 Happy holidays everybody No, you know what? It's not Christmasy enough Hey, Merry Christmas. Well happy holidays. Whatever, you know, whatever, you know, how Hanukkah and everything All of them. All of them. As I was saying, happy holidays everybody. I'm so excited This is another Nintendo Switch holiday buying guide to help the mums and the dads and the grandmas when they're going out to the Game stops and buying little Timmy and Jimmy video games And they don't know what to get because there's so much to choose from I mean this year There's like 50 Pokemon games on the shelf my buying guide videos weirdly get people jolly They get they get people ready to be in the season of Christmas the holidays Whatever you celebrate, but I do specifically try and just focus on physical releases I don't think many mums and dads are browsing the e-shop looking for presents We're about half a decade into the switches release now and there are thousands of video games So this time I have really tried hard to just call the list down back to the band Assessities the games that you actually should be needing to buy and the ones that you should be needing to avoid last thing before We get started. I gotta tell you how this works to start with we have the 50 to 60 dollar games Then you have your 30 to 40 dollar games Then finally you have your 10 to 20 dollar games or three of those tears have brackets as well We have the must-buy category the maybe buy and the avoid also I want to add I go by the new prices for video games I don't go by sales or pre-owned because that really starts to skew things and make things confusing It goes without saying if I recommend a game That's like $40 and you find it for $10 buy that let's get started with all the physical games again No digital games in fact if you want to buy any digital games online this holiday season a good tip I do have a good buying guide tip. I have is to download a honey. This video is sponsored by PayPal honey I'm not kidding when I say my biggest tip for online shopping this holiday season whether it's video games or otherwise is To have honey on your PC or phone PayPal honey is the number one shopping tool in America to put this as simple as possible Honey will search for promo codes at checkout so you don't have to it works for things that you're already Buying on a lot of websites. You're already using and it's just fun because you don't have to do anything But when it pops up and says hey, do you want to save 10 20 bucks? Yeah I can almost guarantee you you'll save money this holiday season if you get it and how do you get it? Well, you just go to go to join honey.com forward slash beat em ups. That's it. It's completely free It's easy to add just going there getting this free app saving money will help support this channel Let's get started. I'm gonna start with all the 50 to 60 dollar games in the must buy category to start I'm gonna go through all the new games that came out this year So until I let you know we're in the older games. These are all brand new games first up the big blockbuster game of this holiday season is Pokemon scarlet and violet only released about a week or two ago So chances are whoever you're buying for doesn't have this yet Unless they're a huge Pokemon fan and they got it day one again That's scarlet and violet don't get them confused with the older Pokemon games sword and shield Which are about two or three years old now all you need to worry about is scarlet and violet this Christmas There is one warning here It is a giant internet meme right now that these games run terribly. They're buggy They're glitchy, but it's Pokemon and it's still a ton of fun and your kid isn't going to care That's the reality moving on there is another Pokemon game that released in January of this year It's called Pokemon Legends Arceus This is a different style of Pokemon game over scarlet and violet where they gave you free open world freedom of throwing your Pokeball around and catching whatever Pokemon you can find. This is also a fantastic Pokemon game So if you decide to grab both of these your kids gonna have hundreds of hours between these two games If I had to recommend a Pokemon game out of the two, I would stick with scarlet and violet just because it's the newest one Moving away from Pokemon. We have Kirby Kirby released earlier this year. It is a fantastic action adventure platformer style game It's kid-friendly. It's adult-friendly. It's just a ton of fun If whoever you're buying for loved games like Mario Odyssey, they're going to love Kirby in the forgotten land We had a new Splatoon game released this year another game That's good for kids good for adults if your kid loves playing like multiplayer shooter style games But you don't want to give them fortnight a pull-of-duty because Understandable lean maybe towards Splatoon 3. It's a shooter, but you shoot paint. It's just a little ink and it's just It's fun It's a multiplayer game online, but there's no way of talking to any of the people you're playing with You don't have to worry about them communicating with weirdos All of this is done very intentionally to beat kid-friendly There is also Splatoon 2 on the switch that released like five years ago So make sure you're getting Splatoon 3, which is the newest one Bayonetta 3 we have a lot of threes this year Bayonetta 3 is the next one this game. It's fantastic. It's an action hack and slash style game It's one of my favorite games on the console if you know somebody that loves anime This is very much that in a video game The next three is Xenoblade 3 if you have someone that you're buying for who loves super long Grindy jrpgs, maybe they're also really into anime and they love the over-the-top action style stuff This is a fantastic game for that and then the last brand new game is kind of brand new It's gonna take some explaining, but it's Monster