This time last year, I had almost no time to enjoy the holiday festivities. I was unable to put up a tree or lights, let alone restore holiday cheer to Twin Seeds City. Rather, we were swamped with uprooting our lives, dog, and 15 years’ worth of belongings as we prepared to move across the Atlantic. It made for a hellishly stressful shitmas.
This year is the opposite, mercifully. So far I’ve enjoyed relaxing and rekindling the holiday spirit. I’ve indulged in some longstanding traditions, while adopting several new ones from this side of the pond. The Christmas markets, Sunday roasts, and excessive pints at my locals have helped make this season all the merrier. Of course, I’ve also been playing a bunch of Dreamcast games to help celebrate the season.
Sega’s final console imparted us with a multitude of titles that could be considered festive in one sense or another. Of course, these games will resonate with different folks in different ways. Some are dusted in snowscapes, some are lit with Christmas decor, and some just have festive vibes. Whichever the case, the following games have helped restore my holiday spirit in their own odd and unique ways…
Blue Stinger
I’ve spilled plenty of ink championing Blue Stinger as a highlight of the Dreamcast’s festive offerings, and its library in general. We’ve also rambled about the game in several of our podcast episodes by this point. In fact, you can listen to our latest DreamPod dedicated solely to Shinya Nishigaki and Climax Graphics’ holiday classic.
Ditching any semblance of survival horror, Blue Stinger teeters a balance of action/beat ‘em up, B-movie camp, and festive vibrancy. Yet that understates how hard it goes on all counts.
Whether you crave gory fisticuffs or holiday cheer, Blue Stinger indulges in both and spares us from all nuance. If you want to obliterate Dinosaur Island’s mutant folk, its vending machines offer a buffet of shotguns, stun rods, rocket launchers, and lightsabers for your destructive delight. And if you want Christmas cheer, it will bury you in an avalanche of neon snowman, chipper earworms, and festive/bizarre Pen Pen cameos.
Blue Stinger embodies holiday excess and it will charm the shit out of you if you let it.
Christmas moral: We can capture the magic of Christmas with just a little brute force...and tequila.
Beverage pairing: Mistletoe Margaritas
Dessert pairing: Hassy pudding
Song pairing: My friend Angela’s metal karaoke rendition of “Feliz Navidad” followed by this song on loop for 10 hours
Cool Boarders Burrrn! (NTSC-J) / Snow Surfers (PAL) / Rippin’ Riders (NTSC-U)
Frankly, I’ve always wished I enjoyed UEP System’s Dreamcast snowboarding game more than I traditionally have. I still return to it every couple years thinking that maybe it will finally click. It never fully does but we’ll muddle through somehow.
Perhaps my expectations were overblown by my love for other turn-of-the-millennium snowboarding games. I always balked at Snow Surfers’ stifling rigidity. It offers limited potential for exploration and improvisation, which contrasts unfavorably with the likes of SSX, Amped, and even Steep Slope Sliders. But in its own charming way, that also makes Rippin’ Surfers a unique kind of grind. Countdown timers are unforgiving and tricks are limited to specific launch points (as with other Cool Boarders games). There are just a few viable approaches to each course, which I was compelled to practice ad nauseam to improve my best scores and inch towards more optimal runs.
Unmoored from the expectations of its contemporaries, I found a merry little game in Burrrn Riders. With a little persistence, carving the slopes feels surprisingly serene, and is further bolstered by the chill beats and nifty set pieces. It’s not an expansive game but its simplicity makes it feel oddly cozy.
Christmas moral: Sometimes it’s nice to enjoy games for what they are.
Beverage pairing: Jingle Juice with Mountain Dew
Dessert pairing: Christmas crumble or something with alliteration
Song pairing: “Merry Muthafuckin’ Christmas” by Eazy-E
Shenmue
AM2’s classic Santa stalking simulator needs no introduction here. I’ll just say that — with Shenmue’s dynamic weather system — I had to load through all my Xbox saves, all my PS5 saves, and a dozen VMUs before I finally found a save state where it was actually snowing in Dobuita. After that, I had a jolly time crunching through the snow and following Santa around town as he peddled local boozers to underage teenagers before imbibing at them himself. We couldn’t stay out too late, though. Ryo still had to show up for his forklift job on Christmas Day.
On a side note, Mark's mandatory, pre-shift forklift races do not pay overtime and that’s fucking bullshit.
Dessert pairing: Nothing. Ryo doesn’t eat food in Shenmue 1 because he is a ryobot
Song pairing: “Sometimes You Have to Work on Christmas (Sometimes)” by Harvey Danger
