The Dreamcast Junkyard: Joy to the Swirl: A Festive Feast of Christmas(ish) Dreamcast Games

This post has been updated and expanded from a version that was originally published in 2024. Enjoy!

This time of year the barrage of shopping, crowds, attention-thieving ads, and obnoxious mall displays can take their toll. Their cacophony of superficial Christmas chaos drowns the soul.

Approaching my wits' end, I try to slow down and reclaim the seasonal spirit in whatever small ways I can muster. First there's the traditional stuff: the Christmas markets; the Griswold family antics; the catching up with friends over pints...

Before long, it's time for the festive video games.

I'll start with playing the obvious ones: Restoring cheer to Twin Seeds City in Christmas NiGHTS. Scaling the giant snowman in Banjo Kazooie's Freezeezy Peak. Mario dropping the baby penguin off a cliff...

It'sa wholesome holiday tradition!

Inevitably, I'll boot up my Dreamcast and really kick the season into high gear. Sega's swansong console is blessed with a multitude of titles which radiate a festive aura in one sense or another. Some are decked with Christmas cheer, others are dusted with wintry snowscapes, and a few simply relish in escapist revelry. Whatever the case, I thought I'd take a stroll through the platform's jolly games in this blog post. Settle in, grab a hot beverage, and huddle up to the warmth of your Dreamcast fan…

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Blue Stinger

Ditching any semblance of survival horror, Blue Stinger stirs a cocktail of action/beat ‘em up, B-movie camp, and Yuletide vibrancy. And that understates how hard it goes on all counts.

Whether you crave gory fisticuffs or holiday cheer, Blue Stinger indulges in both and spares all nuance. Want to obliterate Dinosaur Island’s mutant folk? Its vending machines dispense a feast of gatling guns, rocket launchers, lightsabers, and stun rods (my personal favorite) for your destructive delight. Need a jolt of merriment? It’ll bury you in an avalanche of neon snowmen, chipper earworms, and bizarre Pen Pen cameos. There are no half measures in Blue Stinger and God bless it for that.

Hassy Holidays, everyone!

In all, Blue Stinger embodies holiday excess and it will charm the shit out of you if you open your heart to its violent revelry.

Anyway, I’ll move on as I've spilled plenty more ink championing Blue Stinger as a highlight of the Dreamcast’s festive offerings and its library in general. We also celebrated it on the Dreamcast Junkyard's DreamPod Episode 137 and The Sega Lounge Episode 282, two podcast episodes fully dedicated to Shinya Nishigaki and Climax Graphics’ immortal holiday classic.

Christmas moral: We can brute force our way to Christmas cheer with a little kung fu and napalm.

Beverage pairing: Hassy & vodka

Dessert pairing: Gingerbread dinosaurs

Song pairing: This song on loop for 10 hours

Cool Boarders Burrrn! (NTSC-J) / Snow Surfers (PAL) / Rippin’ Riders (NTSC-U)

UEP System's Dreamcast snowboarding game sports a different title in each region but I've always appreciated their common commitment to alliteration. The game itself, though? Eh —

My expectations were likely overblown by the spoils of other turn-of-the-millennium snowboarding games. I've always balked at Snow Surfers' relative rigidity. It affords limited potential for exploration and improvisation which contrasts unflatteringly against the expressive freedom of SSX, Amped, and Steep Slope Sliders.

I still revisit Cool Boarders Burrrn! each winter, hoping to somehow enjoy it more than I traditionally have. The checkpoint timers are unforgiving and tricks are restricted to a handful of dedicated launch points (a la other Cool Boarders games). Each run offers just a couple viable approaches, yet — only recently — I've felt compelled to keep retrying them to improve my best times and trick scores. There's a certain hook there.

Decades onward, and unmoored from the shadow of its contemporaries, I've found a merry little game in Snow Surfers. With some persistence, carving the slopes feels refreshingly kinetic and the chill beats, nifty set pieces, and wintery village locales are charming as hell. It only took a couple of decades but Cool Boarders Burrrn! is beginning to feel a lot like a toasty tradition in its own right.

