Christmas

As regular visitors will know, every weekend, we share our gaming plans for the next couple of days and read through all of your entries in the comments. This time, though, we're switching things up a bit, getting together to chat about our plans over the holidays instead.

That's right, Christmas is (nearly) here! The lucky ones amongst us will no doubt find a spare hour or two over the holidays to catch up on some gaming, and our team plans to do that in style. Feel free to read through our entries, share your own in the poll and comments below, and have yourselves a lovely, wonderful time!

Gavin Lane, staff writer

For anyone who reads this, you’ve probably had more than enough of me banging on about the backlog, but it’s never been quite so chock-full of games as at the end of 2019. Not only do I have a whole bunch of unfinished games, but I’ve also managed to accumulate unstarted games thanks to sales and impulse purchases.

Whether I finish them or not, I’m looking forward to sitting down with Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Link’s Awakening, Donut County, What Remains of Edith Finch, SNK 40th Anniversary Collection, Astral Chain and Cuphead over the holidays. More likely I’ll be pulling out the perennial multiplayer family favourites Overcooked 2 and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. I also picked up 1-2-Switch on sale recently, so what better time for that game to shine? I’ve always wanted to test out the HD rumble with that ice cube trick.

Getting to play any of the above would be a fabulous Brucie-bonus, but the only thing I can definitively say I’ll be playing is Banjo-Kazooie - gotta head to Freezeezy Peak for my annual visit! Have a fantastic holiday break everyone (if you’re lucky enough to be breaking for the holidays, of course). Be excellent to each other.

Ollie Reynolds, reviewer

This weekend, I'll be mostly taking a bit of a break from gaming... Emphasis on the word 'mostly'. What I do want to do, though, is go through my back catalogue of the past year or so and pick out something that hasn't quite gotten the attention it probably deserved. Off the top of my head, games like Astral Chain and Blasphemous come to mind, but I'm sure there are a few others I've neglected!

Otherwise, I'll be watching terrible movies, drinking copious amounts of alcohol, and spending quality time with my wonderful family. Have a fantastic Christmas, everyone!

PJ O’Reilly, reviewer

Christmas. The most wonderful time of the year. A time for sharing, caring and, most importantly, squeezing in your annual drunken playthrough of the original Dark Souls. I’ll be jumping in for what’ll be my 8th time through Fromsoftware’s classic, glass of sherry in hand, dying far more than usual to almost every single enemy in the game as a heady mixture of alcohol and various smelly cheeses work their way through my body severely affecting my ability to dodge or parry properly.

Apart from that, I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed that Santa brings the copy of Pokémon Sword and Nintendo Labo kits my son has asked for so I can play with them all late at night when he’s in his bed. Honestly, what would we do without Santa? I hope you all have a wonderful holiday, stay safe and see you in the New Year!

Ryan Craddock, staff writer

Ah, it's that time again where family Christmas commitments and feeling rough after eating too much food get in the way of all that free time I could have been spending playing games. Woe is me, huh?

As is the case for many, most of my gaming time this Christmas will probably end up being spent on family-friendly, multiplayer fun. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is always a winner, no matter who you're playing with, so that'll probably be on the table, and maybe even some Super Smash Bros. Ultimate - although older members of the family don't seem as keen on rapidly smashing a load of buttons to thwack a little yellow mouse and a pink smiley blob into oblivion for hours on end. Not sure why.

I also picked up the Nintendo Labo Vehicle Kit thanks to those crazy UK sales. Once all the craziness has calmed down a bit, maybe I'll crack that out and feel like a kid again, actually building toys with my hands and being blown away by something I don't understand. Whatever you're doing this year and whoever you spend it with, I wish you and yours a wonderful time.

Austin Voigt, contributing writer

Although it’s not unique, playing video games is one of the top things my family members and I have always enjoyed doing together. Even my grandma will get in on a little Mario Kart action now and then. It’s because of this that the holiday season is one of my absolute favorites - it’s the time of year when my entire family gets back together again, and we can all actually sit down and couch co-op with each other for hours.

First on the list will definitely be whipping out the library of SNES games on the Switch - this is the first Nintendo console I’d ever played growing up, and the original belonged to my uncle, who was very close in age to me and is really more of a brother. We’d spend hours playing Super Mario World, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Super Mario Kart - ahh, the nostalgia.

