Is Die Hard a Christmas film? It’s an age-old debate with only one correct answer, due to the fact that it includes two Christmas songs and the entire plot is based on the fact that it’s Christmas time. But you do you.
I was recently thinking about Christmas video games, thanks to a quiz our Editor-in-Chief is sending us every day of December until Christmas Day. She sends a screenshot of a Christmas film, a Christmas game, and a snippet of a Christmas song and we have to guess what they are. The thing is, not many of the games are really Christmas games.
Die Hard has not appeared at the time of writing.
One of the answers was The Last of Us Part 2. That’s not a spoiler because none of you are playing and David replied all anyway. That’s not a Christmas game. But it’s a game with Christmas in it. Does that make it an equivalent to Die Hard in the gaming sphere? Not in my eyes. But Spider-Man does.
Spider-Man: Miles Morales Is A Christmas Game
Specifically, Spider-Man Miles Morales does. It seems obvious at first – the whole game takes place at Christmas time – but, like Die Hard, there’s more to its festive spirit than just baubles.
Whereas Die Hard requires its Christmas setting for its plot to function (Hans Gruber specifically targets the office Christmas party as his hostages), Mile Morales presents a Christmas message of love, kindness, and understanding at its heart.
Miles is a generous person. He volunteers at the food bank, he helps friends and strangers alike if they’re in need. Even before he was bitten by a radioactive spider, he’s a kind guy, the personification of Christmas spirit.
“But that’s just who Spider-Man is!” you shout at your phone screen, angrily scrolling past this sentence to see if I have any more powers of prescience. And you’re right. Spider-Man is the superhero who looks after the little guy. Whether that’s Peter Parker, Miles Morales, or nearly any of the other regular Joes who have taken up the mantle in its various forms, Spider-Man is the friendly neighbourhood superhero. This is why he is enduringly popular, it’s why he’s had 17 films made about him in the past two decades, and it’s why he’s the perfect protagonist for a Christmas game.
This doesn’t make Spider-Man or Spider-Man 2 Christmas games, though. They’re not set at Christmastime. And, in my eyes, a video game needs both a Christmassy plot and/or message and a Christmastime setting in order to be a truly Christmassy game.
Sure, you could set Miles Morales at any other time of year and it would function. There could be Halloween decorations up, pumpkins on doorsteps; chocolate eggs to collect and a bunny hopping across Harlem; or a summer vacation for Peter Parker and Mary-Jane. The game would be functionally the same. But the Christmas setting reinforces the core message of the story, messages of kindness, generosity, and doing the right thing for those in need. This is all very Spider-Man, but it’s also very Santa.
All I’m saying is Spider-Man and Christmas go hand in hand. They complement each other perfectly, like turkey and cranberry sauce, pigs and blankets, or roast potatoes and a boatload of gravy. And Miles Morales made this connection.
Like Die Hard, it’s more than the sum of its parts. Die Hard is a film set at Christmas, the plot of which could only happen at Christmas. Spider-Man: Miles Morales is a game that understands and embodies Christmas. There’s nothing I’d rather be playing over the festive period, and nobody I’d rather have wrapping bad guys in web and putting them under my tree.
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