Christmas moral: Something...patience...something, something. Also, alliteration is alright.

Beverage pairing: Jingle Juice with Mountain Dew

Dessert pairing: Christmas crumble

Song pairing: "Walking in a Winter Wonderland"

Shenmue

AM2’s classic Santa stalking simulator needs no introduction here. I’ll just say that few things feel as cozy as moseying around Dobuita's bustling streets at Christmastime with the snow crunching under Ryo's sneakers. Tailing Santa around town, It's always amusing to see him peddle local boozers to underage teenagers before imbibing at them himself. Ryo can't stay out too late, though. Ine-san will worry and he still has to wake up early for his forklift job on Christmas Day.

On a related note, Mark's pre-shift forklift races are mandatory but don't pay jack squat. That's bullshit.

Christmas moral: Unionize.

Beverage pairing: Milk

Dessert pairing: Nothing. Ryo doesn’t eat food in Shenmue because he is a ryobot

Song pairing: “Sometimes You Have to Work on Christmas (Sometimes)” by Harvey Danger

Pen Pen TriIcelon

Sometimes we worry too much about a game is "good" or "bad" and not enough about whether it lets you dress derpy penguin creatures with Santa hats and assault rifles. Enjoying a stupid, silly game for what it is can be its own act of rebellion against the jaded critic in us all. And if any video game embodies that aura, it’s probably Pen Pen TriIcelon.

The Pen Pens are unapologetically weird. The downhill courses play out like wintry theme park rides as you slide, swim, and waddle through their psychedelic icescapes. As you jostle through the waddling sections, don’t forget to dive attack your penguin racemates for an extra pinch of chaos. They deserve it, and so do you.

And so do your friends. Gather three mates/relatives in front of Pen Pen for some delightfully dumb and festive multiplayer fun.

Pen Pen is goofy as hell and we ought to indulge in its whimsy in earnest.

Christmas moral: Guilty pleasures are bullshit. Free yourself and enjoy Pen Pen shamelessly.

Beverage pairing: Whatever penguins drink. So...seawater?

Dessert pairing: Honey-dipped shrooms

Song pairing: "Dominick the Donkey (The Italian Christmas Donkey)"

Sega Rally 2

Sega Rally 2 will always feel Christmassy to me, and not just because my parents gifted it to me for Christmas back in 1999.

Fast forward several years, I had just finished my Fall exams at university but still had a couple days before I could head home for Christmas break. I wanted to kill the time with something festive but I only had a few games with me. Sega Rally 2 was among them so I hoped sliding around its snowy courses might be cheery enough.

And it was. For those couple cozy evenings, I had a jolly time in the Corolla, dashing through the snow, drinking ale the way.

Christmas moral: Don’t drink and drive, actually.

Beverage pairing: Winter warmer ales like Deschutes Jubelale, festive stouts like Fairytale of Brew York, or something Belgian like St. Bernardus Christmas Ale if you wanna get a little fucked up

Dessert pairing: Spritz cookies (or whatever’s easy to eat without making a mess while driving)

Song pairing: “Skating” by the Vince Guaraldi Trio

NFL 2K

I received NFL 2K on Christmas Day alongside Sega Rally 2, so its holiday connection is also more literal than thematic for me. For peak wintery vibes, I set the weather to 20°F with maximum precipitation at Lambeau Field (or a random California or Florida stadium if I’m feeling spicy).

As the game wears on, the field accumulates snow. OK, maybe it doesn't "accumulate snow" as much as it generates increasingly frosty textures where grass used to be. Either way, my festive spirit grows with every dropped pass and fumble amid the wintry chaos. It’s icy pigskin bliss.

Christmas moral: Sports are better with snow.

