Why Bayonetta 2 Is The Die Hard Of Christmas Games

Bayonetta 2 may not be what you'd expect out of a Christmas game, but it fits the bill in more ways than one!

Bayonetta 2 banner
Bayonetta 2 is to videogames what Die Hard is to movies. | © Platinum Games

'Tis the season once more! Though you'd hardly know it just by looking at how the gaming sphere celebrates it. While Mariah Carey has already been defrosted for her annual encore and streaming services have extensive Christmas movie playlists at the ready, there's a severe lack of videogames appropriate for the season to get gamers in the festive mood. But there's one notable exception: Bayonetta 2.

OK, just hear me out here! I'm sure you've heard of the meme of Die Hard being a Christmas movie? The 1988 action movie starring Bruce Willis and Alan Rickman probably isn't the first Christmas movie you'd have thought of, what with all the violence and explosions and it not having been promoted as a Christmas movie at all. But to that its fans say: It's set on Christmas, so it's a Christmas movie, end of story.

Bayonetta 2: Perfect For The Christmas Season

Bayonetta 2 Rodin
Rodin definitely isn't your typical mall santa. | © Platinum Games / EarlyGame

So what's stopping us from applying the same logic to Bayonetta 2? If anything, Platinum Games's 2014 character action sensation has an even stronger case to be made for it! Its prologue has Bayonetta herself going Christmas shopping with her friends before things go sideways, and not long after her favorite demonic arms dealer Rodin shows up in a Santa costume and sort of implies that he's the actual Santa Claus. It really doesn't get much more Christmass-y than that.

Sure, the rest of the game doesn't have much Christmas theming going on, isn't very family-friendly and mostly just features Bayonetta saving the world through the power of love and incredible violence. But isn't that what Christmas is all about in the end? Die Hard fans certainly seem to think so.

Leonhard Kuehnel

When Leo isn’t busy playing the best videogame you’ve never heard of, he uses his knowledge to report on the latest news in the gaming industry. Never ask him how long his backlog is, though, you won’t like the answer....