Hunter Rise Sunbreak. You might see this on the shelf It's $70 and it looks like a brand new game It kind of is and it kind of isn't Monster Hunter Rise without the Sunbreak that came out a few years ago that you'll still find on the shelf Had some extra content added to it that extra content costs about 30 bucks if you already have the game and you go online and Download the rest and that content is called Sunbreak So something they did is they released this DLC with the main game in a full package this year That's what you're seeing here, and it's $70. So if you don't have the base game or this new stuff This is a fantastic deal. I love this game. It's one of my favorites on the console But don't buy it for someone who already has Monster Hunter Rise because they can just go on the e-shop and download the rest for like 30 bucks And save yourself like $40. Okay, that's all the new releases that are full-price that I think are must-buys for this year Here's some more though that I think are just timeless games We have Metroid Dread. I think this game is for all ages But I would lean more towards adolescents and adults for this one purely just because the themes are a little spooky Mario Party Superstars. This is the one to get right now It takes a bunch of the old Mario parties that were really good and remakes all of it to be brand new It's just fantastic Super Mario 3d world and Bowser's Fury and Mario Odyssey are the two Traditional Mario games to get and make sure you have Mario Odyssey first, but then definitely get that Bowser's Fury as well Of course, we have games like Zelda Breath of the Wild I still think that's the one game to have I would get rid of all of this and keep that one Game if I had if I had no choice. That's the one Super Smash Brothers. It's a fighting game for all ages It brings characters from Minecraft and Animal Crossing and Zelda and Mario all into one big fighting game And I'm sure you've heard of it. Why am I explaining it? Animal Crossing is a great game to get anybody But I would say especially your partner even casual gamers that don't really play games that often can end up falling in love with a Game like Animal Crossing. Also, there's a ton of really great DLC that you can go on to the e-shop and buy later If you want to add even more hours to the gameplay Luigi's Mansion 3 Mario Kart 8 It's Mario Kart Fire Emblem 3 houses is still so worth the money I always throw this on here and a lot of people might disagree with me with it But Mario Kart home circuit if I was a kid and you bought me a remote controlled Mario Kart That's real that I can control with my Nintendo switch and it actually works in a Mario Kart game and augmented reality And I could build tracks around my house. That would be the best Christmas ever. I'm not wrong Okay, that is all the must-buy games if you're buying a game in this price range You got to grab one of those in my opinion But if you still want to hang out in this price range and you don't want to get any of those There's still a ton of fantastic games you could buy. Maybe they already have all those games You're a great parent or you really love the switch if you're buying for yourself A lot of these were in must-buy last year, but now they're a year old and they've kind of just trickled down into maybe So let's take a look the first game is a perfect example of why a lot of these are in maybe and that's live alive This game is fantastic, but it's a old-school JRPG game that got remastered in a fantastic art style and it's just so specific to Summoned probably an older audience who grew up with RPGs and might enjoy playing a new revamped version of one JRPGs in general can be very specific to a person. So are games like triangle strategy or tactics ogre reborn for the same reason I definitely wouldn't buy these for a kid purely because it's just a lot of reading and a lot of strategy and kids Just kind of like that shoot stuff fire emblem warriors blend strategy and fast-paced action And is really fun, but it's a prequel sequel kind of tie-in with the fire emblem three houses game I talked about in the last section So I think there is a prerequisite here of having kind of needed to play that first one You don't really need to but in my opinion it makes it more enjoyable dragon quest treasures looks like a game I might enjoy but it comes out on the 9th of December if you have a dragon quest fan in the house Maybe grab on that persona five royal is a JRPG and one of the best games You'll ever play on the switch or elsewhere thing is it released several years back and now it's ported to the Nintendo switch So maybe the person you're buying for has already played this game just double check that before you grab it But I love this Mario and rabbit sparks of hope is a strategic turn-based style Mario game I put this in maybe because this is not a traditional Mario game But it does have a lot of charm and a lot of spunk and I liked the last one a lot more than this one I don't know why I put Nickelodeon cart races three in here I can never recommend a racing cart game when there's Mario Kart 8 But if you just have a cart fanatic in your house that loves cart games and they're sick of Mario Kart This game isn't bad no man's sky released on the switch this year And I think it's fantastic and fun for all ages and can sink hundreds of hours into this Minecraft style game But based on planets and flying around space But before releasing on switch this year it already came out on Xbox and PlayStation and PC So make sure they don't have it there already And if they have one of those you can buy it there instead because it's probably much cheaper finally in this category for new games Released this year. We have Nintendo switch sports And I really debated on if I was going to put this in the maybe or the avoid There's definitely way better ways to spend your