With American Thanksgiving in the rearview mirror, we are speeding toward the winter holidays (my kid wore Elf on the Shelf pajamas all day on Thanksgiving to display her readiness). As we start finalizing (or beginning) our shopping we thought that it might be a good time to run through some of our own Holiday Wish List Items.
The Nintendo Switch: The Switch had to be the first thing on the list because several of the NYMG staff have it on their list. While it was nigh impossible to get in the months post launch, I have seen good stock of the systems in stores and online in the last month. To go with the Switch you’ll want to gift at least one or two games for it. Below are some suggestions.
- Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild: It’s a open world Zelda game and it’s absolutely beautiful. You can walk around for 10s (or 100s) of hours exploring this vast world and learning about the various races of creatures before you finish the main quest line (or after). It’s like Zelda and Skyrim merged and nothing can go wrong with that.
- Super Mario Odyssey: Again, another classic Nintendo title goes open world and the result is amazing. New worlds, new mechanics, but same basic premise. Unfortunately, there are some moments of problematic representation, but overall it is a solid game.
- Nintendo E-shop card: In addition to being able to grab any of the AAA titles from the e-shop there are tons of amazing Nindie (Indie titles for the Nintendo Switch) titles in the shop. Some of these include games like Stardew Valley, the farming sim/dating sim/dungeon crawler from Chucklefish Games, Golf Story from Sidebar Games which is part golfing sim part RPG (and surprisingly good), and several other sleep hits that average under $20 a piece!
- Fancy Controllers: Every game experiences hand fatigue from time to time and a good controller like
the Xbox Elite controller helps mitigate some of that by making the controller modular and allowing you to determine what the buttons, triggers, and bumpers do. And if you don’t need a modular controller you can still have/need/want either custom controllers that you design via Microsoft Design Labs (or a 3rd party company) or the new special edition controllers, like the Minecraft creepers and pig controllers. - External hard drives: External storage is useful for console and PC gamers alike. With many of us going all digital on our games we need more and more space to store our games. Minimum I would buy for anyone this holiday season would be 4 TB because they are really affordable now.
- Collector’s Editions of their favorite games: This year I treated myself to a collector’s edition of Mafia III when it went on sale. Yes, I had already purchased and played the game, but collector’s edition game me 2 actual vinyl albums of the soundtrack and music or the era, frame worthy prints from the collectibles in game, replica dog tags, and more! And I also have an extra copy of the game to gift! I have also pre-ordered a collector’s edition of Ni No Kuni 2 for Pea (shhhhh it’s a surprise) that comes with a plush, a diorama, an art book, the game, and more. It was a shock to the wallet, but the original game is everything that is gaming to her. It is her magnum opus, how could I not if I can afford it?
- Game Swag: Collector’s editions out of your price range? It’s ok, go for game based Pop Funko figures, plushes, t-shirts, hats, and more! Check out the developers’ stores online or hit up your local GameStop/ThinkGeek stores that usually run amazing stores (online or brick and mortar) at this time of year.
- Lego: We all love Lego! There are tons of licensed kits that will appeal to almost anyone from princesses to Minecraft and Star Wars. Picking kits that you can do together
with your kids is an especially great way to bond over a task during the holiday season and another thing to keep them from complaining about being bored! - Playstation 4 or Xbox One S: Does the gamer in your life have a console that is on it’s last legs or maybe they don’t have one at all? Both of these consoles can be had for less than $200 (before tax) this holiday season. They’ll love you for it, promise!
- Subscription Boxes: Subscription boxes are the gifts that keep on giving. They come every month and you can usually gift 1, 3, 6, or 12 months of your giftee’s favorite things. Got an artist on your list? Sketchbox might be right up their alley. A friend with an office supply obsession (like me)? ScribeDelivery sends beautiful paper and ink products every month. Geek merchandise the order of the day? Geek Fuel might be the order of the day.
- Subscription cards to paid services. You can gift one year of Playstation Network or Xbox Live Gold for $30-60 and it will give the gamer in your life access to playing games online and new games to play every month (as long as they are subscribed).
These are, of course, just some of the things that we would enjoy gifting or receiving. Your mileage may vary, but all in all there are two things to remember as we enter the gift giving season. Spending time with loved ones is what matters most and ALWAYS give a gift receipt!
