Gift Guide for Gamers and Geeks: Holiday 2016 Edition
By Richard Lynch
Shopping for the holidays can be stressful. With geekdom at an all-time high, there are more options than ever for the gamers in your life. Here’s a handy cheat sheet to help you out with your holiday shopping needs.
Nintendo Entertainment System: NES Classic Edition – $60
If you can manage to get your hands on one of these hot items, you will effectively have won the holidays. Packed with nearly every major game released on the NES from Mario to Zelda, the NES Classic Edition makes the perfect gift for gamers old and new alike. Now all you need to do is find one.
Editors Note Check out the Geeked Gods article on alternative ways to get that NES Classic Experience here
NES Classic Alternatives or how to get 113 more games for the same prices as the Nintendo Classic
Sphero Star Wars BB-8 App Controlled Robot – $130
Who hasn’t wanted to have their very own droid? This mini BB-8 is simply adorable. Available in a variety of looks, the Sphero BB-8 makes a perfect house pet for anybody who isn’t good at taking care of pets. And yeah, it doesn’t really do anything useful but come on, who can say no to something that adorable?
Star Wars R2-D2 Measuring Cup Set – $20
The Exact opposite of the Sphero BB-8, this R2-D2 measuring cup set is distinctly more useful and far less robotic. Certainly, no kitchen would be complete without one of these.
Zelda Monopoly – approx. $30
When it comes to Monopoly, there are those who hate and those who love it. For fans of the classic cutthroat business game, there are tons of fantastic set variants released each year. The Zelda one features lovely art based on a variety of familiar Legend of Zelda locales and beautiful playing pieces based on familiar pieces of gear from the series. Other similar sets include Mario and a variety of Pokémon themes all of which could be perfect for the right person.
Cacodemon Plush – approx. $25
I’m a huge fan of these high-quality plush toys based on popular video game properties. This cacodemon from doom is one of a number based on Bethesda/id properties that would make excellent gifts for fans of any of these games.
Turtle Beach Headsets – $30-$100
Turtle Beach is the king of gaming headset manufacturers. They offer a variety of stereo and surround headsets wired a wireless for every major platform and PC. These are excellent chat headsets, and they have the added benefit of allowing gamers to play without making a ton of noise thanks to their ability to play in game audio.
Funko Pop! – $11
Pretty much every popular brand in the universe has its own Pop! Vinyl figure. If you know what you are looking for, there is almost certainly a mini-plastic version of it and a lot of them have cool, unique designs, like this Overwatch Pop!
This is by no means an exhaustive list, but it should help give you some ideas of where to start. Good luck, have fun, and happy holidays!