money And if you're buying for just one person to play a game on their own Like little Timmy or Jimmy is going to go to their bedroom and play this game This is a horrible game to buy this is definitely a multiplayer game a couch family game And not something to replace a Mario or a Zelda if you're gonna play as a family if mom dad Timmy and Jimmy I keep referencing Timmy and Jimmy and this family like it's a real family if you're gonna play this as a family game I mean it has bowling it has tennis if you played we sports, you know what you in for I think it's overpriced I really do I can't put it in avoid when I think there is fun to be had here with a group But that's all the new games this year in the maybes if you want to dive into some older games that have been on Switch the last several years here are some more maybes and I'm not gonna repeat myself too much But a lot of these are maybes because of what I just said. They're getting a bit old Pokemon sword and shield I can't say avoid but scarlet and violet is new and other than some performance issues I think better new Pokemon snap. This is a fantastic on rails game where you go around taking pictures of Pokemon It's a lot more fun than it sounds, but it's not the core Pokemon games Pokemon brilliant diamond and shining pearl. I would say avoid personally for my taste I don't think there's any reason to buy these but they're there for a Pokemon fanatic that has all of them And for some reason not these monster hunter stories to definitely great for a younger audience I think that game is so much fun Pikmin 3 shimigami tensi 5 another very core JRPG game Mario golf and Mario tennis. It's Mario sports games Hyrule Warriors age of calamity It tells a full prequel story with voice acting and animated cutscenes for breath of the wild in the warrior style of hack and slash Killing hundreds of enemies at once don't get it confused with the other Hyrule Warriors game on switch That isn't as good don't even worry about it If you want something more text-based that you just read a lot and then do more term-based battles the new paper Mario I didn't like it But a lot of people loved it if you want to play a more old-school styles out a game That's been remade in gorgeous art style links awaken Super Mario maker 2 I still think ash your chain is worth the money highly recommend it ring fit is literally the only fitness video game I've played that's fun and will shred the weight off of you kind of a maybe gift because you know if someone has an Asked for it and you give them ring fit. There might be some implications there I'm saying you might look like the bad guy, but it is actually really good If you want to catch up on the new Xenoblade you can get Xenoblade 1 and 2 I will always recommend doki-kong country even though it was a Wii U game And it's still $60 it is still one of the best side-scrolling platformers of all time And then you got Diablo 3 Skyrim Witcher 3 doom and doom eternal These are all games that run look and play pretty great on the switch But they're gonna be $60 and you can get them for free a lot of places now like Xbox I mean it's your money good news We're almost done with the expensive games and better news You don't have to buy these next ones. These are the ones you should stay away from first up We have two games that came out this year that are still full price The first one is Mario Strikers Battle League earlier in the year when this was revealed I tried to warn everybody that it looked bad What are people didn't believe me and it released and now everyone is going to agree with me that you should Stay away from this especially at full price It'll entertain you for like five minutes and then Digimon survive this game is not what you think it is It's burned a lot of people this game might look like and market itself as a tactics term-based RPG style game But it is eighty ninety five percent a graphic novel game Which is just a lot of reading and making decisions in text for like 40 hours. It's not good I have moved me topia into the avoid because it's still $60 And I think that's insane for a game that released on 3ds like 10 years ago and really didn't add that much for the switch port I had it in the maybe last year I kind of hope nobody bought it because I would feel terrible if the one game you got on Christmas this year under your tree in Your stocking was me topia. That's why it's in a void I can't even put it in maybe same reason actually for warrior where get it together in the past I felt bad putting games in a void because it sounded like I was saying they're bad games Neither of these games are bad at all. Don't buy them for Christmas Splatoon 2. I already talked about it But Splatoon 2 just get the third one GDA trilogy. It's like the only GDA. Let me actually let me do this less Australian Trilogy you're welcome. What a waste of money Super Mario Party remember Mario Party superstars Don't get confused and get the wrong one the labo kits. They're just a bunch of cardboard Kirby star allies I put this in a void every year because it's like two hours long arms one to switch WWE 2k8 team. That's it. That's all the avoids now We get to do all that again with the 30 to 40 dollar game starting with the new games that came out this year in Must buy and there's only one, you know, I realized as I was cut me my cat's yelling at me If I talk any louder than this he will run away you hate when I get loud You also love sitting under a Christmas tree and he just realized there's a new one. Oh, he is in his element I only got that camera on just in time to see him walk away, but he was checking it out You know, I realized as I was putting together this list We didn't get that many physical releases of games this year a lot of things went digital only the only Indie game that did a physical release that I would say is a must buy is cold of