This holiday season, as you gather round the “Yule log” with your “family,” GameNOW reminds you that no matter what special occasion you celebrate this December, the true spirit of the holiday isn’t to help other people or give gifts. Nor is it to wish for “peace on Earth.”

The true spirit of the holidays is to RECEIVE GIFTS. Especially what you WANT. And what you want are great games!

But how do you stop, say, your Auntie Mame from getting you games that suck? Fear not! GameNOW is here to help with our convenient, easy-to-cut-out Holiday Wish List. It’s a gobbledygook of grand and glorious gaming goodness that you can copy and hand out to your loved ones. The items are presented in the order in which you’ll want them. And for your further convenience, we even list games to avoid (no matter how much of a “bargain” they might be). Yes, it’s true, GameNOW is awesome—always watching out for you.

So, good luck this Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/fill-in-the-holiday. And if you do end up getting something you don’t want, well, you probably deserve it. Happy Holidays!

PLAYSTATION 2

What I Want

Kingdom Hearts The makers of Final Fantasy partner with Disney. The result? An amazing game.

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City C’mon—everyone else will have it. You’d better get it, too, or you’ll be laughed out of town.

SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs with broadband adapter The only online FPS that matters.

Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus An awesome platformer starring one of the coolest new video game characters in ages.

DDRMAX Dance Dance Revolution with Dance Pad Dance on, you dancing freak!

A three-year subscription to GameNOW Need we say more?

What I Don’t Want

BMX XXX Strippers doing bike stunts in a shameless attempt to cash in on the M-rated market.

Turok: Evolution Should have been great. Wasn’t.

Antz Extreme Racing Yes, Antz. The movie from, like, four years ago that starred the voice of Woody Allen, the perv.

Gravity Games Bike: Street Vert. Dirt The key word is “dirt.”

Shrek: Super Party A lame ripoff of Mario Party.

GAMECUBE

What I Want

Super Mario Sunshine One of the best platform games ever made. This one does Mario proud.

Mario Party 4 Pure multiplayer fun for both friends and family.

Wavebird Wireless Controller You mean a controller with no wires?! Yep.

Animal Crossing Incredibly addictive. Loads of fun for any age. You’ll see.

Metroid Prime We’ve been waiting and waiting for this one—a first-person Metroid. How cool is that?

A three-year subscription to GameNOW Because you’re worth it.

What I Don’t Want

Turok: Evolution Don’t believe the quotes on the box. This game blows.

Disney’s Magical Mirror Starring Mickey Mouse How can we knock a kids game? There’s such a thing as a bad kids game. So there.

Shrek: Extra Large What is it about the Shrek franchise that just begs for derision?

Ty the Tasmanian Tiger Not a great game. Besides, there aren’t any tigers in Tasmania. Um, are there?

Scorpion King: Rise of the Akkadian The Rock plays an Akkadian. What could be worse? Oh yeah—Turok.

XBOX

What I Want

007: Nightfire Better than Goldeneye. Seriously.

Steel Battalion At $200, it’s a mech sim the likes of which even God has never seen.

Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance Hard to say you’re into the Xbox if you don’t have this one.

Unreal Championship with Xbox Live This is one FPS that will kick butt. An excellent justification for Xbox Live’s online play.

Blinx: The Time Sweeper Innovative and fun platformer. It’s not a Mario-killer, but it’s the best so far for the Xbox.

A three-year subscription to GameNOW It’s great when good things happen to good people.

What I Don’t Want

Bruce Lee: Quest of the Dragon Bruce Lee turned over and over and over in his grave.

Turok: Evolution Hey, it’s No. 2 this time. Gee, maybe it’s not that bad after all.

Sneakers This Stuart Little look-alike is only available at Toys ‘R’ Us—whew!

The Terminator: Dawn of Fate Proof that The Terminator should be terminated. He’ll be blech!

Shrek: Super Party Criminy, make it stop!

GAME BOY ADVANCE

What I Want

e-Reader Waaay cooler than the GB camera and printer, the e-Reader lets your GBA read the bar codes from thousands of cards to get anything from full games to new characters for existing games.

Yoshi’s Island: Super Mario Advance 3 Phil called it one of the best games ever. He’s right.

Metroid Fusion Makes the GBA cool. Really cool.

Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past Zelda’s back on the handheld. Could things get any better?

Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance Oooh, scary! This game kicks vampire butt, and plenty of it.

A three-year subscription to GameNOW You may now die happy—that is, after your three years is up.

What I Don’t Want

Turok: Evolution Why the heck did they make this game for every platform?

xXx A really bad game based on a really OK movie.

Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones The movie was great. The DVD should be out now. Get that instead.

Britney’s Dance Beat Five bad songs. ’Nuff said.

Shrek: Hassle at the Castle The best thing about this game is the title.

PC

What I Want

The Sims Online with one-year subscription Where The Sims was meant to be.

Age of Mythology From the makers of Age of Empires and Age of Kings. Need we say more?

Unreal Tournament 2003 If you get only one FPS this holiday, this is the one.

RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 The original was awesome. The sequel should be awesomer. More awesome? No, awesomer.

Battlefield 1942 If you get only two FPSs this holiday, make this your second. But you need to play online to get the full impact.

A three-year subscription to GameNOW C’mon, you know you want it.

What I Don’t Want

Turok: Evolution So this isn’t out on the PC, but we figured we’d add it to this list just in case it gets ported.

Any Tycoon game that doesn’t have RollerCoaster in the title Eventually, they’ll run out of ideas and have to create TycoonGame Tycoon.

Magic: The Gathering Online Disappointing, newbie-hostile online version of the popular card game.

Rock Manager Horrid, would-be rock-band-manager simulation. Yes, you heard us right: a rock-band-manager simulation.

MechWarrior 4 Mech Packs Shamelessly feature-free MechWarrior expansions should have been free downloads.

Copyright © 2002 Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. Originally appearing in Game Now.