Five Perfect Holiday Games You Should Boot Up Before The New Year

There aren’t a whole lot of holiday-themed video games. A medium with experiences that can last several weeks doesn’t lend itself well to the fleeting nature of the season in the same way a movie can.

But that doesn’t mean there aren’t games that are perfect to boot up around this time of year, even if they weren’t always designed with the holiday in mind. The few that do offer a unique way to celebrate, and are perfect for annual revisits in the years to come. Let’s look at the games that best capture the quiet and cozy spirit of the season.

Batman: Arkham Origins

The most overlooked game in the Arkham series is also its most festive. Taking place on Christmas Eve, a young Batman finds himself the target of eight trained assassins hoping to end the Dark Knight for a $50 million reward. Batman: Arkham Origins is a more intimate Batman game that focuses on the Caped Crusader’s relatively grounded villains, like Black Mask and Deathstroke, and also features the series' best boss fights. The Christmas setting does a great job of setting a distinct tone, as the lonely, snowy streets of Gotham before the holidays are an ever-present reminder of Bruce Wayne’s dedication to fighting crime.

Spider-Man: Miles Morales

Not to be outdone by his DC counterpart, Spider-Man has his own holiday adventure set days before Christmas. Spider-Man: Miles Morales also happens to be one of the character’s best games ever. From its opening scene, Miles Morales is rife with the holiday spirit. Festive lights and snow line the streets and rooftops of this open-world New York City, and swinging through city blocks as light snow falls from the sky is unlike any other Spider-Man game. The short six-hour runtime also means you can actually beat this one before the seasonal vibes subside at the start of the new year.

Bully

Bully isn’t a holiday game in the same way that Batman and Spider-Man are, as it begins at the start of the school year. But when the in-game school year reaches winter a few hours into this lighthearted story of adolescence, it hits hard. Bully’s winter section is probably the most memorable recreation of the holiday season in gaming. The entire town gets blanketed in snow, which you can use to make snowballs to throw at fellow students and townspeople. Buildings get holiday-appropriate decorations, stores have festive items to buy and wear, and everyone in the open world is bundled up.

The game’s story even takes an emotional turn, as protagonist Jimmy feels the loneliness of being a kid away from home for the holidays. Bully is an incredible game that absolutely nails both the woes and the wonders of wintertime.

Saints Row IV

While Saints Row IV represents the moment the series jumped the shark, it does one thing better than any other game in the series: Christmas. The game’s free downloadable mission, How The Saints Saved Christmas, is every bit as charming as the name implies. In it, your character reveals that they’re a Scrooge: they hate the songs, the gift-giving, and even the very concept of Santa. But when Santa Claus is kidnapped, you become responsible for saving the holiday. It’s a sweet little adventure that references holiday staples like It’s A Wonderful Life and A Christmas Carol. And while it's not the longest DLC in the world, it's enough to make you wonder why more games don’t do this sort of thing.

Hitman: World of Assassination

Hitman might not be the first franchise that comes to mind when you think of holiday games, but the series has a surprising track record when it comes to celebrating the occasion. The iconic assassin’s most recent game, Hitman: World of Assassination, has turned the tradition into an annual event called “Holiday Hoarders” that players can only participate in at this time of year. The event has Agent 47 hunting down two Home Alone-style burglars looking to ruin the holiday festivities on the game’s Paris level, and players can even unlock holiday-themed fits for 47, including a Santa Suit and an ugly sweater that he totally pulls off. If the stress of the season is getting to you, you could do worse than slip into the shoes of gaming’s greatest assassin and invent some creative demises.