Favorite Christmas/Holiday Retro Game Memories

[Hoggs17]

As a kid growing up, I loved Christmas because I often got new video games.  Whether I was opening Mega Man 3 and playing it all day to finally get to Dr. Wily's castle or getting Final Fantasy III on the SNES and getting excited over watching Terra march to Narshe with those amazing mode 7 graphics; Christmas holds some great retro gaming memories for me.  For me, Christmas 1990 was awesome.  I got Mega Man 3, TMNT 2 and Yo Noid! (not sure why I asked for that one).  I played my Nintendo until I fell asleep that day.  That might be one of my all time best Christmases (as a kid of course).

What about everyone else?  What are your favorite video game memories from the winter holidays?

[larryinc64]

I guess my DS Mario Kart red edition. That got me into Nintendo, and games as a whole.
It sadly broke a few years ago, still have it.

Never got many games after that, or at least nothing of note. GBC was a holiday hand-me-down when my Cousin got a GBASP,  PS2 was B-Day, Wii was no occasion in 2007, PSP-2000 for B-Day (Kinda regret this one), I bought the rest myself.

This year I got a Atari Flashback 6.

[sheep2001]

Christmas 1984.  Sinclair ZX Spectrum 48k.  Don't think I was ever so excited before, or since.

[cynicalmatt]

1988.

That was the year SMB2 came out, and I begged and begged my parents for it.  I read the premiere issue of Nintendo Power so many times I had completely memorized the SMB2 spread in there.

Come Christmas morning, I had opened all of my gifts and, sadly, no Mario 2.  We were always spoiled by our parents at Christmas, so it was hard to be TOO disappointed while sitting there surrounded by other toys, but then my dad reaches into the linen closet and says, "oops, we forgot one..."

Just from the size of the package, I knew what it was, and as soon as I saw the tiniest bit of that blue box I went nuts.  My parents had a hell of a time pulling me away from my NES to go to the family Christmas at my aunt's house. 

Also 1994.  My parents were actually getting divorced by then, but my dad kept trying to outdo my mom, so he bought me a SNES, MKII, and Donkey Kong Country.  Hooray for parental guilt, I guess.

[wiggy]

1988.

That was the year SMB2 came out, and I begged and begged my parents for it.  I read the premiere issue of Nintendo Power so many times I had completely memorized the SMB2 spread in there.

Come Christmas morning, I had opened all of my gifts and, sadly, no Mario 2.  We were always spoiled by our parents at Christmas, so it was hard to be TOO disappointed while sitting there surrounded by other toys, but then my dad reaches into the linen closet and says, "oops, we forgot one..."

Just from the size of the package, I knew what it was, and as soon as I saw the tiniest bit of that blue box I went nuts.  My parents had a hell of a time pulling me away from my NES to go to the family Christmas at my aunt's house. 

This is almost exactly my Xmas 1988 experience

[FritzWhite]

Christmas 1990- We had Christmas morning in a hotel room somewhere and I got a Super Nintendo with Super Mario World. That game was/is SO GOOD!

Runner up was Christmas '94 when I got Final Fantasy 3. My dad became concerned by how much time I spent in my room playing that game and plotted to get me into an outdoor sporting activity (which worked as a couple years later I all but abandoned gaming for several years after '96. No N64 love for me.

[Arseen]

I don't remember the exact year but probably 1992 when I git my first NES,
I came with Super Mario bros/Tetris/Nintendo World Cup -combo cart, Zapper, 4-player adapter and 4 controllers.
Also got Mega Man 3.

Next year we went to a unofficial importer of gaming stuff and had the NES modded.
We also got Turtles the Arcade Game, M.C Kids and some wierd pirate game that was called Super Mario Bros 4 (still don't know what that game exactly is).

[Arseen]

... some wierd pirate game that was called Super Mario Bros 4 (still don't know what that game exactly is).

This: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsKoFn-5-aQ

[marioxb]

I've never played any version of the game, but it's right in the description,

Armadillo:
https://m.youtube.com/results?q=armadillo%20nes&sm=3