Christmas is a fun time of the year. It was one of two times a year that I would get new video games when I was a kid. Not only that, but it was a welcome break from school. At times, I dreaded going to school for a bunch of reasons.
I grew up in Michigan, and we normally had a few feet of snow in the weeks leading up to Christmas. It was also very cold, and going outside wasn’t always an option. Board games and video games filled the time when we were trapped inside, especially when I didn’t have a car.
Some of the games on this list are games I got as presents, and others are simply ones that I played a lot. One thing I don’t remember is rentals during this time. We didn’t rent games that often, and I can’t remember any from these winter breaks.
I’m going to include some games I played with my friends and some that I played in Navy. It was common for us to get together over winter break to play video games. This sort of thing happened all the time in the 1990s and early 2000s.
These aren’t in any particular order. This is just a list of games and the memories I have of them. I’m sure that other people have memories of the games that they received for Christmas, and I would love to hear about them.
Bottom Line up Front: A list of the games I remember the most from Christmas time.
Tecmo Super Bowl
This was probably the Christmas gift that my brother and I played with the most. I don’t remember if we asked for it, and I’m sure that my brother doesn’t remember if he asked for it. He might make up a story about doing so, because that is just one of the things that happens in my family.
I’m a Detroit Lions fan, and being able to play as some of my favorite players was a lot of fun. In the early 1990s, they were pretty good, just not good enough to get past the other great teams in the NFC. What I remember most was playing this game with my brother. He cheated a lot, and for some reason, it never occurred to me that I could stare at his controller when he selected his play. He was also a sore loser, which I’m just assuming that every older brother was.
What was really fun was getting my dad to play with us. It didn’t happen often, but it was always fun. To the best of my knowledge, he never cheated at the game. For those that don’t know, this is an arcade football game that had the license for the NFL and NFLPA.
Heroes of Might and Magic III
Heroes of Might and Magic III is one of the games that I didn’t get as a present on this list. It was a game that I bought during Christmas break. I didn’t get this game randomly. I played the first two games in the series, but this is the one that I like the most.
This is a game that I played quite a bit with my friend Joey. There were other people who played it with me, but most of the time I played it with Joey. We were both on the wrestling team, and we would play it after practice. We would mostly play the scenarios, for some reason. There are a few campaigns, but I don’t remember if we got far in any of them.
I still come back to this game from time to time. I’ve found myself trying the campaigns, but you can get a lot of enjoyment out of it without playing them. Part of the fun of these games for me is playing around with the different factions. That was always my favorite part of the Heroes of Might and Magic series.
Warcraft II
Warcraft II is one of the games that my brother borrowed from his friend. This happened a lot back in the 1990s, especially since we didn’t have a home console anymore. My parents got a PC, and that was what we used to play video games, until I got my PS1.
After playing this game, I wanted to go back to play the first game. I got hooked on the story, and the gameplay helped out a lot. I revisited this game a little while ago, and I still like it. It has been passed up by other RTS and turn-based strategy games, but this is still a great game.
The game’s story was what got me hooked. There is something in this story that I absolutely loved. It made the MMO a little more enjoyable, and I can remember waiting for the third game to come out, only to forget about it when I was in the Navy. It was one of the games that my brother and I would fight each other over who got to play first.
Doom II
I have no idea what compelled my parents to buy this game for me for Christmas. It must’ve been something I asked for, but I’m not sure. I’m pretty sure I got the game the Christmas after it was released.
The demons from the first game have made their way to Earth, and you have to fight them. This takes you through Hell and throws a lot of imagery at me that I probably wasn’t ready for at that age. I think I was ten or eleven at the time. This is one of the games I remember playing this game every chance I could get.
I played this game with my friends Drew and Joey. Doom and Doom II were the games that I remember being whispered about on the playground when I was in school. I wasn’t very old when they were released. For the longest time, I only had the shareware version of the first game, so getting the second game was awesome!
Air Fortress
Here’s a weird one. I’m not sure what made my mom and dad pick this game out of all the other NES games. It was a Christmas present, and I think we got it alongside Tecmo Super Bowl, or maybe the year before that. Either way, this is a weird game that is pretty fun.
This is mostly an adventure game. Before you get to the Metroid-like adventure levels, you have to go through a shoot’em up stage. A pretty crappy shoot’em up stage, but it does serve a purpose. Those stages are where you get all your bombs and energy. Energy acts as your life, and it will decrease as you move. When you stop, your energy will go back up.
This is a long game, but you can find the level skip codes online, and I’m sure that someone has found a way to speed run it. I’m definitely not that person, because that isn’t my thing. Air Fortress is one of those games that I have fond memories of. It is one of the few games I played with my brother, and it has a special place in my heart.
The Legend of Zelda
This is one of my favorite games. It feels like I’ve found everything in it, and playing it now feels like muscle memory. I can get through most of the game without looking up a map. The last level is the only place where I need help, as my memory isn’t as good as it used to be.
I think most people know the story of Zelda by now, especially since the core story isn’t too different from many of the other games. You play as Link, and you need to gather the Triforce so you can defeat Gannon. There are nine levels, and a lot of secrets for you to find. The game encourages you to explore, set things on fire, and blow stuff up.
