Quantcast

The evolution of Santa Claus

A look back at the videogame career of Christmas' legendary fat man

Words: Mikel Reparaz, GamesRadar US

Celebrated since the game’s debut in 2004, World of WarCraft’s Feast of Winter Veil provides an broad array of Christmassy activities for players, all of them ultimately headed up by the suspiciously cynical Greatfather Winter.

Sure, he’s just an old dwarf in a red coat that kind of looks vaguely like a medieval version of Santa. But what makes Greatfather Winter interesting is that there’s another version of him skulking around in Ogrimmar that looks nothing like any of the other Santas on this list:

OK, maybe he looks a LITTLE like them. There’s the red outfit and the beard to consider. But this is the first Santa (or Santa stand-in) we’ve ever seen that features tusks in its natural state. Let’s hope it’s not the last.


He may have a creepy stare, a shirt that’s falling off and an unnatural hunger for human flesh, but for our money, the zombie Santa from Infected is the best Santa ever:

Leave it to St. Nick to become the de facto mascot of one of the PSP’s best, most unfairly overlooked zombie shooters. In no other game is he quite this numerous, this menacing or this unforgettable. Secret of Mana’s mutant Santa has nothing on this monster, because left to his own devices, Santa’s zombie helpers will quickly turn into giant grotesques that are capable of much nastier things than just smacking you in the face with a bell.




 A return to friendlier Santas, the version of Kris Kringle from The Nightmare Before Christmas (and specifically the NmBC-themed area of Kingdom Hearts II) is one of St. Nick’s more stylized appearances. He’s impossibly fat and his beard is improbably long, but this isn’t a dimwitted, confused Moron Santa or a cynical deliverer of lethal presents – no, this Santa is sincere, with a competent gleam in his eye that only comes from the experience of being kidnapped by goofy monsters in a mix-up over who gets to administer which holiday.


Above: Plus, those black gloves make him look about as badass as a Santa can get

You could also argue that Jack Skellington there is a Santa as well, but while we’ve allowed a couple of impostors on the list already, one Santa (or at least one Santa type) per game is more than enough. Besides, Jack looks shabby and out of his element; it takes a real Santa to make that look work.


 
28 Comments
Order Comments: Newest First | Oldest First
darkghost513  - 11 months 1 day ago 
haha tim allen is so fat
darkghost513  - 11 months 1 day ago 
a bit scary to haha
babo_u_da  - 11 months 1 day ago 
zombie santa is the best
merry christmas people
Montag  - 11 months 1 day ago 
ZX Spectrum.... console... heretic

Home computer and my 2nd computer

Yes Sir Clive is Jesus's lovechild
PrinceNicy  - 11 months 1 day ago 
You guys forgot Monkey Santa from Ape Escape 2.
skyguy343  - 11 months 1 day ago 
what about the evil snowball chucking one from Gex?
evildevil2  - 11 months 1 day ago 
what about the lego santa costume from lego star wars 2?
SamaSume  - 11 months 1 day ago 
my how santa's grown
Mola123  - 11 months 1 day ago 
um...is it just me or in the second santa claus example does it have the same paragaph twice?
georgeguy  - 11 months 1 day ago 
nice artical GR

happy holidays
Whogivsachit  - 11 months 1 day ago 
Ice Station Santa is the best!
nadrewod999  - 11 months 22 hours ago 
to Mola123: Yes, they double-pasted the paragraph just like some people double-post their comments
to everyone: I totally agree with everything, although I think that the only good game Santa is... not here yet, but all they need to do is give a game featuring Santa (not as the main character or the main person in the game you deal with) better graphics than Fallout 3 and give us the ability to do whatever we want to him (example: instead of cutting the blue Santa in SoM down to size, either leave him alone or take control of him to use as your pet to help with the later bosses would be possible choices in a good Santa game), although I HATE side-scrollers that are movie-spinoffs and I HATE most Santa games anyway since the only people who really believe in Santa are most often too young to play any good games because their parents only give them educational games. Even so, I would really like a game featuring Santa if it showed how global warming was affecting him (and possibly have the game end by showing it was all fake) since global warming, while it might be a threat, shouldn't be taken so literally, especially when the preacher of the "Global Warming" religion doesn't even think about going anywhere by a very envirmentally-friendly way because he only goes places in his own private jet, plus I personally know a teacher at my neighborhood school who almost got fired when he, after teaching the REQUIRED course about global warming and Al Gore's movie, tried to teach the opposing side as well, so that he wouldn't be like most news stations (if you don't think "Global Warming" is a religion, compare the case of this teacher to the famous "monkey" trial back in around the mid-1920s).
jimsondanet  - 11 months 22 hours ago 
no not at all like paople double posting comments, more like double tapping ctrl-v whilst copy pasting from word.
and thank you for that massive block of text
i will be genuinly surprised if someone actually read the entire thing
Ban  - 11 months 18 hours ago 
Now I need a PSP to play Infected
oreomonkey  - 11 months 17 hours ago 
Funny how they chose all the gross killing savage disgusting violent Santas as the best and nice, cool, clean Santas as the worst, wow...
GamesRadarMikelReparaz  - 11 months 17 hours ago 
@Montag & Mola13: Yes, yes, you're both right. Fixed and fixed.

@nadrewod999: Games about Santa suck. It's no use trying to free-associate your way to a good Santa game, because there's no such thing as a good Santa game and there NEVER WILL BE. If they were any good in the first place, they wouldn't NEED to be about Santa.
Top_Hat  - 11 months 10 hours ago 
Happy Ho-ho-holidays everyone.
jakens88  - 11 months 8 hours ago 
They forgot mortal kombats santa
misfit119  - 11 months 1 hour ago 
Aww, you forgot the best santa ever. The one from Hunter the Reckoning: Redeemer for the Xbox. That was one demented St. Nick right there.
derringer83  - 10 months 30 days ago 
Man I was pumped about this article. And it was pretty good, won't lie... but what about the drunk Santa from Hitman: Blood Money? That guy was awesome.
Related Games
Xbox
Xbox
Infected
PSP
Gamecube
GameCube
Dante's Inferno has gone into Beta N4G
PS3 News from N4G
Nov 25, 2009
Play the original Quake in your browser N4G
PC News from N4G
Nov 25, 2009
PSLS Giveaway: 50 Battlefield Bad Company 2 Beta... N4G
PS3 News from N4G
Nov 25, 2009
PixelJunk Shooter Aiming for Release Date N4G
PS3 News from N4G
Nov 25, 2009
CONFIRMED: God Of War Collection Coming To EU... N4G
PS3 News from N4G
Nov 25, 2009