the land It's kind of rogue like it also has some sim management kind of like animal crossing other than that in must buy We have some standouts that just every year. I like to recommend stardew valley is a staple game for the switch Hades is one of my favorite games of all time It's a rogue like action style game and then overcooked one and two the double pack. All right Let's dive into the maybe buy. I got to be honest though I love pretty much all of these games and I think a lot of these are must buy to start We have sonic frontiers. Yes, believe it or not. That's not in the $60 price range It's already shot down to about 30 to 40 dollars I'm saying maybe because it's not the our best game ever made I actually have a whole review where I went really in depth with my thoughts and you can check that out separately If you want to watch it, but I still think it's a lot of fun and a sonic fan would definitely enjoy it near Automata came out on switch this year I think it's worth every single penny, but it is about a 10-year-old game So make sure the person you're buying for wants this We had a couple of new TMNT games this year There was the Kawabunga collection, which is a collection of all the old Turtles games I want to say don't get that confused with TMNT shredders revenge Which is the brand new turtle game that a lot of people are loving this year And if for some reason somebody's asked you for a Turtles game and you don't know which one it was It's most likely this new one. I mean they are both new, but the other ones old new Unpacking gets a physical release on the 16th of December I want to recommend this because if you have somebody that loves animal crossing for example And you don't really know what to buy them for Christmas unpacking has a similar cozy vibe It might help with stress crisis core Final Fantasy 7 remake launches on switch on the 13th of this month Somebody that might like Final Fantasy or they really enjoyed Final Fantasy 7 remake Cuphead gets a physical release on the 6th probably already played Cuphead But if they want to have it in their collection Or maybe if you want to challenge somebody that you know to play this game co-op with you and try and beat it It's one of the hardest games in the world. A lot of people seem to really love potion permit They say it has like Stardew Valley vibes I actually haven't played this one But I wanted to put it here because it's big right now and it's on a lot of shelves at GameStop It takes two is a game that released two years ago, but now it's on switch This is a great one to get somebody that hasn't played it yet It's a co-op game and you could only play it in co-op so you need two people You cannot play it on your own Don't buy this game if you have like an only child unless you're gonna play it with them And that would just be so sweet You only need one copy of the game and then on your other switch You can download it for free and link both of them up and you can play co-op on two different switches again For animal crossing fans. We have story of seasons. So story of seasons is like animal crossing It's like harvest moon, but this one is new and it has an added element of the Doraemon character I don't know who that is if you do this might be interesting to you Dragon Ball breakers. It's like that one game Dead by daylight, but if it was Dragon Ball life is strange Arcadia Bay collection This is all the life is strange games again if you're buying this for someone they probably asked for it And then temtem this one's interesting It's hard to recommend when we just have Pokemon because this game is supposed to be like somebody else's answer to Pokemon You can play it co-op. It's very traditional old-school really hard version of Pokemon I don't think it's not worth it. But I mean don't buy it over Pokemon. That's all the new games Let's go through the rest that I think these are just a lot of games that have been out for a while They've dropped in price I think all of these are worth it for one reason or another Zelda Skyward Sword HD It's not the Zelda to get but it's still a Zelda get Breath of the Wild no more heroes three I almost put this in a void, but I know there are fans of the series and somebody might still be waiting to play it Persona 5 Strikers This is a Warriors game like Hyrule Warriors and Fire Emblem Warriors where you beat up a ton of enemies But it's set in the Persona universe, but it's a sequel to Persona 5 So make sure they've played Persona 5 first otherwise you might get spoilers for that game Dying Light is one of the most impressive ports on the console And I will always recommend it for player co-op zombie punch-in action Dragon Ball Z Kakarot, Ninokuni 2, the Pokemon Let's Go games are $45 now These are remakes of the original Pokemon games in a gorgeous art style They're very kid-friendly They even introduced the ability to like throw Pokeballs like in Pokemon Go the mobile app Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Again, it's nothing like normal Pokemon games. There are so much Pokemon on the switch right now Immortals Phoenix Rising I'd still think this game is worth its price, but I've seen it drop as low as $20 This game is made to be pretty much a clone of Breath of the Wild Don't buy it instead of a Zelda, but if you know someone that loved Breath of the Wild This could be a good addition. Yeez 9 is a great JRPG, Spiritfarer, Octopath Traveler, Cruisin' Blast Subnautica Double Pack. It's like Minecraft but underwater. I will always recommend World War Z It's another zombie game. You can play with three other friends. Cadence of Hyrule Clubhouse Games 51 is apparently Scott the was his favorite game on Switch It's just 51 little mini games like Blackjack and and diet diet. I don't know. He likes it Minecraft Minecraft Dungeons, you know Blade Torna 2, Hollow Knight, Moonlighter, Dead Cells, Undertale