Updated on December 1st, 2025 – more gifts!
Christmas is coming, it has been inching closer and closer, so it’s time to start getting gifts for those lovely gamers in your life! As gamers ourselves, we have selected a bunch of different items that might be worth checking out, for the special person in your life with a big gaming collection and lots of geeky stuff around their desk.
Pokémon Battle Spinner Arena Set – Two Battle Spinners with Two Poké Ball Spinner Launchers and Battle Arena
The Pokémon Battle Spinner Arena Set is a fun, fast-paced toy that brings the excitement of head-to-head battles to life, featuring two spinners (Pikachu and Mew), two Poké Ball launchers, and a compact arena.
This officially licensed set is designed for children aged 4 and up, and it captures the thrill of Pokémon clashes in a simple, accessible way. Players load their spinners into the Poké Ball launchers, pull back the winding cord, and press the button to release them into the arena. The result is a lively contest of spinning figures that collide, bounce, and battle until one topples.
The spinners are well-detailed, the launchers easy to use, and the arena keeps the action contained. While the arena could feel sturdier, the set succeeds in delivering quick, repeatable fun that’s perfect for young fans. It’s a playful gift that combines Pokémon’s charm with the timeless appeal of battling tops.
The Vanishing Gambler
We’ve previously reviewed The Mystery Agency – The Vanishing Gambler, and that’s why we can confidently say that it’s a solid gift for fans of deduction-based games. It’s an incredibly solid little puzzle box, with an interesting story and just enough complexity that you don’t breeze through the whole thing.
We loved that it included so many props and puzzles, and that so many of them (like Dice & Chips) matched the theme so well — little more than the padlocked deck of cards that was included in it though!
It’s clear that a lot of deliberate thought and planning went into everything involved, even down to the generous padding that comes with the box and the web-based interface that you’ll use for some of the included puzzles.
A perfect gift if you’ve a family member, or family unit, that’s not afraid of warming up the grey matter and thinking outside of the box.
Warner Bros: Pennywise Cable Guys Original Controller and Phone Holder
Pennywise Cable Guys Controller and Phone Holder is ideal for those who like horror! The holder can easily be set up and you can place your controller on it, making your controller a display piece. If you’ve got a person to give gifts to that has a gamer room that could fit this theme, it’s a fantastic idea, especially as the quality and detail is so good.
Greepz
When I was a kid there was a Carebear alternative made for boys that was simply named ‘Scarebears’ (well, it might have had a Z at the end, rather than an S – that was rather en vogue back then). You see, when it came to kids back then you either made it plain, made it cute or made it gross – in most cases. Greepz falls into the latter, albeit aimed at the modern creepypasta/SCP consuming audience — no dracula, Frankenstein’s monster or mummy here.
They’re little, almost Among Us, shaped teddies in slightly off colours, with rough, abstract, cursed looking faces that make them perfect as an edgy addition to a teenager’s room. In an age of immaculate Funko Pops and high detail Gundams there’s a message being put out there with their strange lenticular, shifting faces and ragdoll-like limbs.
It plainly says “Not recommended for children” on the box, because this is, in fact, a perfect gift for those with a slightly moodier countenance, the teen, the gamer, the outsider.
Brainbolt Genius
The BrainBolt Genius is a compact electronic memory game designed to challenge players aged 7 to, erm… 107, making it a versatile gift for kids, teens, and adults alike.
The device lights up a sequence of buttons that players must replicate, with each round growing progressively harder. It’s simple to learn but surprisingly addictive, testing focus, recall, and reaction speed. The game offers both solo and two-player modes, so you can practice alone or compete head-to-head, and its portable design makes it ideal for travel or quick play sessions at home.
BrainBolt Genius is particularly appealing as a Christmas gift because it blends fun with cognitive exercise, encouraging players to sharpen memory skills while enjoying fast-paced gameplay. Its durability and intuitive controls make it accessible across generations, and the escalating difficulty ensures lasting replay value. It’s a clever puzzle toy that delivers both entertainment and brain training in one neat package.
Taking a classic like Chess and changing the theme to be more familiar like Minecraft can make a fantastic gift for those who are fans of either of the two. Chess is a fairly easy game to learn and gifting a Minecraft Chess set can get your teen or even the adult in your life interested in Chess and working on their brain. This set is extremely high quality and doesn’t feel fragile at all, with lots of details on the various pieces. It’s available from noblecollection.co.uk
Birdy Call
Birdy Call is a cheeky (cheapy?) little game that’s perfect for a group of adults who don’t normally play board games. It’s all about noise, and essentially plays as a matching game albeit with a couple of mischievous extra rules sprinkled in there. Players have to race to clear their hand of cards by making the noises that are on their cards and finding their pair within the room (gaining an egg for each pair) however ‘Pairrot’ cards give points for mimicking your way into a pair and the Hawkward card swoops in to hamper the last player to make a noise before it’s played.