After that, I got one of my younger brothers Pokémon Sword for his Christmas present - growing up, we’d each get one or the other of every generation of Pokémon games, so that we could catch ’em all. I’ve already played through Shield, so I’m excited to see him experience Sword now. After that, I’ll probably get bored and whip out all of my old games, maybe some Animal Crossing: New Leaf in anticipation of New Horizons (IN JUST THREE MONTHS, PEOPLE). To top it all off, I’ll be getting started on plans to build a home theater/gaming room in my basement in the new year - so I’m sure I’ll have plenty to keep me busy.

Zion Grassl, video producer

It’s Christmas already, ehh? What happened to the time? I swear, it feels like just yesterday that I was one-hundred percent comfortable with never receiving a Link’s Awakening remake (if only I knew what the future held).

This Christmas will probably involve a lot of Mario Kart with the family, Smash Bros. with my bandmates, and since my girlfriend’s nephew doesn’t own a Switch of his own, I’ll be playing whatever he decides we’re going to play! I myself have slowly been getting back into Animal Crossing: New Leaf and will probably spend an unhealthy amount of time with it these next few weeks to sort of say goodbye before New Horizons takes over my life in March.

I’m also a little over halfway through Earthbound on my 3DS, so I might try to wrap that up before the year’s over so I can get back to Pokémon Shield (which I really haven’t put enough time into either.) 2019 was a great year for games and there are still so, so many I have yet to play. Can I hit the snooze button on 2020? Regardless of what gaming I’ll manage to squeak in this holiday, this year has been absolutely wonderful and I wouldn’t change it for anything. Thank you all for reading, watching and supporting our work and I hope you all have a Happy Holiday and a wonderful new year!

Liam Doolan, news reporter

Like everyone else here, my Christmas will be a very merry Nintendo one. For once, though, I probably won't be receiving a brand-new game, as I've already got my hands on most of the major Switch releases this year.

Instead, I plan to spend some time playing the ones I didn't get around to and enjoying the extra content that was recently added to a few games. One of these titles includes Cadence of Hyrule: Crypt of the NecroDancer. As you might have heard, earlier this week Octavo was added as a playable character, so I'm very eager to jump back into this musical-take on The Legend of Zelda series.

Apart from this, I also plan to revisit the recently released Shovel Knight: King of Cards expansion. I played a lot of this in the first week of its release, but am yet to return. With any luck, I can knock it over before the New Year. That's it for me – I hope everyone here on Nintendo Life has a happy and safe holiday period and we'll see you all in 2020.

Gonçalo Lopes, contributing writer

It is once again “The Season”! That’s right, the season of Star Wars! Rogue Leader is once again spinning daily on my Wii because it remains a class act of video game design and a bittersweet reminder that the Switch is in need of much, much more Star Wars love.

Elsewhere I will try to make the most of the few days off work to actually finish both DAEMON X MACHINA and Astral Chain because it is quite embarrassing to have both on my “to do” list for all these months. I am still pleasantly glued to the screen with SD Gundam G Generation Cross Rays - there's lots of content to explore in this latest entry of the series and I must admit to finding it hard to put it down.

To think that one year ago I was hoping for a new F-Zero and Metroid Prime 4 and here we stand now with neither. But I remain a dreamer so I will keep holding on to that very same hope for 2020. Wishing you all a Merry Calrissian and that the Force be with you, always (...but mostly with me).

Alex Olney, senior video producer

As standard this year I'll no doubt be sinking some serious hours into Stardew Valley. My partner and I love to run our farm together, and with the new update there's even more to sink our teeth into, like diamond-demanding sturgeons.

I also recently received The Outer Worlds on PS4 for my birthday and have been really enjoying that, not to mention the customary games of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate that my brother and I always have. Aside from that I'll likely be pining for Animal Crossing: New Horizons and eating pigs in blankets (that's sausages wrapped in bacon, not sausages wrapped in pastry you crazy Americans).

Which games are you playing over Christmas?

(You may select up to 3 answers)

As always, thanks for reading! Make sure to leave a vote in the poll above and a comment below with your gaming choices over the holidays. Whatever you end up doing, have a wonderful time!