Speaker 1: The Nintendo games sure to make great gifts this holiday season.
Speaker 2: What's going on? I'm Rich Demiro, this is Rich on Tech.
Speaker 1: How crazy is it that Nintendo has been a holiday
Speaker 1: standard ever since I was a kid. We're talking decades
Speaker 1: of games and consoles under the tree, and yeah, that
Speaker 1: makes me feel pretty old.
Speaker 2: But this year will be no different.
Speaker 1: Nintendo has one of the hottest consoles around with the Switch.
Speaker 1: Nintendo has sold twenty three million switches since it launched
Speaker 1: in March twenty seventeen. And to give you some perspective,
Speaker 1: the WU, which was sort of a bust, only sold
Speaker 1: less than fourteen million units, and that launched in twenty twelve.
Speaker 1: So do the math and you can see why the
Speaker 1: Switch is so hot right now. Back when I was
Speaker 1: a kid, the Super Nintendo was where it's at, and
Speaker 1: I still remember having to get Super Mario Brothers three.
Speaker 2: On the day it launched.
Speaker 1: Yes, I was always a nerd, So after a long
Speaker 1: day of work in school, I dragged my dad from
Speaker 1: store to store trying to find a copy. We ended
Speaker 1: up finding the game at a kmart near Newark, New Jersey.
Speaker 1: I've since passed that place many times on the way
Speaker 1: to the airport and this memory always comes to mind,
Speaker 1: but I digress. Recently I met up with David Young
Speaker 1: from Nintendo. He goes way back. In fact, he started
Speaker 1: out as an operator for their nine hundred number.
Speaker 2: This is a number that you would call, or kids
Speaker 2: would call.
Speaker 1: With their parents' permission, of course, since it costs money,
Speaker 1: and you would get help with games like hey, I'm
Speaker 1: stuck on this level, can you help me get out
Speaker 1: of here? And can you believe that now we have
Speaker 1: something called YouTube and all that advice is totally free.
Speaker 3: You know, We've got something at Nintendo for for anybody,
Speaker 3: you know, any style of gamer, any any level of budget.
Speaker 3: There's just so much to play.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: We have great games coming out from Nintendo Switch of course,
Speaker 3: Super Mario Party, Super Smash Brothers, you know, the Pokemon games, Pokemon,
Speaker 3: Let's Go Pikachu, Pokemon, Let's Go Evye. But we also
Speaker 3: have great things on the Nintendo three DS. You know,
Speaker 3: we have the Nintendo two DS at seventy nine to
Speaker 3: ninety nine. You know, for people that are just starting out,
Speaker 3: it's perfect for young gamers. We've got some fantastic games,
Speaker 3: thousands of games on on Nintendo three DS and then
Speaker 3: lots of things to discover in nintendo eShop, lots of
Speaker 3: dependent games, lots of games that are only found in there.
Speaker 3: So really, you know, something for everybody this year.
Speaker 1: Now, if you've ever played the Switch, you can quickly
Speaker 1: understand why it took off faster than the WU.
Speaker 2: It is so easy to just pick this thing up
Speaker 2: and play.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, besides having a lot of exclusive games
Speaker 3: that people love, I think it's the fact that you
Speaker 3: can play it at home. You know, you can you
Speaker 3: can have that experience around the TV, or you can
Speaker 3: take it out of the dock and play it with
Speaker 3: you anywhere you go, and that's that's really been the
Speaker 3: game changer. A lot of people love to take that
Speaker 3: experience on the road.
Speaker 1: Funny thing, my seven year old actually likes to play
Speaker 1: the Switch out of the dock and just on the
Speaker 1: couch and he doesn't like to take it out of
Speaker 1: the house. But it's cool that we do have the
Speaker 1: option to do that if we want. All right, So,
Speaker 1: the first game that's going to make a great holiday
Speaker 1: gift is Pokemon. There are two versions, Pokemon Let's Go
Speaker 1: EV and Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu.
Speaker 2: You just pick which team you want to be on.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Pokemon, Pokemon, Let's Go Pikachu, Pokemon, Let's Go Eve
Speaker 3: two different games, and it's it's really great fun. If
Speaker 3: you're a fan of the Pokemon Gohst series on mobile phones,
Speaker 3: there's a great way to take some of that experience
Speaker 3: and bring it in an Nintendo Switch.
Speaker 1: There's also a new accessory you can get called the
Speaker 1: poke Ball. This acts as a controller. I played with it.
Speaker 1: It's really fun. It's fifty dollars and if your kids
Speaker 1: love the game, they're definitely gonna want this too.
Speaker 3: The poke Ball plus controller. It gives you that immersive
Speaker 3: feel because you feel like you're actually throwing throwing the
Speaker 3: poke ball to catch Pokemon out in the wild. It's
Speaker 3: really fun experience, not just the form factor of the control,
Speaker 3: but the way it lights up and vibrates and is
Speaker 3: really fun to interact. You can also take it out
Speaker 3: of the home with you and level up your Pokemon
Speaker 3: when you're out and walking around. You can also use
Speaker 3: it to catch Pokemon when you're playing Pokemon Go on
Speaker 3: your mobile device.