And for the first time I've actually bumped something up I've taken Ark out of the avoid category that it's been in every year so far and I've put it in maybe I still wouldn't buy it over a lot of these other games, but it's not an avoid anymore because they fixed it I made a whole video about that actually you can go and watch so avoiding this year We have a few games that are free. So Overwatch 2 released this year It was a very confusing mess for me and a lot of people where they took the first Overwatch and they just added a bunch of stuff to it and then made it free So if you have the first game already, you can just start playing Overwatch 2. If you don't have the first game already You never paid for it. It's okay You can just get the second one now for free But back when you could pay for it They released physicals and that physical the Overwatch legendary edition is still $40. Just download it for free That also goes for two other games and I say this every year Fortnite every year around holiday season Fortnite likes to put out a new physical in the past They've done like the minty edition cost $30 to buy fortnight a game You can just download for free and then this year There's a new anime legends collection that they've brought out don't buy that either Just bear it's free and Rocket League the physical is still $40 and it's still free Don't buy any of these games among us even made a physical this year. I'm not saying don't buy it But don't buy it. It's like $30 in the store or it's like $5 online I was a little harsh this year to bravely default to I put that in a void I think there are much better JRPGs to buy this year if somebody has asked for it. That's different I just can't recommend it overcooked one and two I keep recommending them But I also like to make sure everybody knows if you're buying it physical by the double pack that actually have the games in it I also moved sonic colors ultimate down here now in a void because why is it still $40 and we have sonic frontiers now Which I would recommend over that little town hero. It just wasn't that fun Damon X Mark and it just wasn't that fun Oh, and that's it for the avoid for that category. Let's move on to the 10 to $20 Everybody's favorite budget games. So Eastwood had a physical release and I've been seeing it for $20 I think anybody could pick this up and have a ton of fun It's a pixel art style game, but it has so much to offer. It was inspired by games like earthbound It kind of has a similar story to like last of us the exploration and the visuals the music everything about this game is Fantastic and just for this price. I think it's worth the gamble no matter who you're buying for That's my only must buy actually because that's the only thing that came out this year that I think is worth that price Not many physical releases this year, but also not many brand new games come out at $10 But we have a bunch of maybes games that drop down in price over the last year or so game builder garage is down to 2025 a lot of people say to avoid this one I still think if you have a kid who's really into making things and wants to be a game developer or designer And they always talk about that this could be something really cool for them It kind of gives them basic game building tools that can mess around with it's not super in-depth But it's still really cool and gets the gears turning and might inspire them to do cooler things later Nick all-stars brawl I've seen that as low as $20 crash Bandicoot 4 crash insane trilogy and the Spyro trilogy have all dipped down to about $20-25 Tony Hawk 1 and 2 has dropped down to $20-25 now Super Monkey Ball mania had a price drop and then you still just have some games like goose game original Mario and Rabbids Dragon Ball Fighter Z also Wonderful 101 is probably the cheapest first party Nintendo game you can get it's kind of like Pikmin 3 And it's all the way down at $15 right now, and I can't believe we've made it here We're at the avoids games that even for $10 you'd still be wasting your money WWE battlegrounds. Wow these wrestling games can't catch a break on the switch I really hope a good one was coming looking at you AEW fight forever troll and I carnival games One of them games like Balan Wonderworld, which is also a game to avoid both of these games are games that just they look like Something that might be fun, and then you play them Don't Travis strikes again so uninspired and boring the outer worlds while it runs Okay has probably got to be the ugliest looking switch port in my mind I was like is it Alan wake 2 but Alan wake 2 looks bad and runs really bad the performance is awful at least outer worlds plays Okay, it's just is it is truly hideous. All right, sorry to end on a bad note But that's the buying guide this year I have shuffled so much stuff around from other years mostly because a lot of prices change this year But also my opinions on things and then newer releases really shuffle things around even more when a new Pokemon game comes out It just shuffles all the others down the line. I have to find other places to put them I hope this list and this video has helped you this holiday season I would love to hear who's watching these and how it's helping you because it just blows my mind every year I get so many views so many people say they look forward to them. I want to know how did it help you? I have a ton more videos coming out So please subscribe like the video and if you decide to only watch this video You're probably not even watching anymore, but if you do leave and never come back I hope you have a happy holiday. I hope whatever it's Christmas, Hanukkah, whatever you're celebrating have a good one I'll see you next year for the next buying guide when you need my help again You're ungrateful. No, I'm kidding. Merry Christmas. Whatever happy holidays, and I'll And it's coming