Best Nintendo Games for Holiday Gifts

The Nintendo games sure to make great gifts this holiday season.

What's going on? I'm Rich Demiro, this is Rich on Tech.

How crazy is it that Nintendo has been a holiday standard ever since I was a kid. We're talking decades of games and consoles under the tree, and yeah, that makes me feel pretty old.

But this year will be no different.

Nintendo has one of the hottest consoles around with the Switch. Nintendo has sold twenty three million switches since it launched in March twenty seventeen. And to give you some perspective, the WU, which was sort of a bust, only sold less than fourteen million units, and that launched in twenty twelve. So do the math and you can see why the Switch is so hot right now. Back when I was a kid, the Super Nintendo was where it's at, and I still remember having to get Super Mario Brothers three.

On the day it launched.

Yes, I was always a nerd, So after a long day of work in school, I dragged my dad from store to store trying to find a copy. We ended up finding the game at a kmart near Newark, New Jersey. I've since passed that place many times on the way to the airport and this memory always comes to mind, but I digress. Recently I met up with David Young from Nintendo. He goes way back. In fact, he started out as an operator for their nine hundred number.

This is a number that you would call, or kids would call.

With their parents' permission, of course, since it costs money, and you would get help with games like hey, I'm stuck on this level, can you help me get out of here? And can you believe that now we have something called YouTube and all that advice is totally free.

You know, We've got something at Nintendo for for anybody, you know, any style of gamer, any any level of budget. There's just so much to play.

You know.

We have great games coming out from Nintendo Switch of course, Super Mario Party, Super Smash Brothers, you know, the Pokemon games, Pokemon, Let's Go Pikachu, Pokemon, Let's Go Evye. But we also have great things on the Nintendo three DS. You know, we have the Nintendo two DS at seventy nine to ninety nine. You know, for people that are just starting out,

Now, if you've ever played the Switch, you can quickly understand why it took off faster than the WU.

It is so easy to just pick this thing up and play.

Yeah, you know, besides having a lot of exclusive games that people love, I think it's the fact that you can play it at home. You know, you can you can have that experience around the TV, or you can take it out of the dock and play it with you anywhere you go, and that's that's really been the game changer. A lot of people love to take that experience on the road.

Funny thing, my seven year old actually likes to play the Switch out of the dock and just on the couch and he doesn't like to take it out of the house. But it's cool that we do have the option to do that if we want. All right, So, the first game that's going to make a great holiday gift is Pokemon. There are two versions, Pokemon Let's Go EV and Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu.

You just pick which team you want to be on.

Yeah, Pokemon, Pokemon, Let's Go Pikachu, Pokemon, Let's Go Eve two different games, and it's it's really great fun. If you're a fan of the Pokemon Gohst series on mobile phones, there's a great way to take some of that experience and bring it in an Nintendo Switch.

There's also a new accessory you can get called the poke Ball. This acts as a controller. I played with it. It's really fun. It's fifty dollars and if your kids love the game, they're definitely gonna want this too.

The poke Ball plus controller. It gives you that immersive feel because you feel like you're actually throwing throwing the poke ball to catch Pokemon out in the wild. It's really fun experience, not just the form factor of the control, but the way it lights up and vibrates and is really fun to interact. You can also take it out of the home with you and level up your Pokemon

Next up, Super Smash Brothers Ultimate. This is a game with a pretty simple concept. You choose a character and you battle it out with another character or a bunch of characters.

You play in all these different worlds.

Your goal is to push the other players off the edge of these floating sort of battle areas they have. And the cool part, there are a bunch of characters you can be, including Nintendo and Nonendo. So think Mario versus pac Man versus Sonic versus all kinds of characters from all these fun little games, and all the characters have powers inspired by their personalities.

And although it's a battle, it's all in good fun. There's no blood or gore.

Super Smash Brother's Ultimate, I mean it's ultimate. You know, every fighter that's ever been in the series is back in this game, coming out December seventh, where we are so excited for this, and so are a lot of fans. People can't wait to play this.

And finally, my personal favorite and the game my seven year old cannot stop playing Super Mario Party.

This is like a board.

Game that you play on TV, and it makes great use of the JOYCN controllers.

You play all these fun.

Little challenge games they call mini games, and you're doing all kinds of weird stuff, like one of them is where you flip a pan.

To perfectly cook a steak. Another one you're running from all the bad guys.

And there's just a ton of these little games that you play and they're all fun. They make great use of the JOYCN controller as well.

Super Mario Party it's a great game to gather with friends and family, sit around, you know. It's it's a kind of game that anybody can pick up and play. You can play it. You can play with mom, dad, grandma, you know, your buddies, whatever, whatever you like to do. And then there's also an option you could play some of these mini games online, so you have a lot of ways to play that game as well.

This is my pick.

If you want a great game, the entire family can gather around the TV and play after holiday dinner. But if you want to use all four players at the same time, you know the max that can play, be sure to pick up an extra set of JOYCN controllers

And if you don't have a switch just yet, you can still get one of those.

We have a special bundle that's out, a Fortnite bundle that comes with a Nintenda switch and about about forty dollars worth of goodies for the game. So if you don't have a Nintendo switch yet, that's certainly a great way to get involved.

Keep in mind games are a bit different these days. You don't necessarily have to go to the store to find it in the box. You can of course still buy the retail version, or you can always just download these games right to the switch. And if you can't decide, there's always a gift card if you're stock.

If you're looking for that gift for somebody that's hard to find, you have a gamer in your family, there's always a Nintendo Shop the E card so you can so you can you can get gift cards. People go out to the Nintendo E Shop and pick whatever game they'd like.

There you have it.

Nintendo's holiday games always a great gift if you know someone that's into video games. Now, I personally don't play as much as I used to, but I will admit I definitely played Super Mario Odyssey which is also a great choice, by the way, if your kid doesn't already have it. But it's amazing to see how my kid is playing these games and how kind of obsessed he is with these things, just the way I was when I was his age. But I do think it's a good time to go into those switch.

Settings and maybe set some daily play limits. Probably a good idea. Thanks so much for listening.

You can find more information about these games on the website.

Just go to Rich on tech dot tv.

There you can also watch my TV segment and see me playing some of these games, and you can get more information on pricing and availability.

And thanks so much for listening to the podcast.

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They'll all do some good. I'm Rich Demiro. I'll talk to you real soon.