead.
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 – 1992

The original Sonic the Hedgehog can be attributed to turning the Mega Drive’s fortunes around. By making it the Mega Drive’s pack-in title, replacing the ever-so-crusty Altered Beast, sales increased rapidly. Arguably, the blue blur also helped give the Master System a second wind, spawning a new wave of lucrative mascot starring platformers.
For Sonic the Hedgehog 2, SEGA pulled out all the stops. This was the big one; SEGA’s biggest title to date, and one that would help the Mega Drive – now three years old – compete with the technically superior Super Nintendo. After months of hype in the gaming press, revealing newcomer Tails and promising a game twice as fast and twice as long, SEGA announced ‘Sonic 2sday’ – November 24th 1992 – as a launch date, not just in the US but across Europe too. Today, confirmed release dates are nothing new – we know when almost every new release is due, right down to the time it unlocks on the digital store. Back in 1992 though things were vastly different, with new games reaching retailers as and when they were shipped out. Gaming magazines would even suggest phoning publishers for release date information! Sonic 2 can even be attributed to establishing Tuesdays as new software launch days in the US; something that remained until digital distribution took over.

While it was a tad glitchier than its predecessor, presumably due to the tighter development cycle of just 11 months, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 lived up to the hype. The visuals were brighter and more vibrant, the music just as memorable, the stage locations iconic, and Tails has remained a popular character since. Sonic 2 also supported two players; a second player could control Tails at any time, or players could go head-to-head in the dedicated, technically impressive, split-screen mode.
If there’s one thing that can be argued against Sonic 2, it’s that it’s too easy. GamesMaster magazine echoed this in their now famous review, in which they handed out a middling 65% review score on the grounds that it didn’t offer value for money, easily beatable in an afternoon.
Of course, the late November launch meant it was a hot item for that Christmas. Later, SEGA bundled Sonic 2 with the Mega Drive, making it likely that anyone unwrapping a shiny new Mega Drive on Christmas Day would be introduced to the 16-bit system by hearing “SEEEGA!” chime from their TV speakers.
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 launched on Game Gear and Master System the same day, at least in Europe. This version wasn’t as covered as extensively by the press, with most reviews restricted to just a single page or two. Here, Tails wasn’t playable – instead, the two-tailed tyke had to be rescued from Dr. Robotnik’s clutches. New innovations over the original were slim, mostly focusing on new methods of transport, such as a mine cart and a hang glider. While not a bad game – ignoring that the first boss is far too challenging – it isn’t exactly a fan favourite entry and probably didn’t deserve the praise it gained at the time.
Donkey Kong 64 – 1999

Rare’s Donkey Kong 64 seems to be infamous these days for a handful of reasons, none of which are merits of years worth of platforming expertise, building on the sturdy foundations laid by Banjo-Kazooie. These reasons include:
- The cringe worthy DK Rap that blares during the intro sequence. What was intended to be a bit of silly fun was mistaken by some misguided gamers as a ‘serious’ attempt of trying to be cool.
- The rumour that the expansion pack was only included, and at a great expense to Nintendo, due to a last minute game breaking bug that could only be fixed when playing with the pack installed. This was recently debunked; while bugs were found in the 11th hour, leading to confusion, expansion pack support was always planned.
- The insane number of collectables. Truly insane, in fact – it remains the current record holder, with a grand total of 3,821 objects to find and collect. Finishing DK64 completely is a herculean task.
- Rare accidentally showing Shigeru Miyamoto an early version with Donkey Kong brandishing a realistic firearm. This was always intended to be switched to a fantasy weapon (a coconut gun, specifically) but Rare was so used to seeing the placeholder that it completely slipped their mind to change it before Miyamoto arrived.
Anyway, we digress. Donkey Kong 64 was the N64’s big winter release for 1999, arriving 22nd November in the US and 6th December in Europe. Australian N64 owners had an even tighter window to snag a copy before Christmas, launching on 22nd December.
Nintendo pulled out the stops for marketing, assigning a $22m budget that included commercials playing in cinemas throughout Christmas, and also increased sales forecasts from 2.5m to 4m. It went on to sell almost 6m copies throughout its lifetime, and praise was almost universal despite similarities to Banjo-Kazooie and some drab looking backdrops. Mostly today, though, it’s referred to as being too big for its own good – very few gamers who take on the challenge of beating it emerge victorious. It’s enough to drive a sane man bananas, apparently.
Whatever your Christmas gaming memories are, from finally getting Jet Set Willy to load from cassette to redeeming a gift voucher for some cosmetic tat in Minecraft, here’s to many more.