Let's celebrate this weekend like it's a holiday! An ASCII shooter/Christmas/ninja holiday! We'll all rise before dawn, steal down to the local airfield, nab a jet, and fly around all day long! Also: gingerbread men for dessert!!!

Ninja vs. Samurai (Mac/Win, 8MB, free) - You, are a ninja. You, are trapped in a tower filled with samurai warriors. How can you nab the scrolls and make it to the next floor alive? By being stealthy! Similar to Theseus and the Minotaur in some ways, each time you move, the samurai move. Stay out of their field of vision and you can march around safely. One sighting, though, and you have to start the level all over again. A smart and good-looking logic puzzle game with lots of levels to complete!

ALTCODE (Windows, 3.9MB, free) - Swarms of robotic ships from another world are attacking earth. You are a ship armed with a brand new self awareness from the hive mind of every CRT monitor humans have ever trashed (admit it, you've tossed at least one!), and you're not about to let anyone think you're obsolete! This frantic and extraordinarily stylish horizontal shmup is great for ever player under our lovely little sun, as it's just difficult enough to offer a challenge, but not so tough it's impossible. Pick up power-ups to upgrade your gun and boosters, then take out the ASCII invaders one by one!

Johnny Platform Saves Christmas (Windows, 7.35MB, free) - A game originally released for Xbox Live Arcade, now free for PC users! Johnny's adventure is classic platform fare, featuring over 100 levels and plenty of cool moves to try out, including double jumps and a nice gravity-defying rolling ability. You'll collect cups of coffee along the way (or you can pretend they're hot cocoa) for extra lives, but be mindful of the evil robots and flaming Christmas puddings. You won't be saving Christmas if you're, you know, dead. A cheerful retro romp through platforming land!

Note: All games have been confirmed to run under Windows 7 and are virus-free. Mac users should try Boot Camp, Parallels, or CrossOver Games to play Windows titles, Linux users can use Wine. If you know of a great game we should feature, use the Submit link above to send it in!