This is one of the games that I can come back to over and over. Nintendo has been able to get me to buy this game on various platforms. I’ve played it several times over the last thirty to thirty-five years. It is one of my favorite games, not just on the NES but of all time.
Parasite Eve
Parasite Eve was one of the first games I got for the PS1. I had saved up my money and bought one in the spring of that year. This one has the added bonus of taking place during Christmas.
This game had a fun combat system that let you move around to avoid enemy attacks. It was a turn-based game, but in between attacks, you could move around. It felt very different from the other RPGs I had played, and it was so much fun to play. On top of that, it was a horror game. It had just about everything I wanted from a video game at this time.
This is one of the games that means a lot to me. I played it quite a bit when it came out, and I revisited it a few years ago. My memories of the game don’t exactly match up with how the game is, but I do love the story. I also love the movie, which acts as a prequel to this game. You can find it on YouTube, which I think is the only way you can see it, unless you have a copy of the Japanese release.
Pikmin
This is one of the more memorable games I owned for the GameCube. I received the system as a Christmas present, and Pikmin was one of the games I got along with it. What I can’t remember is whether I asked for the system or not. It would shock me if my parents remembered.
The GameCube had been released earlier that year, and I went with a group of my friends to wait in line for it. There were a bunch of us there, and it was something to do. I didn’t buy the console that night; I was just there to hang out with my friends.
Before I got the GameCube, I had saved up for the PS2 and a Dreamcast, so this was a huge surprise to me. While I did play the other games I got for the GameCube, Pikmin was the game I spent the most time with. I really liked it, but I wished I had more time to find everything. It was a cool concept back in the day, and if I were smarter, then I might’ve beaten it back then.
I didn’t spend much time playing this game. If I’m remembering things correctly, I left for the Navy the summer after I got the game, and I sold most of my video games before I left. This game did leave a big impression on me, though.
Super Mario 3
Super Mario 3 was a Christmas present to my brother and me. I didn’t mention this before, but all of the NES games we got were for both of us. The only exception was The Legend of Zelda. This is the only game I remember playing with my sister.
She stopped playing video games shortly after we got Super Mario 3. I don’t know why, and I don’t really care. What I do remember is that she was insanely good at this game! Out of the three of us, she was the best one at this. I was by far the worst and largely relegated to playing as Luigi. Which is probably what happened to most younger brothers.
A fun fact about this game and my experience with it. Our NES was set up in the laundry room of the house I grew up in. It was the only room that got dark enough for us to be able to see the screen. The TV we had was so old that you couldn’t really see the screen that well. So, we had to play the game in the dark.
Advance Wars
During the five years I spent in the Navy, I spent four out of five Christmas holidays at sea. That was just how things worked out. I was stationed on the USS Parche from 2003 to 2005, and the USS Nevada from 2005 to 2007. That means I played a lot of Game Boy Advance games.
The Advance Wars games were what I played the most when I was on the Parche. I didn’t have the best time on that submarine, and my GBA was a nice escape. I played it in the chow line, after watch, and when I couldn’t sleep. It was a fun game, and it didn’t take too much time to beat each level.
At a time in my life when just about everything sucked, this was one of the games that helped me get through things. It was a Christmas gift to myself. There wasn’t a lot of room for fun on the Parche, as most of the people I served and worked with were pretty terrible people. Thankfully, I don’t talk with most of them anymore.
Romance of the Three Kingdoms VII
This is probably an odd entry to see on a list like this, especially since it is the seventh game in the series. I can’t remember when I picked this game up, but I know that it was during the time I was transitioning from one submarine to another. It was pretty stressful because I didn’t know what I was doing, and it felt like I was on my own to figure things out.
I played this game a lot during that time, especially when I got to the Nevada, and didn’t know anyone. When I was on the Parche, no one really wanted to talk to me, and that didn’t change much after I left. This game filled the void, especially during Christmas time when I was still trying to figure out what to do.
What I loved to do in this game was to create a lord and work my way up in one of the armies. Some of the changes in this game made it feel like an RPG. You didn’t have to deal with controlling a country; you could simply be a general. That was something I loved about the game. It felt different from the other Romance of the Three Kingdoms games, which is why it stuck with me more than the other games.
Conclusion
You might notice a big gap between the consoles on this list. I didn’t own an SNES or a Genesis when I was young, so I didn’t get any of those games for Christmas or my Birthday. It wasn’t until the early 2000s that I started getting games for those systems.
As I was writing this out, I kept adding more games to it. This is one of the things that makes lists like this fun for me. I keep remembering things that I might’ve forgotten over the years, and having a record of this is very important. Some of these posts are just so I can remember things that I would otherwise forget.
While I don’t get video games as presents anymore, especially with the rise of digital games. I also don’t want to have more stuff to move around. While I used to like collecting video games, I don’t find it as much fun as I used to. That doesn’t change the fact that I have a lot of fond memories of getting games for Christmas. Happy Holidays!
If you liked this post, please check out my other lists. Such as Best Games I’ve played in 2025, or Best Indie Games I’ve Played.