The Story behind the Sonic Adventure Christmas DLC (1999)

From December 17 to December 28, 1999, gamers could experience one of the earliest examples of downloadable content (DLC) with Sonic Adventure.

The "Christmas Party" DLC brought festive cheer to the game, adding Christmas trees to the station and town center. When Sonic jumped at these trees, cheerful holiday messages would appear on-screen, wishing players a Merry Christmas. The background music also changed to the acapella version of "Dreams, Dreams" from Christmas NiGHTS into Dreams.

However, this holiday-themed addition came with an unintended issue. In Sonic's storyline, accessing the Speed Highway level requires picking up an ID card located on a triangular patch of grass in front of the Central District hotel. The ID card must then be taken to the Cyber-net Inc. building gate to unlock the level. When the Christmas DLC is active, the largest Christmas tree in Station Square appears in the same spot as the ID card, preventing players from retrieving it.

For those who had already progressed past this point in the story, the tree posed no problem. However, players who installed the DLC before reaching this stage found themselves unable to pick up the ID card. The solution? Delete the DLC data from the VMU (Visual Memory Unit). While this workaround restored access, it undoubtedly caused frustration for many players during the festive season.