It is with great pleasure that we at Casual Girl Gamer wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We're now off to munch mince pies, snigger at grandpa snoring away on the couch, and get jolly on some festive brandy. Five minutes later. Erm, yes, thanks to all our readers who emailed us. We of course consider you part of our extended family and, erm, yes, of course we have some presents for you. No, no, no, we would never dream of not getting you a gift. Who do you think we are?
We, er, just need a few minutes to find them. You see, our cats are very naughty and, er, must have hidden them. You know, like cats do. Several minutes of frantic searching through our filing cabinet of games later. Ah, yes, here they are: ten of the best Christmas themed online games that money can buy, each individually gift-wrapped (honest) by a member of the Casual Girl Gamer team specially for you. Phew, that was a close call. Now, where did I put that brandy...
1 Flight
London-based developer Krin Juangbhanich is best known for his ultra-violent turn-based zombie RPGs Sonny and Sonny 2 but with this brilliant Christmas-themed game, he has revealed a softer side. In Flight you have to guide a paper plane to Santa's home in the North Pole.
Why is it so important that the aircraft reaches the Grand Daddy of Yuletide? Well, it includes a letter from a young girl whose christmas present demands do not include anything as mundane as an iPad or an XBox. No, all she wants for Christmas is to see her mum again. How sweet is that. Make sure the little girl has her wished fulfilled by playing Flight here.
2 Mountain Maniac Xmas
Christmas is a season of generosity and high spirits. Not for the hero of this edgy game by PixelJam, however. Indeed, to say that Mr Mountain Maniac is pissed-off would be the understatement of the year. He is literally frothing with rage and the target of his ire is none other than Father Christmas.
It is never fully explained what Santa has done to deserve this wrath. All we know is that at some point while employed as a mall santa, listening to children's gift requests, Mountain Maniac suddenly snaps, grabs a huge hammer and sets off to the north pole to assassinate santa. Along the way, he wipes out anything that stands in his path, using his gargantuan hammer to cause rock falls and to bash up opponents. Mountain Maniac is the perfect antidote to all that saccharine sweetness of Xmas. Play it here.
3 Winterbells
Ferry Halim is one of the most inventive game developers around at the moment. He makes beautiful, quirky games that blur the distinction between gaming and art. One of his best-known games is Winterbells, a Christmas themed game where your challenge is to help a bunny ascend as high as possible by leaping on Christmas bells. The central idea of the game is nothing new but the cute graphics, simple and intuitive controls and soothing music make Bells a memorable and rewarding experience. Winterbells can be played here.
4 Starlight Xmas
Have you ever stared at the stars for so long that they start to form patterns? Of course you have. Well, this puzzle game is based on a similar idea. You are presented with a series of night skies and are expected to manipulate the stars - by rotating them in three-dimensions - to create Christmas-themed pictures. Starlight Xmas offers one of the more interesting puzzle-solving experiences we have encountered. Combine that with charming graphics and dulcet audio, and you have a game that will have you captivated from start to end. Play Starlight Xmas here.
5 Garden Gnome Carnage
How best to describe this strange game? Garden Gnome Carnage is an odd marriage between a defend-your-castle-style game and a physics game with a very unusual plot. You are an angry gnome house-owner who hates Christmas. Unfortunately for you, Father Christmas has been dabbling with genetic engineering and has managed to clone himself. Literally thousands of Father Christmas clones are congregating on your house, each dead set on dropping down your chimney and delivering you some presents.
You must stop them, either by launching bricks at them, swinging Tarzan-like from your chimney and whacking them or by calling in an air-strike (it seems that the anti-Xmas lobby have become pretty powerful in this game). Eventually, you will be overwhelmed but before then the game is - perhaps surprisingly - amazingly fun. Play Garden Gnome Carnage here.
6 Cargo Bridge Xmas Edition
Who would have thought that bridge building could be so much fun. Your task in this hit flash game is to design and build a bridge capable of carrying your workers to their destination. This is a proper physics sim, so if you don't take care designing your bridge, it WILL fall down. We are linking here to the Christmas edition of the game but if you're hooked, you may also want to play the original game here and the extended set of levels here.
7 Santa Rockstar Metal Xmas 3
If Santa really were a rockstar, I reckon Christmas would be a big let down for the world's children. While they are waiting on tenterhooks for their presents to appear on Christmas morning, Father Christmas would still be slumped asleep over the toilet, suffering the consequences of several days of reckless partying. Certainly, he would be in no fit state to load up the slay and deliver gifts to several billion households.
But, kids, there is no need to fret. The rock-n-roll Santa in this fun Guitar Hero-style rhythm game is just an impersonator. He's not the real Father Christmas at all. Rest assured, the real father Christmas is up north living a very healthy existence and diligently wrapping prezzies in preparation for the big day. Santa Rockstar Metal Xmas 3 can be played here.
8 Factory Balls
The wonderfully-named Belgian game developer Bart Bonte has come up with a little gem of a game. In physics-based puzzler Factory Balls, you are set the task of creating a funky custom ball by jazzing up a plain old white ball. You do this by putting the ball through a number of different processes that modify it. The custom ball you need to create might be of a special colour. It may also have a hat. And ear-muffs. Yes, Bart Bonte is obviously a bit crazy. He is also something of a genius, because Factory Balls turns out to be ridiculously fun. Play the Xmas edition of the game here.
9 Bloons 2 Christmas Expansion
Pity NinjaKiwi. He has to be soooooo bored of creating Bloons games. He's made so many versions of them already that it must be difficult to come up with new ideas. Not to mention the mind-wrenching dullness of working on the same type of game time and again. But will his fans let him take a break?
Hell no. More than three years after the first Bloons game was released and the popularity of the bubble-popping time-wasters shows no sign of abating, which means poor old NinjaKiwi has had to put all his other plans on hold and get to work on yet another version of Bloons. The result is Bloons 2 Christmas Expansion, which you can play here. Not that NinjaKiwi can rest on his laurels. Fans are already looking forward to an Easter version of the game.
10 Infectionator Christmas Edition
This is the Christmas edition of one of our Games of the Year 2010. As with the original, your aim in this game is is to spread an infectious illness to as many people as possible. On each level, you must infect or kill all the people within 60 seconds. Not exactly in the Christmas spirit but one helluva lot of fun. Infectionator Christmas Edition can be played here.
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