The best Christmas gifts for gamers and movie lovers

Anyone interested in the history of video games can learn a lot from The Console Chronicles, which covers every system from the Magnavox Odyssey (1972) to the Nintendo Switch (2017). The book is organized by generation, allowing you to see how a specific company’s hardware evolved or gain a sense of what all the major players were doing during any given time period.

Lego delivered a gigantic dose of nostalgia with a near-perfect replica of Nintendo’s 1989 handheld. The 421-piece set captures the Game Boy’s many buttons, grilles, and curves remarkably well, while the lenticular screen inserts give the illusion of a working unit. It even comes with several brick-ified cartridges you insert into a slot in the back.

Govee’s Sync Box 2 is a two-piece lighting kit that consists of a color-changing light strip and a breakout box with four HDMI 2.1 ports, which can pass up to 8K resolution at 60Hz or 4K at 120Hz. The strip changes color in real time based on what you’re watching or playing, making it a great way to add some AI-generated pizzazz to your home theater setup.

Wes Anderson’s directing style is so distinct that it’s spawned a series of books dedicated to its aesthetic. The Wes Anderson Archive collects all of his films from Bottle Rocket through The French Dispatch in a single box set. The 20-disc trove includes every film on Blu-ray and 4K Blu-ray, plus more than 25 hours of special features and 10 illustrated booklets containing essays and interviews.

There are alternatives that don’t cost nearly as much as the One, but Xreal’s glasses offer some of the best performance you can get in a pair of AR shades. They connect to your phone and some handheld gaming PCs via USB-C, and once connected, you can use them as an external monitor for gaming or watching movies.

Perfect for the friend who games on iPhone and streams on repeat, Apple Gift Card is the ultimate entertainment upgrade. It can be used for App Store greats, in-app purchases, and your favorite subscription services, making it a flexible pick for anyone who loves their screen time.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 breaks the mold of classic RPGs. The story is just as grandiose and gripping as the best Final Fantasy games, but by allowing you to dodge and parry every enemy attack, it flips more traditional turn-based combat on its head. Then there’s the score and visually striking world, both of which are just as refreshing to behold.

The Backbone Pro might be the most flexible controller out there. Like prior models, the USB-C gamepad lets you play games on your iPhone or Android device using physical buttons, joysticks, and triggers. The Pro model takes things one step further, however, allowing you to connect to everything from a Steam Deck to an iPad over Bluetooth.

Thanks to an excellent combo of power and portability, Asus’ latest ROG Zephyrus G14 is the gaming laptop to beat. It’s thin and light enough to shove in a backpack, yet powerful enough to tackle modern games at the highest settings. Its 14-inch, 120Hz OLED screen is fast and easy on the eyes, too, making it a great everyday laptop.

Sucker Punch’s follow-up to Ghost of Tsushima is everything you could want in a sequel. The open-world revenge epic brims with fluid combat and a host of welcome narrative twists, all set against the gorgeous backdrop of Japan’s Edo period. It’s precisely the type of game photo modes were made for, even if you never use them.

The first 15 Godzilla films, initially released between 1954 and 1975, were once considered the gold standard for monster movies. If you haven’t seen them yet, Criterion has packaged them in a single Blu-ray set that’s loaded with special features, including interviews, audio commentary, and a 1986 documentary featuring archival making-of footage.

If you’re shopping for a console gamer, the Nintendo Switch 2 hits all the right marks. It boasts a spacious 7.9-inch display, a comfortable design, and backward compatibility with most OG Switch titles, some of which have even been updated to run at higher resolutions and frame rates. Just don’t forget to grab a copy of Mario Kart World or the new Donkey Kong game to go with it.

Metroid Prime 4 is still a first-person adventure game like prior entries in the series, but this time around, bounty hunter Samus Aran is armed with a motorcycle and a slate of psychic powers. Not all of the new gameplay elements work, but Beyond is a fitting follow-up to what came before, with a lore-heavy story, great combat, and plenty of eerie exploration.

Streaming might be convenient, but 4K Blu-ray discs offer far more detail thanks to their lack of compression. Panasonic’s DP-UB420 lets you tap into a vast catalog of Blu-ray titles with support for HDR10 Plus, HLG HDR, and uncompressed DSD audio. It also supports a bevy of streaming apps, as well as both Alexa and Google Assistant.

Silksong is the long-awaited sequel to one of the most lauded Metroidvanias of all time. It’s an unrelenting game that requires patience, often requiring you to replay sections in an effort to learn how to defeat a boss or avoid a pesky hazard. You may have to take breaks, but the beauty of Silksong is that it often inspires you to give tough sections “just one more try.”

