Michael Dowse's 8-Bit Christmas is a celebration of both the joyous holiday season and the equally merry era of 8-bit gaming. The film takes an approach not unlike the classic A Christmas Story. It too centers around a boy yearning to score that special toy above all else, as told by a reminiscing father. What's the coveted gift? A Nintendo Entertainment System of course!
The movie is a family-friendly Christmas tale that's both wholesome and zany, decorated with charming holiday themes and pixelated 8-bit nostalgia. Given its motifs and plot revolving around Nintendo and retro gaming, one can naturally expect plenty of fun gaming references and easter eggs throughout. While these are rarer and more subtle than one might expect, there are a handful of amusing examples in the film.
8 Paperboy Sighting
Despite retro gaming being the crux of the movie's focus, there are actually few games that even get mentioned throughout, let alone shown in real detail. However, 8-Bit Christmas does kick off with an adult Jake (Neil Patrick Harris) bonding with his daughter over a game of Paperboy in a wholesome scene.
As the two (somehow) play the game together—we get but a glimpse of the cartridge and the game footage itself in all its simple 8-bit glory.
7 Now You're Playing With Moral Panic
Fiction can tend to emulate reality in many ways, as is the case with the second-act plot of 8-Bit Christmas, which features concerned parents of Batavia boycott and protest Nintendo. This uproar, led by rich kid Timmy Keane's dad, is meant to represent and mock the moral panic against video games decades ago. What's the cause of the outrage? A fallen TV set resulting from some aggressive gaming, which gravely injures a poor pup.
While brought to a cartoonish level here, gamers of the '80s and '90s will recognize a similar reaction to Nintendo and (especially) the edgier Sega, as some parents were worried about the violence and general influence games might have on kids. Indeed, some things never change.
6 Lite-Brite Zelda
Despite the iconic status of Nintendo's Legend of Zelda, whose storied origins trace back to the NES, fans are treated to just a brief, subtle nod to this fantasy hit.
During the somewhat bittersweet end of the film, Jake's hope of getting a coveted NES is again dashed as he opens his gifts. When opening the box that he's sure contains the console, he instead gets gifted a Lite-Brite from his uncle in Japan; an item that was itself iconic and emblematic of '80s culture.
Cue the monologue from adult Jake, who describes the feeling of disappointment and fears he'll end up a "thirty-year-old balding man in his parents' basement making pictures of Zelda on his Lite Brite."
5 "Video Game Over"
Shortly after the outraged parents of Batavia decide to organize against Nintendo and its NES, a funny catchphrase is concocted to perhaps add a little pizzaz to their "movement." In a cheeky, clever nod to common ending screens in old games, a sort of play on words is used for their protest signs and "rah-rah" chants.
The phrase, "video game-over!" is sure to be recognized by both veteran and younger gamers alike, providing a blatant-yet-amusing gaming "in-joke."
4 The Tried-And-True Method To Clean An NES Cart
Most gamers growing up two or three decades ago know of the common struggle to get their archaic, dusty game cartridges to work. Particularly when it came to NES games, players often resorted to the simple-yet-effective means of blowing on a cart—to varying degrees of success.
This outdated cultural practice is homaged amusingly at the start of the film when Jake educates his daughter Annie with this makeshift cleaning method.
3 A Famed Robot Adornes The In-Store TV Set
One memorable scene of 8-Bit Christmas shows an entranced young Jake playing an NES that's on display at a bustling mall. It seems the console's hypnotic spell has profoundly affected the boy, as the NES starts speaking to him by flapping its front-loading cart door.
But amidst this strange scene sits a TV frame and prop of a large R.O.B. the Robot, equipped with two NES controllers for hands. It's a fitting inclusion, given the bot's significance in the NES' early days.
The plastic droid was initially marketed with the console to position it as a toy-like device in the US; a market that was wary of gaming following the recent Atari crash. Apparently, though, R.O.B.'s likeness was also used to draw mall occupants to NES displays.
2 A Subtle Nod To Mortal Kombat
Mortal Kombat is a classic for many gamers of the '80s and '90s—though its excessive gore (for a PG film), and the fact that it hadn't been released in '88, would have made its inclusion problematic.
Yet director Michael Dowse and writer Kevin Jakubowski find a way to subtly pay homage to that title with the fictional Silent Fists. With its pixelated simplicity, the game seems to resemble Street Fighter more than Midway's gory fighter.
But in one early scene, just before Timmy's put in his place by a finishing move, text flashes on the screen that Mortal Kombat fans are sure to recognize. Rather than "finish him!", this more family-friendly blurb reads: "silence him!"
1 The Power Glove – It's So Bad
The same scene which tributes Mortal Kombat—and shows Timmy soundly defeated at his own game—also has another gaming easter egg by way of the rich kid himself sporting the Power Glove.
Indeed, the arrogant chap showing off his "state-of-the-art" gaming glove is reminiscent of Lucas; a similar character in a gaming-centric film called The Wizard. But while Lucas gives the Power Glove the cool label of being "so bad," Timmy finds that this semi-functional glove was indeed "bad" in the literal sense.
One can also draw comparisons to the stoic, focused glove-wielder in the peripheral's commercial—aside from the fact that it actually works in the ad. This once-cool accessory is now known largely as a gaming obscurity and rare collector's item of the NES era.