61 Frames Per Second

Worst Christmas Ever?

Posted by Cole Stryker

Happy New Year, everyone, and welcome back. Hope you had a wonderful holiday. Mine was great, except for one thing: This was the first year in my entire life that I didn't get a single video game!*

That's right, my 25th Christmas has come and gone without the sight of a familiarly rectangular box under the tree. My folks weren't feeling especially grinchy. There just was nothing new for the Wii that I was even slightly interested in.

I have always been a Nintendo apologist. I championed the Wii from the moment it was announced. I didn't like the direction Microsoft and Sony were headed. I thought Nintendo would be the console for hardcore gamers who weren't necessarily graphics fetishists. Boy did I turn out to be wrong. All the cool, quirky games like Nobi Nobi Boy, Little Big Planet, and Braid have been released for the Xbox and PS3.

And that's why my Wii is headed for eBay.

*I did get a set of Wustoff Ninja Kitchen Knives though, so there's that.

+ DIGG

+ DEL.ICIO.US

+ REDDIT

Posted Jan 02 2009, 12:00 AM

Filed under: little big planet, xbox 360, wii, cole stryker, ps3, braid, christmas, nobi nobi boy

Comments

Derrick Sanskrit said:

I was gift-gameless too, brother, under the accusation that no one can buy games for me because I get them all for myself before anyone else has heard of them. I find this claim outlandish, though, as there are what I consider to be fairly obvious omissions from my game library like Mario Kart Wii and Rock Band, games that you can tell people have because they come with plastic equipment that takes up space. Forseeing this, I did slip a copy of Burnout Paradise for PS3 into my own stocking and it has been AWESOME. And I got a few iTunes gift cards that allowed me to procure Rolando, de Blob and I Love Katamari for my iPod Touch. I gamed like crazy this holiday. I can barely organize my thoughts to write about it all.

January 2, 2009 3:08 PM

Demaar said:

Personally, I don't want people trying to guess what games I want, and when people DO ask me what I want for Christmas I usually tell them not to bother.

I'd rather make a bigger deal about birthdays.

January 2, 2009 7:01 PM

corky said:

This is the first time I didn't buy my son a single game for Christmas (a certain 61fps dude) - it actually freaked me out a little.

January 2, 2009 8:02 PM

about the blogger

John Constantine, our superhero, was raised by birds and then attended Penn State University. He is currently working on a novel about a fictional city that exists only in his mind. John has an astonishingly extensive knowledge of Scientology. Ultimately he would like to learn how to effectively use his brain. He continues to keep Wu-Tang's secret to himself.

Derrick Sanskrit is a self-professed geek in a variety of fields including typography, graphic design, comic books, music and cartoons. As a professional hipster graphic designer, his recent clients have included Nerve, Pitchfork and MoCCA, among others.

Amber Ahlborn - artist, writer, gamer and DigiPen survivor, she maintains a day job as a graphic artist. By night Amber moonlights as a professional Metroid Fanatic and keeps a metal suit in the closet just in case. Has lived in the state of Washington and insists that it really doesn't rain as much as everyone says it does.

Nadia Oxford is a housekeeping robot who was refurbished into a warrior when the world's need for justice was great. Now that the galaxy is at peace (give or take a conflict here or there), she works as a freelance writer for various sites and magazines. Based in Toronto, Nadia prizes the certificate from the Ministry of Health declaring her tick and rabies-free.

Bob Mackey is a grad student, writer, and cyborg, who uses the powerful girl-repelling nanomachines mad science grafted onto his body to allocate time towards interests of the nerd persuasion. He believes that complaining about things on the Internet is akin to the fine art of wine tasting, but with more spitting into buckets.

Joe Keiser has a programming degree from Johns Hopkins University, a tiny apartment in Brooklyn, and a fake toy guitar built in the hollowed-out shell of a real guitar. He writes about games and technology for a variety of outlets. One day he will stop doing this. The day after that, police will find his body under a collapsed pile of (formerly neatly alphabetized) collector's edition tchotchkes.

Cole Stryker is an American freelance writer living in York, England, where he resides with his archeologist wife. He writes for a travel company by day and argues about pop culture on the internet by night. Find him writing regularly here and here.

Peter Smith is like the lead character of Irwin Shaw's The 80-Yard Run, except less athletic. He considers himself very lucky to have this job. But it's a little premature to take "jack-off of all trades" off his resume. Besides writing, travelling, and painting houses, Pete plays guitar in a rock trio called The Aye-Ayes. He calls them a 'power pop' band, but they generally sound more like Motorhead on a drinking binge.