Nintendo Switch holiday gift guide – top presents for all budgets

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The best Nintendo Switch gifts are a great way to buy for the portable gamer in your life without breaking the bank. Whether they’re already a keen user of the hybrid handheld home console or there are plans to put one under the tree this year, we’ve compiled top presents to fully enrich the experience.

In this Nintendo Switch holiday gift guide, you’ll find competitively priced and high quality Nintendo Switch gifts all well under the $100 mark. We’ve chosen to go for practicality and everyday use items meaning these options will be cherished for many years to come. With all said, if you’re considering buying the console or a friend or family member then you’ll want to check out these essential tips when buying a Nintendo Switch for the holidays.

Game Traveler Nintendo Switch Go Play System Case

Game Traveler Nintendo Switch Go Play System Case

Nintendo Switch Game Traveller

2-in-1 design

Contains a smaller case for easier portability

Game card capacity

Stores four games

Cable storage

Dedicated pouch for HDMI lead

Pros
  • Competitively priced
  • Officially licensed
  • Tons of room for accesssories
Cons
  • Limited game storage

Priced around the $30 mark, the Game Traveler Nintendo Switch Go Play System Case is an affordable officially licensed carry case for the console. It features not only space for the system itself, but also for charging cables and video output leads, too. What’s more, it can either be used in its full protective form or the middle can be used as a slip cover for extra portability. For these reasons, it’s an easy recommendation from us, and should serve to keep the machine safe for a long time.

A good quality carrying case for the Nintendo Switch is about as essential an accessory as they come. For as much as we love the system, it’s not exactly built to take hard bumps or knocks thanks to its tablet design. Investing in the Game Traveler Nintendo Switch Go Play System Case means peace of mind as no one likes a smashed screen on the holidays.

Nintendo Switch Pro Controller

Nintendo Switch Pro Controller

A Nintendo Switch Pro Controller on a white background.

Battery life

40 hours

Connectivity

Bluetooth, USB-C

Features

HD Rumble, motion controls, Amiibo NFC reader

Pros
  • Leading battery life
  • Full Joy-Con functionality
  • Ergonomic design
Cons
  • Lacks a premium feel
  • Middling analog sticks

While the Nintendo Switch’s Joy-Cons are perfectly good when playing the console in handheld mode, they are far from perfect when enjoying big screen gaming. Enter the Nintendo Switch Pro controller, armed with a staggering 40 hour battery life and a more conventional form factor to aid more hardcore gaming sessions.

You don’t lose out on any of the fancy features of the Joy-Cons with the Nintendo Switch Pro controller either. That’s because it rocks HD rumble, Amiibo NFC support, and gyro controls. Priced around the $70 range, it’s a more expensive Nintendo Switch controller than a pair of replacement Joy-Cons or a third-party alternative, however, there’s no quality the value for money here.

The only real concession is in the build quality of the gamepad. It’s sturdy and should be fine for many thousands of gaming sessions to come, but it’s not exactly up to the sophistication or premium feel of the Xbox Wireless Controller or the PS5 DualSense Controller. While it retails around the same price as those competitiors, where it wins out is in battery life, as you won’t need to juice this pad up for many sessions in a row.

SanDisk 128GB MicroSD card for Nintendo Switch

SanDisk 128GB microSDXC-Card for Nintendo Switch

Nintendo Switch SanDisk SD card

Read speeds

Up to 100MB/s

Capacity

128GB

Pros
  • Officially licensed
  • Incredible value
  • Matches internal storage speeds
Cons
  • More expensive than non-branded

It may not sound too exciting, but the SanDisk MicroSD card for Nintendo Switch may just be the most important thing you ever buy for the console. That’s because of the limited onboard storage available on the system which leaves a lot to be desired. The base Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch Lite models only ship with a measly 32GB and the Nintendo Switch OLED’s 64GB will fill up nearly as fast, too.

Enter the SanDisk 128GB MicroSD card for Nintendo Switch which offers four times the base storage found in those games consoles (or double in the OLED model’s case) for just an unbeatable price. This particular SD card hovers around the $35 mark, but is frequently on sale to as low as $15 if you’re eagle-eyed in the sales. Considering the value for money here, we strongly recommend this product.

It’s an especially important Nintendo Switch gift considering that the gaming landscape is continuing to move towards a purely digital future. Nintendo Switch games are getting larger when downloaded from the Nintendo eShop, with the likes of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom taking up a large chunk of available space. Be ready and gift significant overhead so they can spend more time gaming and less time worrying about running out of space.

Nintendo Switch gift guide – Frequently asked questions

If you’ve still got some burning questions about the best Nintendo Switch gifts then we’re here to help. These holiday presents are an investment and we want to make sure that you’re making an informed and confident purchasing decision.

Are there Nintendo Switch gift cards?

Yes, there are Nintendo Switch gift cards designed to work exclusively with the Nintendo eShop and can be redeemed digitally. They’re a great alternative to a more traditional gift and give the receiptant the choice of what they want. Values begin at $5 and range upwards to $99 at retailers such as Amazon.

Is the Nintendo Switch a good holiday gift?

The Nintendo Switch is an incredibly popular games console for its incredible software support with iconic franchises such as Super Mario, The Legend of Zelda, Kirby, and Xenoblade. It’s also by far the cheapest mainstream games console out of the three big names and has the benefit of being able to be used portably in 720p or docked to a TV in 1080p.

What are good Nintendo Switch games to play over the holidays?

If you’ve got the free time for a longer game or two over the festive period then Super Mario Odyssey can give you dozens of hours of fun. What’s more, the latest 2D platformer in the long-running franchise, Super Mario Wonder is a delight, too. We also love Super Smash Bros. Ultimate for fighting game party action, and Xenoblade Chronicles 3 delivers an incredible story with awesome characters.

About the Author

Aleksha McLoughlin

Aleksha McLoughlin is VideoGamer's Hardware and Affiliates Editor and she looks after all hardware and Ecommerce performance for the site as well as manages the hardware team.

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