The Twelve Games of Christmas: Day Eleven

It's that time of year again, folks. The days are short and cold, the nights are long and even colder, and one of the best places to be is in your nice warm house. Since you're there, you may as well break out the good ol' videogames and make those chilly winter evenings go by a little faster.

In honour of this, I'm going to be posting about one game each day in the run-up to Christmas, finishing on the magical day itself. Keep in mind that these aren't necessarily going to be games that feature Christmas (although some do). Rather, they're going to be a mix of winter warmers, personal nostalgic favourites, and games that echo some traditional Christmas pastimes. I'm sure other people will have their own winter favourites, but this is my unique list and I'm going to do my best to give a little history on each game and explain why they're featured here.

So, without further ado, onwards with day eleven!

Die Hard Trilogy



History: Released in 1996 for the original Playstation, Die Hard Trilogy did exactly what it said on the tin; provide three games based on the Die Hard films all in one package. Each game featured the setting from the corresponding film, which included Nakatomi Plaza from Die Hard, Dulles Airport from Die Hard 2, and New York City from Die Hard With a Vengeance. In addition to this, each title had it's own unique gameplay style. Die Hard was a third-person shooter, Die Hard 2 was a rail shooter, and Die Hard With a Vengeance was an action driving game.

Die Hard Trilogy was one of those rare licensed games that was both critically and commercially successful, although releasing the year after Die Hard With a Vengeance probably gave it a bit of a hype wave to ride. The game was successful enough to be ported to both the Sega Saturn and the PC.

Developer, Acclaim Cheltenham, was also responsible for the highly enjoyable Alien Trilogy and a number of other well received licensed games and ports. Unfortunately, like so many other studios over the last few years, they shut their doors for good in 2004 after the bankruptcy of parent company Acclaim Entertainment.

Why It's Here: Die Hard is the best Christmas film of all time, full stop. Christmas Eve should officially be renamed 'Die Hard Day' and everyone should be forced to watch Bruce Willis shoot terrorists, Alan Rickman overact, and everyone else spout cheesy puns left right and centre. Following this, compulsory playing of Die Hard Trilogy would commence until everyone was ready to go to bed. Clearly if these highly draconian measures were implemented everyone would be a lot happier and the world would be a far better place.

In all seriousness though, Die Hard Trilogy hasn't aged as well as the films it's based on, so picking it up today may not be a particularly pleasant experience. But it just wouldn't be Christmas without Die Hard, so here it is, and it's a lot better than the horrible Gremlins game that came out on the NES.

Only one more left now, so I'll just say "Yippee-ki-yay, motherfuckers!" I'll see you all on Christmas Day.