It’s a fun, quick party game which does a great job of using its mating call theme – from the egg-shaped box down to the birdname puns and art that fill each of its cards. An easy gift for the friend who always knows a warm up game ahead of the big board game evening.
Dog Man The Hot Dog Card Game
I don’t know about you, but my house has got a nine year old living in it who absolutely adores Dog Man. The kid-friendly, canine-centric comic has won over her heart and we count a full collection of the books among our home library. Dog Man The Hot Dog Card Game is, in which case, a perfect present for her.
At its core it’s a mixture of memory and reflex game. You’ll spread out the 64 cards, face down, and then players take turns flipping them over. The vast majority of them are Hot Dogs that have been sprayed with the living spray (uh-oh), however, while you’ll need the majority of the Hot Dog cards to win, the action comes into play when Dog Man or Petey shows up. If Petey shows up then all Hot Dogs are flipped back over and Petey is discarded, if Dog Man shows up (or if the last card flipped is a Hot Dog) then players race to snatch up the face-up Hot Dog cards for the win.
It’s an easy to play little thing that’s perfect for all ages, and a great gift for a young Dog Man fan.
Bullseye The Mini Game Board Game
Trivia meets random rolls in Bullseye The Mini Game: A small-scale twist on the darts-based TV show. Players take turns rolling five dice (one ten sided category dice, four six-sided) to emulate the dart tossing of the show and select the categories that they’ll be facing off in.
It’s a really clever use of the theme, and it’s portable enough that it’s an easy game to pack up and take on holidays with you. Especially welcome is the randomisation that comes with using dice to take the place of the dice. Perfect for fans of the show, but also for those who are partial to a pub quiz or a little bit of trivia.
Tamagotchi
Looking around the high street it’s hard to deny that the 90s are coming back into style: chunky trainers, baggy jeans and mini shoulder bags are back in vogue. It’s certainly not how I remember them, but I’m sure people felt the same when the 80s were back not too long ago. One thing that hasn’t really ever gone away is Tamagotchi, the pocket-sized digital pet that was all the rage back then and remains ever popular (especially through its fancy new iterations with internet or zoom wheels).
They’re a perfect little gift for somebody who lived the era (and can’t commit to the whaling of a Furby) but there’s also a nice irony to be found in getting one for somebody a little younger — because there’s quite a nice warmth to the concept of a pet in your pocket, even if it is a super needy and noisy one.
Buying Time
No, this one isn’t about putting a clock on a credit card, or getting a watch with your wallet. Buying Time combines Charades with Push your Lucky mechanics by monetising your win and allowing you to spend that cash on bonus time to guess.
Once you clear your card you’ll get cash rewards based on the number of correct guesses, but those notes can be fed back into the timer machine through an interface, which then gives you more time to work on your team’s cards. However, watch out because there are All or Nothing cards where you’ll have to clear every prompt or walk away with nothing — it’s a game changer, but a real test of teamwork and confidence.It’s a really clever idea, and possibly the best fusion of this time. For a group of players (the ‘South Big Boss Battle Board Game Group’) who end up playing a lot of twists on Charades, I have to say that this one is one of the smartest delivers of it, and almost gives it a gameshow feeling. It is certainly a memorable twist, and great for a family who want to give their parlour games a competitive upgrade.
Pokemon Carry Case Battle Ruins Playset
I’m sure that you’ve seen, and possibly even got a bunch of, the 2″ Pokemon figurines that seem to be everywhere. If you have, then you’re probably wondering what the best way to play with, or position them is. Well, that’s where the Pokemon Battle Ruins Playset comes in, not only is it technically nine different play areas, but it also folds up into a handy backpack, albeit a backpack that you can’t really fit anything extra in… but, still, portable!
Not only are there nine different play areas — all of which are compatible with the other Jazwares range — but they include interactive elements like a launcher, a trap floor and a falling ladder, as well as some double-sided parts. It makes for a great gift for somebody who already has a handful of the figurines (not least because it actually seems to only include the one PIkachu figurine) or for somebody who is about to get a whole bunch for Christmas.
Dog Man Big Jim Begins Roll-O-Rama Dice Game
The Dog Man Big Jim Begins Roll-O-Rama Dice Game is a set collecting game where players race to complete character cards to be the first to get ten points and win. Each player starts with two cards, each showing a character, which includes between one and three related character die faces on it.
