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.

CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN - DAY 10

 
There's a cash prize for today's game. One Million Dollars! Or at least there would be had you solved the insanely cryptic riddles of Treasure Quest (1996 Sirius Publishing, Inc) back when it released. Starring Terry Farrell of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine fame, it has quite the fascinating history for a weird multimedia CD-ROM adventure.

Only two days to go, so come Christmas Eve, expect major boobage.

CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN - DAY 9

As is now something of a tradition within a tradition, Day 9 of the Collection Chamber Christmas Countdown (4C for short?) is reserved for Disney. As a kid, the VHS of latest Disney classic from the renaissance era was almost guaranteed to be under the tree. So, here's 3 Disney games to unwrap.

We 're moving away from educational titles, instead moving into first-person action, arcade pinball  and even survival horror! Disney's Atlantis: The Lost Empire - Trial by Fire (2001 Disney Interactive) is a decent first-person outing for the little'uns developed by the folks behind an earlier Christmas Countdown 2024 outing Ice & Fire. Disney's The Little Mermaid Pinball (2005 Disney Interactive) is a quick and fun ball-flipper firmly taking place where it's wetter. Lastly, we have a surprisingly unnerving foray into survival horror with the console version of Disney's Piglet's Big Game (2003 Disney Interactive). You may have seen some of the Silent Hill comparisons online, and believe me, it's warranted.

But if Disney ain't your thing, come back tomorrow. I promise it'll be worth a million bucks!

CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN - DAY 8

 
There's only 4 days left to go in the epic Christmas Countdown, and before we get to the end game, let's game our ends away with a mech brawler. A nasty hacker has stolen state secrets from numerous countries and is forcing each one to battle against each other in cyberspace to win them back. The tournament at hand is called Zero Divide (1995-98 ZOOM Inc).

Check out this one-on-one 3D fighter inspired by Virtua Fighter by heading over to the review page. And come back tomorrow for a trilogy of games that has become something of a tradition on Day 9 of the countdown. Yes, that's right! It's Disney Triple time! But which games from the house of mouse will be here? I've already snuck in a few clues hidden in various posts this past month so come back tomorrow to see if you're correct :). 

CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN - DAY 7

A week into the Christmas Countdown, and I hope none of your dreams are wasted as we play Wasted Dreams (1999 Digital Dreams Entertainment), an obscure action-adventure for the Amiga from the folks behind the surprisingly good time that is Codename Hellsquad. Take control of a couple of survivors whose ship has crash landed on an alien planet. Click on the link after the jump to see how well it stacks up.

But there's nothing wasted when it comes to tomorrow game. In fact, the non-existent scraps left behind means there's nothing to share...

CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN - DAY 6

Shoot our way through a futuristic game-show where you either win big or die while In Pursuit of Greed (1995-96 Softdisk, Inc). It's a frenetic first-person-shooter with a weird sense of humour. Just what you want for Chirstmas!

But don't let that stop you from dreaming about bigger things to waste your money on. Save that for tomorrow...

CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN - DAY 5

Our good pal Tintin and his dog Snowy returns for a new adventure in Tintin in Prisoners of the Sun (1997 Infogrames Multimedia), another decent DOS port of a cinematic platformer. Professor Calculus has been kidnapped so it's off to the far reaches of the earth in search of the Incas to save him. Check out my review after the jump...

'Tis the season for rampant consumerism, so join me tomorrow as we chase that capitalistic ideal.

CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN - DAY 4

 
Bring you woolly mittens with you for today's game in the Collection Chamber Christmas Countdown for we'll we dealing with both Ice & Fire (1995 Zombie, LLC). This debut first-person-shooter from Zombie Studios (ZPC: Zero Population Count, Spec Ops and a brief stint with Disney) sees you melt or freeze evil aliens infesting a space ship. Exciting stuff.

Snow may return tomorrow, but I promise we're off to warmer climes.

CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN - DAY 3

Day 3 of the Collection Chamber Christmas Countdown is already here, and today's game is a classic point-and-click adventure called Ween: The Prophecy (1992 Coktel Vision). Using ScummVM, the Scandinavian-inspired fantasy contains three versions; the definitive DOS version as well as the Amiga and Atari ST ports which differ slightly. Check out this doozy of a game after the jump.

I'm a bit hot-and-cold over tomorrow's game, but I'm sure it'll melt your heart regardless...