If your TV struggles to run streaming apps well (or at all), consider Onn’s 4K Streaming Device. It supports Dolby Vision HDR and all your favorite apps via the Google TV interface, from Netflix and Disney Plus to YouTube. Recommendations are pulled from across services, and you can even use Google Assistant to search for shows and movies using your voice instead of the remote.

The AirFly Pro 2 can amp up the sound quality of in-flight entertainment, making it a handy tool for frequent travelers. The long-lasting Bluetooth adapter can sync with two pairs of wireless earbuds or headphones at once, allowing you and a partner to share a movie, a podcast, or music without relying on the subpar earbuds most airlines provide.

Final Fantasy Tactics may be a remake of a beloved classic, but that doesn’t mean your giftee needs to have played the original to enjoy the recent tactical RPG. The grid-based combat is terrific, the new voice acting is even more expressive, and the retooled UI is a welcome upgrade. You can even switch to a “classic version” that’s more faithful to the PlayStation original if you’re not a fan of the modern glow-up.

The G309 is an inexpensive, dual-mode wireless gaming mouse that punches well above its weight. It’s equipped with the same Hero 25K sensor and hybrid optomechanical switches found on pricier models, along with up to 600 hours of runtime over Bluetooth. It’s also the cheapest Powerplay mouse you can get, if you want to skip the whole charging thing altogether.

The irony of Blue Prince is that knowing as little as possible about it is what makes it great. The puzzle title’s central mystery plays second fiddle to the clever gameplay, which has you work your way through all 45 rooms in your uncle’s magical mansion, one architectural puzzle after another. Just be sure to keep an actual notebook nearby. You’re gonna need it.

I’m sorry, but Donkey Kong Bananza is the first killer exclusive for the Switch 2, not Mario Kart World. The game’s crowning achievement is its destructible environments, which you can crash and smash your way through as you collect gems. And don’t worry, you’ll still use DK’s fists to clock plenty of foes as you go.

The Mechanism Gaming Pillow helps gamers stay comfortable for hours on end. Made from soft, high-performance Lycra, it holds tech up so their arms don’t have to, letting them play longer without arm strain. It also comes with a mount to accommodate one of many gaming handhelds, from the Steam Deck and Switch 2 to the ROG Ally X.

The Quest 3S is the best VR headset for most people, full stop. It can tap into a large library of games on its own — including Resident Evil 4, Beat Saber, and the excellent Batman: Arkham Shadow — or you can pair it with a more powerful gaming PC, significantly expanding the number of plausible VR titles.

Piggyback’s insightful Metroid retrospective is a 210-page hardcover book full of concept art from the venerable GameCube and Wii trilogy, as well as notes from producer Kensuke Tanabe. The thoughtful (but candid) notes offer a behind-the-scenes look at each game’s development, including the frequent tension between Retro Studios and Nintendo.

Marathon gaming sessions are less fun when your wrists hurt. The Asus ROG Falcata is a compact, ergonomic split keyboard with an ultrafast polling rate that also lets you adjust the actuation point of each Hall effect key by as little as a hundredth of a millimeter. It connects over USB-C, or wirelessly via Bluetooth or the included 2.4GHz adapter.

Pokémon Legends: Z-A is the first game in the main series with a real-time battling system instead of the traditional turn-based formula. You’re still catching pokémon, leveling up, trading, and battling in the game’s Paris-inspired setting, but the more action-oriented battles and smooth performance (on the Nintendo Switch 2) are very welcome.

Half the fun of online gaming is being able to coordinate your strategy — well, that and (lightly) dunking on your friends. Sony’s latest InZone headset boasts some of the same hardware as the company’s stellar XM6 headphones, meaning you’re getting fantastic ANC in addition to a wealth of refined, gamer-centric features.

Lego and Nintendo partner quite often, but the Soda Jungle Maker Set is probably one of their more unique collabs in recent memory. The 598-piece kit features iconic baddies from the Super Mario games instead of Nintendo’s titular Italian plumber, allowing a Shy Guy, Piranha Plant, and Wiggler to take center stage for once.

The newest Tony Hawk remake offers improved graphics, better controls, more skaters, and the ability to customize goals via an in-game course creator. THPS4 even features two-minute goals in the style of the first three entries, rather than the open-ended nature of the original, resulting in a best-of-both-worlds situation.

If you subscribe to Apple Arcade, an Apple TV 4K can effectively double as both a mini gaming console and one of the best streaming devices you can buy. With it, you can connect a Bluetooth controller like the PlayStation 5’s DualSense, thus allowing games that were initially developed for PC / consoles to be played on the big screen for which they were designed.