This year, Hallmark’s main video game themed ornament is Prince Dastan from Disney’s Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. Measuring 4 in. tall and retailing for $14.95 (ornament # QXD2152), it features the likeness of a leaping Jake Gyllenhaal as “The Prince.” The film is also being released on DVD, Blu-ray and Digital Download September 14, 2010.

The other ornament, which I have yet to see in a store, is the Tron Lightcycle ornament (#QXD1153), also based on a upcoming Disney film (Tron: Legacy, December 17, 2010). This one is priced $16.95, is 4.5 in. wide and lights up (so it requires batteries, which are often included in Hallmark’s fancier ornaments). This definitely looks to be the more impressive of this year’s two game-related ornaments.

In Microsoft’s quest to bring more classic games to the Xbox Live Arcade (XBLA), one of the most recent additions, Tron, would seem a true treat for arcade fans.

Costing only 400 Microsoft Points (US$5), the XBLA version of Tron includes the four original levels, an enhanced graphics version of the same game and a multiplayer mode.

The four levels of the original 1982 arcade game are I/O Tower, MCP Cone, Battle Tanks and Lightcycle Race (overhead view).

In I/O tower, you shoot bugs to clear a path to the side entrance to the Tower. For MCP Cone, you shoot a descending and rotating mass of blocks to clear a path into the MCP Cone. The Lightcycle game, clearly the game’s classic, is an overhead, 2D view of the Lightcycle race from the move – block in your opponent with colored lines before you crash into a wall. In the Battle Tanks level you control a tank and must shoot computer-controlled tanks three times each before they shoot you once. In each level, you get one shot at a time, but your bullets bounce. As you progress the levels increase in difficulty (in speed, number of opponents or both).

Although I was nostalgically pleased this game was being released, it clearly demonstrates that not all arcade games translate well onto modern game controllers. The original Tron arcade game used a rotating dial to move your firing arm and a joystick with a trigger.

Without the wheel the game is…