Beverage pairing: Coors with the frosty mountain cans

Dessert pairing: Those shitty sugar cookies with football-shaped frosting from a grocery store bakery

Song pairing: “Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow” which is what in-game commentator Dan Stevens says every time it snows

Toy Commander Christmas Surprise / Xmas Edition demo

No Cliché’s Toy Commander Christmas demo is an obvious cheer bringer. It’s a simple holiday-themed mission featuring Father Christmas with a jetpack, a combat jeep, a fighter plane, enemy toys to blow up, lost presents to retrieve, and a partridge in a pear tree. It’s a Dreamcast holiday classic.

I left my US ODCM demo discs behind when I moved to the UK, so I was keen to find another way to play the Toy Commander demo. So last Christmas, I tracked down a few Dream On demo discs (TC features in volumes 4, 11, and 16). Each version includes different music, ranging from a nifty EDM banger to the generic rock riffs from Speed Devils. (The Toy Commander demos often pulled their BGM tracks from another game on their respective discs). However, I'll always be nostalgic for the one on US ODCM’s volume 10 disc. It sounds infectiously festive while accompanied by the Kao the Kangaroo tune.

However you play it, Father Christmas fetching gifts from the toilet is always a delight.

Christmas moral: Kids love toys and toy companies love that kids love toys.

Beverage pairing: Vin chaud

Dessert pairing: Bûche de noël

Song pairing: Kao the Kangaroo Stage 4 OST

SnoCross Championship Racing

Many racing games lull me into a zen-like flow as I master the interplay between their course layouts, physics, and nuances of their handling and mechanics. SnoCross is too stressful to afford such a luxury.

If SnoCross embodies any holiday at all, it’s one specific Thanksgiving when I was driving back to my university and a snowstorm rolled in. As the blizzard intensified, it stretched what was typically a two-hour drive into ten. Navigating treacherous conditions and intermittent freeway closures, I stared down the tail lights ahead of me for any semblance of where the lanes were supposed to be. I dedicated every ounce of my attention just to stay on the road. It was a miracle I didn’t slide into any other cars or ditches.

In a similar spirit, SnoCross plops you atop extremely touchy snowmobiles and has you navigate tense courses with blind turns en mass. Gently tapping the D-pad and finessing your handling based on the forward fulcrum can help reduce oversteer (or understeer, as parts degrade) but there’s little reprieve from the white-knuckle chaos. If nothing else, SnoCross’ volatile icescapes and sled handling always keep me on my toes. They impart — or rather, impose — the virtue of taking nothing for granted.

I wouldn’t say I’ve gotten used to SnoCross' quirks but perhaps I’ve grown more at peace with its chaos.

Christmas moral: SnoCross embodies the stress of the holidays — and in our perseverance — the lingering uncertainty of whether it’s all really worth it.

Beverage pairing: Red Bull

Dessert pairing: Ambien

Song pairing: “Merry Christmas (I Don’t Wanna Fight Tonight)” by the Ramones

The Grinch

OK, so I still haven't actually played the Grinch game but I assume it's at least a little Christmassy. Also, the PAL version is a lot pricier than I expected. I don't have a lot to say about it but I do have a theory that Ugly Sonic is a Whovian. Just hear me out:

Sega Extreme Sports (PAL) / Xtreme Sports (NTSC-U)

Like half of the other titles featured in this piece, Innerloop's Sega Extreme/Xtreme Sports is non-denominational in its lack of holiday homage. But it does have snow — and I've already included Snow Surfers, NFL 2K, Sega Rally 2, and SnoCross for that very reason — so here we are.

Despite a title evoking its adrenaline-spiking genre choice, Extreme Sports feels weirdly chill to play (especially following SnoCross). The mellow electronic soundtrack may have plenty to do with that. Good stuff.

Xtreme Sports lets you descend icy Norwegian and Himalayan slopes via snowboards, ATVs, hang gliders, mountain bikes, and such. You'll use several race styles, one after another, across different legs of each race. It's like Pen Pen but with people.

Snowboarding is the best part, though. Shredding gnar feels as serene as it should feel treacherous. The act of soaring down mountains feels freeing enough. Bumps in the terrain become impromptu launch points for whatever grabs, flips, and spins your mind and muscle memory can conjure.

