The 20 Best In-Game Holiday Events

Developers hide unique and charming Easter Eggs within their games that actually celebrates holidays concurrent to the player.

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Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

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Intro

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20. Darwinia

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19. Cooking Mama 3

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18. Cave Story

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17. Munchers franchise

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16. Black and White

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15. Halo franchise

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14. You Don’t Know Jack franchise

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13. Demon’s Souls

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12. Pokémon franchise

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11. Operation Flashpoint

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10. Sid Meyer’s Pirates

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9. Simpsons Hit and Run and Simpsons Road Rage

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Simpsons Hit and Run and Simpsons Road Rage

Platform: Gamecube, Xbox, PS2

Simpsons Road Rage was a crappy Crazy Taxi rip-off, and Simpsons Hit and Run was a pretty good GTA 3 sandbox game. Both games were actually quite appealing in their own way, especially Simpsons Hit and Run, and any fan of the TV show would find a lot to enjoy while playing these games.

Like the other games on this list, special events would occur when you played these titles on special days. In Road Rage, when played on certain days of the year, special playable characters would unlock: Christmas Apu on December 25th, Hallowe'en Bart on October 31st, Thanksgiving Marge on the fourth Sunday in November, and New Year Krusty on January 1st. Hit and Run didn’t go quite as far, but the main menu would change depending on the day, with a Christmas, Halloween, and Valentine’s Day version of the screen. 

8. Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2

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7. Christmas NiGHTS

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6. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare

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5. Team Fortress 2

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4. Rise of the Triad

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Rise of the Triad

Platform: PC

The Rise of the Triad was a mid-1990s first person shooter from the team that would go on to call themselves 3D Realms. With five playable characters, each with separate stats, an updated Wolfenstein 3D engine, and an eleven player multiplayer mode, the game was pretty damn great.

Even back in 1995, this game was able to easily tap into the internal clock to check the date. If you booted it up on Christmas, you’ll get character Taradino Cassaton the start menu wearing a Santa hat, and the soundtrack for in-game will change to a chip tune version of “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen.” Easter, Cinco de Mayo, July 4th, and Halloween will all bring different hats for the different characters.

Rumors seemed to indicate that Rise of the Triad would get an update for modern PCs and consoles, and if this were to happen, one can dream that these odd little holiday Easter Eggs will make a return.

3. World of Warcraft (and MMOS in general)

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World of Warcraft (and MMOS in general)

Platforms: PC, Mac

More than any other gaming genre, MMOs are the best suited to celebrating real world events. Due to the very nature that they are tied to a shared server, the game has to naturally run on a shared clock, so it’s easy fro developers to add new content that might only be up for a short period of time, such as special quests, items, and content.

Considering that World of Warcraft is the most popular MMO today, it’s good to see that Blizzard can celebrate the most popular (even less popular) holidays for gamers. From the Christmas-themed “Feast of the Winter-veil,” the Thanksgiving-esqu “Pilgrim’s Bounty,” the Halloween “Hallow’s End,” and my favorite, a version of Octoberfest called “Brewfest.” That last one should be popular with the purportedly heavy-drinking Pandarians.

Of course, WoW isn’t the only MMO that celebrates holidays in real time. DC Universe Online often has holiday events, with the Valentine’s Day special being particularly memorable, and even the Japanese-developed Final Fantasy MMOs utilize holiday events. Star Wares: Galaxies even had the infamous Wookie Life Day and celebration of the founding of the Republic…on July 4th! Very convenient indeed. At the end of the day, however, Blizzard really does holiday events the best.

2. Batman Arkham City

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1. Animal Crossing franchise

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