Let’s shop together! We’ve got what we hope is a nice list of gift ideas for the Most Wonderful Time of the Year: 3DS stuff, Vita stuff, Wii U stuff, and some nice extras for the tiny game fan in your life. Even if that person is you.

Of course, for some things it’s hard to ignore the big releases, but wherever possible we’ve attempted to highlight somewhat less widely known stuff, so you have a better chance of getting something your friend doesn’t already have five of. 

Nintendo 3DS Games

• Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer + New 3DS Bundle: A bit pricey on the gift scale, especially considering the recipient will want faceplates later, but I want one!
• Hatsune Miku Project Mirai DX: Not just for Miku fans. In fact, the catchy music, cute decorating game, and variety of activities have made me a Miku fan.
• The Legend of Legacy: It would be a SaGa game, but Square wasn’t around to publish it.
• Yo-kai Watch: All the world’s ills are caused by mischievous spirits, and you can be their friend!
• eShop Prepaid Cards: Virtual Console games, eShop exclusives, and– to be just as real as I can be for a minute– a few plays on the Nintendo Badge Arcade.

PS Vita Games

• The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel: The Vita followup to the brilliant PSP RPG series from Falcom. Not… technically out yet…
• Code:Realize: How cool is it that you have so many otome visual novels to choose from? This one is highlighted, but there’s also Norn9,Amnesia, and… 
• Steins;Gate: Time-traveling visual novel; the semicolon probably won’t even look weird after you play it.
• Persona 4 Dancing All Night: Disco Fever edition: The game itself is okay, but the music and style are beyond compare. And that style is why we’re highlighting the beautiful special edition.
• Buy a PSN card: You can get retail games, plus PSN-only releases, PS1 classics, etc. I guess you can buy avatars and junk too.

Nintendo 3DS Accessories

• New 3DS Cover Plates: If you have the New 3DS (non-XL), you can change its style in dozens of ways.
• Retro Plate & Watch: Not an official Cover Plate, but better! Because it has a totally pointless time/date display!
• Jibanyan Character Pouch: It’s a ghost cat head for your 3DS!
• Tiny Cartridge stickers: Still available! Still the best thing you could possibly adhere to another thing.

PS Vita Accessories

• Card case: You’re probably never going to have more than 8 retail Vita games; this thing holds them all.
• Memory Card: The must-have Vita accessory.
• PlayStation Plus: The must-have Vita service.
• PlayStation TV: The, uh… surprisingly cheap Vita system!

Wii U stuff

• Splatoon: It’s hard to ignore this game. It’s big, and it’s mainstream, but it’s also about fashionable teens shooting ink at each other with squirt guns?
• Super Mario Maker: Since you can now guide Game Center CX host Shinya Arino through nightmares of your own (or your kids’) device, this is now the new Retro Game Challenge.
• Shovel Knight: You have this, but do you have it in a box? With a beautiful full-color manual?
• Splatoon Protector: In the long run, it’s a lot cheaper than splashing your GamePad with paint.

Toys and amiibo

• Amiibo card folio: Your cutest Animal Crossing cards ready to be deployed.
• Yarn Yoshi amiibo: Tiny Cartridge Official Pick for softest amiibo (within normal amiibo sizes)
• Nendoroid Shiren, Link (Majora’s Mask version), and Mega Man: Really any one of these. Or all of these.
• Splatoon Squid Cushions: You’re a kid now, you’re a squid now, you’re a tasteful but whimsical decorative cushion now.
• Amiibo stands: We love the Warp Pipe stand and the End Level Display.

Apparel

• Blast Processing: Game Paused blows up a Mega Drive for the sake of fashion.
• Gaming’s Feminist Illuminati: $4 of every purchase of one of these goes to Girls Make Games! The shirt goes to you! Everybody wins.
• Passing Breeze: A timeless Outrun design by.Lamar Abrams, reprinted and available on Amazon alongside more Meat Bun classics.
• Midnight Channel: a Persona 4-inspired shirt that only has the smallest of Teddies on it.
• Plaguesplosion: Shovel Knight’s enemy/co-star Plague Knight has taken ALL THE COLORS.

Zines and Books

• Hobonichi “Techo” 2016 Planner: If you haven’t used one of these to 
• Chainmail Bikini: Kickstarted anthology of comics “by and about female gamers!” Previews here.
• Boss Fight Books: Even more explorations of classic games, includingMetal Gear Solid and Spelunky (written by Derek Yu himself!).
• Embed With Games: Cara Ellison dismantled her whole life for a year to become a game culture nomad, documenting the lives and work of game creators all over the world. The least you can do is read it.
• Legends of Localization: I don’t know how much there is to learn about the differences between the Japanese and English versions of NES Zelda, but all of it is in here.

Artwork:

• Gotta Move On!: Triumphant, but awkward, Um Jammer Lammy moment by J.C.T. Holmes.
• Fangamer Beginnings: Just  go HAM in here and turn your home into a gallery.
• The Poké Life: Amazing scenes of a Pokémon-filled life from Matt Rockefeller, available as prints.

Chiptunes/Music

• Street Fighter II The Definitive Soundtrack: Everything from the arcade game, everything, lovingly remastered by Brave Wave.
• Zen Albatross: Sigint: “In this long-awaited transmission, ZEN ALBATROSS summons massive black monoliths of low-fidelity dance floor anxiety. Screaming cassette decks provide air support for slow-building Game Boy drones as waves of radio static and percussive noise hit like Hellfire missiles – an imperfect anthem for our contemporary dystopia.”
• YMCK: Family Dancing: YMCK albums are always just a lovely listen.

Other:

• Omakase box subscription: Anime and manga-themed items, delivered bimonthly. I wouldn’t mind getting one of these! 
• Club Tiny membership: A gift for a friend, and for your friend Tiny. Help sustain our site, and get access to exclusive stuff!