The youngest player then rolls the dice onto the table and from there players take turns claiming dice until they either complete a card (in which case they score it, place the scoring dice in the pot, and replace it with a new one) or the dice can no longer complete cards. In the case of the latter, players give up a partially completed card and then reroll the pile. There’s one extra rule, if the player rolls a Roll-o-Rama die then the first person to grab it gets to reroll the stack and take as many dice as they need to finish their cards.
As you can see, it’s incredibly simple, but the artwork (being from the creator of Dog Man) is fantastic and instantly memorable. Gameplay is fast, combining reflexes (in the case of the Roll-O-Rama die) and strategic thinking, regarding the order you pick up the die. It’s a great gift for younger kids, but especially for fans of the Dog Man series.
The White Castle Duel
If you’re looking for a relatively short Eurogame that’s all about worker placement, then why not cast your mind back to the Japanese Nanban period, where clans fought for prominence as the nation traded with Portugal?
The White Castle Duel has each of its two players take control of a clan, then use their various assets and resources to gain more influence than each other. You’ll do that by claiming gardens, trading, placing your lanterns and trying to improve the standing of your clan members. Despite the complicated appearance, it’s a twelve turn game which takes place over two rounds; you follow four steps to gradually place out your lanterns, with you then reclaiming six tokens in the second round.There’s a lot of clever things going on, ranging from score multipliers tied to spaces, banked influence cards, ranking and resources, as well as plenty of tokens and cars to collect for your own board as you gradually work your way around the board. There’s just enough moving parts that the two of you can play with entirely different strategies but conclude with balanced points.
I love the artwork, and the iconography is fantastic and requires zero explanation due to delicate design. The White Castle Duel makes a perfect gift for a fan of worker placement titles, especially one who enjoys playing games regardless of the player count.
Lizard Wizard
With a fun, rhyming name like Lizard Wizard you might think that it’ll be a fun little jaunt through chipper, bright fields filled with mirthful glee. That’s not the case here, however, it is an incredibly robust and compelling game of careful choices and point collection that is incredibly easy to pick up and play once you’ve come to terms with its rules and forgiven its very large box.
In Lizard Wizard you’ll gather and trade reagents (which then slides the reagent values up and down, like a stock market) in order to gather mana, summon familiars, cast spells, purchase towers and — with any hope — recruit some Lizard Wizards to your side. There’s a lot of paths to victory, including a series of randomised achievements, hoarding gold and even playing a push your luck dungeon-deck dive to try and stack up more victory points.
Its genius is in its shortand succinct turns: while there are a fistful of different actions that you can take (and summoning a familiar actually triggers a further four action opportunities) you can actually only take the one action on your go. This adds a deep level of strategy to your choices (much like The White Castle Dual, mentioned above) and an incredible amount of replayability.
Raccoon Tycoon
There’s definitely plenty of games out there that focus on tycoons and railroads, however Raccoon Tycoon does it a little bit differently to most of its contemporaries. It’s because it uses that same ‘stock trading’ style commodity system that the previously mentioned Lizard Wizard. When you gather commodities they become more scarce and so the value goes up, but when you trade them off (at once) you gain a multiplication of the current value as cash. Bonza.
Now, I don’t know what came first: The Wizard Lizard Egg or the Raccoon Tycoon Chicken, but the commodity trading system fits really well with the theme here.
Outside of commodity trading you’ll purchase railroads, gather tycoons and build buildings. The aim here is to build combinations and sets in order to score big when the first deck runs out… which happens surprisingly fast as Raccoon Tycoon can actually be played at quite a speedy pace once you’re familiar with the action options available.
Mosaic
Fans of sweeping 4x or grand strategy games, who also love taking their playtime to the tabletop will be elated with Mosaic. It’s a strategy game all about civilization, that puts you at the helm of an ancient kingdom. You’ll carefully gather resources, grow your population, research technologies, build wonders and improve your resource flow to become the most expansive,
Set up is, as you might imagine with a game of this size, somewhat complex — with a tile being distributed (and possibly retracted) for each hex on the board, however after that it’s pretty plain sailing until the three scoring phases. As with other titles from Forbidden Games there are several different strategies to play — with eight actions to pick from on your turn and some accompanying free actions — and equivalent ways to score victory points, however stretching your towns, cities and wonders across the board is the best way to dominate early and from there, it’s onward to victory.
I’m a big fan of the game genres I mentioned earlier, and got genuinely excited about the potential playstyles while reading through the rulebook, and — trust me — it’s been a while since that has happened.
If you are looking for some stocking stuffers, check out our best board game stocking stuffers!
😍What a pretty bear! 🐻💚🖤