24 Days of Quarantine Fun – Day 16: Video games!

Oh me gosh, finally.

Video games! They’re something I know! Though not necessarily something that’s overly holiday-related. At least, not at a high level. Once you start drilling down, there are definitely a ton of things that I could use this blog post for. But I’m gonna pick two.

Firstmost: Find a game you like, and just play the snow level. This is going to be pretty cut-and-dry in most cases, as a ton of games have a wide variety of stock themes for different stages or worlds, and almost always there’s an ice/snow level. Most of the times those even incorporate jingle bells into the background music, because they make any song feel more wintry.

My personal choice would be Freezeezy Peak from Banjo-Kazooie. It’s a snow level with a giant snowman dominating the bulk of the stage, but also you have presents and festive trees and other holiday-type things strewn about around his feet. Several of the stage’s challenges involve interacting with these elements in some way, like one that has you keeping little light bulbs safe as they work their way towards a tree to light it up. It’s about halfway through the game, so you’ll have to play a bit to get there, but I think it’s a really good level for getting into the festive spirit.

Secondmost: Find a game that reminds you of the holiday season and play that. We all subconsciously tie tastes and sounds and smells to events in our life, and video games are no exception to this rule. For the last few years, when the holiday season rolls around, I always get a hankering to play either Xenoblade Chronicles X or Pokémon Picross, as those were both released in December of 2015 and tie very strongly to pleasant memories I have of that particular Xmas. Sometimes I also have little memory flashes of Silent Hill: Origins, which I got as an Xmas gift in 2007, started playing that very same day, and then never played again. Not because I didn’t like it, of course! Probably just because I was busy with other things and it fell off my radar. I kind of want to try to start playing it again this Xmas, but we’ll see. My PSP… doesn’t see much action these days.

Anyway! Video games! Play them! Possibly try to make them relevant to the season in some way or another!

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