PixlBit

Merry Christmas!  I’ve got some presents for you!  Game reviews I’ve recently written over at GamerDad.com!  Just what you wanted, right?  Anyway, please click on the links and read as many as you can and maybe even post a ‘like’ or comment or two.  I’d appreciate it.  And let’s keep up the tradition of pretend Christmas presents!  In the comments section, give me a pretend Christmas present and I’ll give you one, too, when I reply.  It can be anything you want, it’s the thought that counts…literally!  OK let’s begin!

Hallmark 2025 Video Game Christmas Ornaments

Hallmark always has a wide variety of Christmas ornaments every year, and in the past few years they’ve even had lots of video game themed ones!  I got a bunch of them this year as well, as I always do, so let’s take a look at them!

Kirby Alarmo

Normally Kirby welcomes you to Dream Land, but with Alarmo he now can help you leave it.  Nintendo’s alarm clock, which I’ve talked about last year, lets you download new alarms and characters every so often, and earlier this year I’ve even written about that.  And now there’s a Kirby themed alarm for Alarmo as well.  So let’s take a look at it.

Plants vs. Zombies Replanted (Switch 2)

One of the most popular ‘casual’ tower defense style games has to be Plants vs. Zombies.  The original game was even reviewed on this site (not by me) way back in the day (2009).  There’s been a few spinoffs as well.  I reviewed a pinball game based on the franchise in 2012, and there’s also the 3D Garden Warfare games (I hated I missed out on those, they look like fun).  I also remember seeing the game a lot at PAX and E3 in years past, like costumed zombies from the game and they would give out paper cone hats to showgoers.  And now, more than 15 years later, you can play a HD version of it on modern consoles with new levels and features.

The Good Old Days (Switch)

I was a kid in the 80s, and because of that, there are a lot of movies around then that really shaped my childhood.  These include trilogies like the original Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and Back to the Future films, as well as others like Gremlins and Ghostbusters.  But one 80s movie that I wasn’t as big a fan of was The Goonies.  I think it’s because in the summers, my best friend’s cousin would come over to visit and always bring her videotape of The Goonies and want to watch it with us every day!  I got so tired of it!  But like most other movies at the time, The Goonies got a few video games.  The most popular were the NES games from Konami.  The first one wasn’t really released in the US outside of arcades, but the second one was pretty popular, at least in my group of friends anyway.  So if you liked the gameplay of those classics, you may want to check out The Good Old Days.  It’s a 2D Metroidvania style platformer where you play as a group of kids called The Noogies.  They’re tasked with finding treasure in underground caverns to make enough money to keep their parents’ house, but they only have one day to do it and they must compete with a gang of thieves!  Only thing it’s missing is that catchy Cyndi Lauper song!

House Fighters: Total Mess (Switch)

This is an aerial combat game but instead of real jets you pilot toy planes inside a house.  It kind of reminds me of an old Dreamcast game called Toy Commander.  That game has a bit of history here because the founder of the GamerDad.com site, Andrew S. Bub, wrote a strategy guide for that game back in the day. And since House Fighters just focuses on the dogfights and is fairly family friendly, it also reminds me of another game I played more back then called Snoopy vs. The Red Baron. 

Gruniozerca Trilogy (Switch)

Originally homebrew NES games, Gruniozerca Trilogy is a trio of puzzle action games starring a little black guinea pig named Grunio.

Bomb Kitten (PS4)

Help a mischievous looking kitten use dynamite to blow up blocks and enemies in a grid-like playfield in Bomb Kitten.  If this looks and sounds like Bomberman, well, you wouldn’t be blamed for thinking that.  Except this game takes out everything that made Bomberman fun.  You’ll see what I mean by reading this review. 

Twilight Parade: Moonlit Mononoke (PS4)

Monsters from Japanese myths and folklore (called yokai) come together every year to have a parade on a day called Hyakki Yagyo.  But the Oni monsters were too rowdy so they weren’t invited.  But now they’re mad and causing trouble, so you must stop them in this horizontally scrolling 2D bullet hell shooter.

And that’s all for now!  Thanks for reading my reviews and posting ‘likes’ and comments on them!  I do appreciate it.  Don’t forget those pretend presents.  And Merry Christmas!  --Cary