CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN - FULL RUNDOWN 2025

As we edge into 2026, I though I'd remind you of all of the games released during this year's epic Christmas Countdown. From a cyberpunk adventure to a spy-themed shoot, snowy mountain peaks to dreamlike hills, SkyRoads to Yellow Brick Roads, there's a breadth of games to rediscover. Enjoy!

CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN - THE FESTIVE FINALE

It's Christmas!!!! And also the last day of the Collection Chamber Christmas Countdown 2025. It is also the last time I could possibly mark the event with a Lemmings game. I've brought together the three iterations that came out in 2006 to give you what I call Lemmings: A New Collection (2006 Team 17 & Sony Computer Entertainment Europe). It has the PSP original, the upscaled PS2 port (complete with early EyeToy emulation) and the digitally released PS3 game which, despite often being lumped together, is a completely different game.

And with that, the festive season is over. I hope you found something over the last twelve days to get excited about, even if it's Christmas itself. I'll be back in the new year with my annual list of my fave games and movies that came out over the last twelve months. Until then, get merry, be jolly and have a very Happy Christmas!

CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN - Day 11

In the UK, it's become a long-standing tradition that The Great Escape movie would play on one of the TV channels Boxing Day. So, there's no better season to come back to The Great Escape (2003 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios & SCi Games Limited) the game than on Christmas Eve. It's your sworn duty!

Tomorrow is the big day itself! And our own tradition will be met, perhaps for the last time.

CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN - Day 10

Day 10, and on this eve of the eve of Christmas, we pay tribute to Wicked by travelling to the Land of Oz. The obscure Japanese adventure Yellow Brick Road (1995 Synergy, Inc.). This is the US release, but that uniquely Nippon charm is all over it!

It may be Christmas Eve tomorrow, but the next game has long been associated with Boxing Day, at least to us Brits.

CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN - Day 9

The days are counting down fast, and Day 9 of our epic Christmas Countdown give us a Disney Triple. First up is Disney's take on the digital game show You Don't Know Jack called The D Show (1998 Disney Interactive). Next is a traditional board game give some House of Mouse magic in Disney's Mahjongg (2003 Disney Interactive). Finally, we at long last complete the sub-list of educational mini-games in Disney's Tigger's Activity Centre (2001 Disney Interactive). 

Only three left to go, and who knows what strange Wicked-ness we'll see come tomorrow.

CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN - Day 8

It's time to take to the slops for Day 8 of the Collection Chamber Christmas Countdown. Supreme Snowboarding (1999 Infogrames) - also known as Border Zone in the States - is fun arcade game based on the high-altitude extreme sport. If it turns out we're not having a white Christmas in real life, at least we can whiteout in some virtual snow instead.

There's three times the surprise tomorrow, but only uber-fans will earn those D bucks.

CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN - Day 7

It's time to sail the Ocean Blue as we celebrate Day 7 of the Collection Chamber Christmas Countdown as we follow in Piri Reis' footprints as he creates the infamous map of 1513. Made by a small Turkish team, Piri, The Explorer Ship (1998 Sebit Inc) is so intertwined in its Myst-like adventure and fascinating historical edutainment that it's hard to categorise it as solely one or the other. Read on to find out my full thoughts.

From Ocean of Blue, to Mountain of White, we head off to one supremely extreme zone for tomorrow's Christmas gift.

CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN - Day 6

I don't want to be a Gloomy Gus for Day 6 of of the Collection Chamber Christmas Countdown, but humanity is dead. Or at least it is in Machines: Wired for War (1999 Acclaim Entertainment) which posits a bunch of sentient robots on far off planets to make them compatible for Earth-kind. Instead, they factioned off into different colours to fight each other in a rather decent 3D real time strategy game.

Our explorations will be closer to home tomorrow, though who knows where the ancient map will take us...

CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN - Day 5

As Simon the Sorcerer seems to making a bit of a comeback of late with the enjoyable Simon the Sorcerer Origins, I thought I'd revisit one of his more obscure titles of the past - Simon the Sorcerer's Puzzle Pack (1998 Adventuresoft Publishing). It includes 4 quirky desktop games, but read the review to find out which one's the best.

We'll be moving from magic to metal tomorrow, so come back to see what machinery we can make.

CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN - Day 4

Sentinel Returns (1998 No Name Games Limited & Psygnosis) on this fourth day of the Christmas Countdown. This exceptionally atmospheric puzzle game is hard to pinpoint, but the fact that they got Halloween and The Thing movie director to helm the score tells you everything you need to know. Read on to find out my thoughts!

Come back tomorrow where we'll be eating swamp stew with an old friend.

CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN - Day 3

On the third day of Christmas, the Collection Chamber will send you to the edge... Circuit's Edge (1990 Infocom & Westwood Associates) that is. This banger of a cyberpunk adventure with mild role-playing elements could easily fit into the Blade Runner universe. No wonder the company behind it (later renamed to Westwood Studios) would go on to make the Blade Runner game.

We will return with someThing tomorrow, and return we will! 

CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN - Day 2

Day 2 of the the Collection Chamber Christmas Countdown, and it's time for some spying! Cate Archer returns as the super-cool queen of espionage as she travels the globe from Tokyo to Siberia to thwart a camp villain. That's right, it's Monolith's classic first-person-shooter No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy in H.A.R.M.'s Way (2002 Twentieth Century Fox, Monolith Productions & Lithtech, Inc.)!

Come back tomorrow for Day 3, and let's hope gravity won't fail you...

CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN - Day 1

The Collection Chamber Christmas Countdown is finally here! And on this first day of celebrations we have SkyRoads: The Kosmonaut Collection (1990-1994 Bluemoon Interactive), a collection of endless runner alikes that randomly came back into mind after I played the remake of I, Robot on Steam earlier this year. As this is one of those shareware titles that got an Xmas Special, I knew then what would kick off this festive season. 

Included in the package is Kosmonaut, SkyRoads, SkyRoads: Xmas Special and the SkyRoads unreleased beta called Cosmonaut 2.

Come back tomorrow where we'll be exploring many locations, but only the frozen tundra of Siberia will be by Ski-Doo.