Speaker 1: Next up, Super Smash Brothers Ultimate. This is a game
Speaker 1: with a pretty simple concept. You choose a character and
Speaker 1: you battle it out with another character or a bunch
Speaker 1: of characters.
Speaker 2: You play in all these different worlds.
Speaker 1: Your goal is to push the other players off the
Speaker 1: edge of these floating sort of battle areas they have.
Speaker 1: And the cool part, there are a bunch of characters
Speaker 1: you can be, including Nintendo and Nonendo. So think Mario
Speaker 1: versus pac Man versus Sonic versus all kinds of characters
Speaker 1: from all these fun little games, and all the characters
Speaker 1: have powers inspired by their personalities.
Speaker 2: And although it's a battle, it's all in good fun.
Speaker 2: There's no blood or gore.
Speaker 3: Super Smash Brother's Ultimate, I mean it's ultimate. You know,
Speaker 3: every fighter that's ever been in the series is back
Speaker 3: in this game, coming out December seventh, where we are
Speaker 3: so excited for this, and so are a lot of fans.
Speaker 3: People can't wait to play this.
Speaker 1: And finally, my personal favorite and the game my seven
Speaker 1: year old cannot stop playing Super Mario Party.
Speaker 2: This is like a board.
Speaker 1: Game that you play on TV, and it makes great
Speaker 1: use of the JOYCN controllers.
Speaker 2: You play all these fun.
Speaker 1: Little challenge games they call mini games, and you're doing
Speaker 1: all kinds of weird stuff, like one of them is
Speaker 1: where you flip a pan.
Speaker 2: To perfectly cook a steak. Another one you're running from
Speaker 2: all the bad guys.
Speaker 1: And there's just a ton of these little games that
Speaker 1: you play and they're all fun. They make great use
Speaker 1: of the JOYCN controller as well.
Speaker 3: Super Mario Party it's a great game to gather with
Speaker 3: friends and family, sit around, you know. It's it's a
Speaker 3: kind of game that anybody can pick up and play.
Speaker 3: You can play it. You can play with mom, dad, grandma,
Speaker 3: you know, your buddies, whatever, whatever you like to do.
Speaker 3: And then there's also an option you could play some
Speaker 3: of these mini games online, so you have a lot
Speaker 3: of ways to play that game as well.
Speaker 2: This is my pick.
Speaker 1: If you want a great game, the entire family can
Speaker 1: gather around the TV and play after holiday dinner. But
Speaker 1: if you want to use all four players at the
Speaker 1: same time, you know the max that can play, be
Speaker 1: sure to pick up an extra set of JOYCN controllers
Speaker 1: so everyone can play at the same time. And it's
Speaker 1: actually really fun to watch other people play this game
Speaker 1: since it makes full use of all those JOYCN controllers
Speaker 1: and how you take them out of the slots and
Speaker 1: move them around, because everyone's doing some sort of crazy
Speaker 1: action with the controllers.
Speaker 2: And if you don't have a switch just yet, you
Speaker 2: can still get one of those.
Speaker 3: We have a special bundle that's out, a Fortnite bundle
Speaker 3: that comes with a Nintenda switch and about about forty
Speaker 3: dollars worth of goodies for the game. So if you
Speaker 3: don't have a Nintendo switch yet, that's certainly a great
Speaker 3: way to get involved.
Speaker 1: Keep in mind games are a bit different these days.
Speaker 1: You don't necessarily have to go to the store to
Speaker 1: find it in the box. You can of course still
Speaker 1: buy the retail version, or you can always just download
Speaker 1: these games right to the switch. And if you can't decide,
Speaker 1: there's always a gift card if you're stock.
Speaker 3: If you're looking for that gift for somebody that's hard
Speaker 3: to find, you have a gamer in your family, there's
Speaker 3: always a Nintendo Shop the E card so you can
Speaker 3: so you can you can get gift cards. People go
Speaker 3: out to the Nintendo E Shop and pick whatever game
Speaker 3: they'd like.
Speaker 2: There you have it.
Speaker 1: Nintendo's holiday games always a great gift if you know
Speaker 1: someone that's into video games. Now, I personally don't play
Speaker 1: as much as I used to, but I will admit
Speaker 1: I definitely played Super Mario Odyssey which is also a
Speaker 1: great choice, by the way, if your kid doesn't already
Speaker 1: have it. But it's amazing to see how my kid
Speaker 1: is playing these games and how kind of obsessed he
Speaker 1: is with these things, just the way I was when
Speaker 1: I was his age. But I do think it's a
Speaker 1: good time to go into those switch.
Speaker 2: Settings and maybe set some daily play limits. Probably a
Speaker 2: good idea. Thanks so much for listening.
Speaker 1: You can find more information about these games on the website.
Speaker 2: Just go to Rich on tech dot tv.
Speaker 1: There you can also watch my TV segment and see
Speaker 1: me playing some of these games, and you can get
Speaker 1: more information on pricing and availability.
Speaker 2: And thanks so much for listening to the podcast.
Speaker 1: If you want to spread the word, take a screenshot
Speaker 1: of you listening on your phone and share it to
Speaker 1: social media Instagram, Stories, Facebook, Twitter.
Speaker 2: They'll all do some good. I'm Rich Demiro. I'll talk
Speaker 2: to you real soon.