However, the game's snowy locales don't feel particularly festive and their powdered expanses are often quite sparse. Sterile, even. And unstable (the visual pop-in always makes the environment warp in front of you). On the other hand, you'll finish some runs in an obligatory snowy village where you could imagine bundling up with some cocoa...I dunno, you'll have to use your imagination. We're kind of scraping the bottom of the yuletide barrel with this one.

Christmas moral: It can still feel like Christmas without snow but the opposite is also true.

Beverage pairing: Cocoa

Dessert pairing: Marshmallows

Song pairing: "Bridge" by Amon Tobin (it's not Christmassy but neither is Sega Extreme Sports)

D2

OK, so I also don’t find D2 to be festive (more the opposite) but — in the quiet moments between the fucked up body horror and random battles with mutant abominations — there’s a certain calm in its Canadian winterscapes. Honestly, D2 would be a very cozy experience if you could skip the disturbing horror stuff and never leave the cabin at the start of the game.

Christmas moral: Everything wants to kill you so might as well have that second eggnog...

Beverage pairing: ...with Canadian Club whisky, and enough of it to forget all the disturbing shit you’ve seen.

Dessert pairing: Mincemeat pie (substitute fruit for rabbit meat...or human flesh...whatever's available)

Song pairing: “Jingle Hell” by Christopher Lee

Napple Tale: Arsia in Daydream

Developed by Chime, the Japan-exclusive Napple Tale always struck me as a charming game. Unfortunately, I had no idea what was happening in it because I failed Japanese class in high school. The platforming gameplay felt pleasant enough but, oblivious to its narrative appeal, I quickly abandoned it. But then I played the English fan-patched version last year and holy shit.

Nothing prepared me for how relentlessly endearing Napple Tale would be. The hub town is bustling with fun activities and side quests to discover. Every character is a vibe and their dialogue is hilarious. Cardogin and their team’s localization work is stellar, with all the jester rhymes and squid puns you could ever need. And don’t get me started on the incredible soundtrack composed by the legendary Yoko Kanno. It all comes together in what may well be one of the most charming experiences the Dreamcast, a platform known for its bounty of charming experiences, has to offer.

Seriously, Napple Tale is thoroughly delightful. Play it now.

Christmas moral: Napple Tale radiates pure festive joy which we ought to enjoy all year long.

(Editor’s note: It also features winter levels!)

(Brian's note: Yeah, but they're the worst ones)

Beverage pairing: Milk again

Dessert pairing: Straynap’s "chef’s special" ice cream

Song pairing: Yoko Kanno's brilliant Napple Tale OST

Sonic Adventure

Everyone knows about the DLC Christmas trees in Station Square, right? And of course there’s the aesthetically frosty Ice Cap stage. Those things are pretty nice but, for me, Sonic Adventure’s coziness comes more from indulging in its familiar escape. It's comfort food on a GD-ROM.

Nothing to see here...just Eggman's goons bombing a Christmas village.

Over the years, Sonic Adventure has become one of those games I'll pop in whenever I'm feeling bleh, or indecisive, and unsure what to play next. I've come to enjoy the game best as a virtual amusement park where a romp through Sonic's speed stages (Emerald Coast, Speed Highway, Red Mountain, and Windy Valley) evokes a day of roller coaster rides, sans the queues. I'll then unwind from their thrills with a jaunt around the adventure hub areas and Chao Gardens. In this way, a trip through Sonic Adventure can feel like a mini holiday, offering a sunny reprieve from all the Christmas chaos.

Christmas moral: Sometimes Christmas is better spent on a beach in Cancún.

Beverage pairing: Blue Hawaiian

Dessert pairing: Tres leches

Song pairing: “Run Rudolph Run” by Chuck Berry

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OK, hopefully those games help to sufficiently boost the festive spirit. And if all that wasn't Christmassy enough for you, maybe these'll do the trick: