The current count looks to be 166 games on sale and each is listed at the same bargain digital basement price. Many of the games retail for $9.99 to $6.99, so you’re getting well more than 50 percent off on pretty much every game in the sale.

Ah, holiday games. Some are wonderful, like the Christmas-y level in Banjo-Kazooie. Others… not so much. 1up has a superb (as usual) top 5 list of the very lamest in holiday gaming. They’ve called out the DS version of Elf Bowling, the crappy-controls of The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie’s Revenge, and the abominable Home Alone. more »

Not all shovelware is completely bad.

Sure, games that fall into the shovelware category, like Chicken Shoot and Elf Bowling, are often designed to purely to generate quick revenue. And yes, the quality of shovelware is more often than not rather atrocious. But that doesn’t mean that the mere existence of it is entirely bad.

Not only is shovelware a videogame tradition but its proliferation is a positive sign for gamers. Below are three important reasons why shovelware games are actually good…