Engaged Family Gaming Holiday Gift Guide 2021 - Playstation

Update: all current gift guides are updated and can be found HERE

The PlayStation 5 is still incredibly difficult to find as a result of shortages. This shortage is likely to continue well past the holiday season. That doesn’t mean that there won’t be any available though. Start looking early if that is on your family’s wish list.

The good news is that the PlayStation 4 should be readily available and still has life left in it for families who don’t have a console yet. Noteworthy titles you’ll want to find on deep discounts for the PS4 are Marvel’s Spider-Man, Horizon: Zero Dawn Complete Edition, and the Crash Bandicoot: N-Sane Collection.

Below is a list of games that are great gift ideas for PS5 owners.

Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart

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Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart is on my shortlist for the game of the year 2021. It is just that good. This is a new game in the franchise that has been built from the ground up to take advantage of the PS5 technology. The levels are designed in such a way that you use rifts to travel through completely different spaces within levels with no load times. It is wild to experience all the different ways that Insomniac takes advantage of the tech.

Kena: Bridge of Spirits

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Kena punches way above its weight class. It is a budget title that has gorgeous graphics. It looks and plays like it was made by one of Sony’s high-profile studios. But, it is actually the first game from a company known for fan animations. This is another game in contention for game of the year and it will likely be on our PS5 essentials list for a very long time.

Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl

Lots of games have tried to clone Super Smash Brothers to find success. But, we haven’t seen anything like All-Star Brawl before. Game Mill Entertainment has combined the deep roster of Nickelodeon licenses like Spongebob, Avatar, and Ninja Turtles with retro gameplay that is reminiscent of Super Smash Bros. Melee.

This is also as close to the original as one can get without owning a Nintendo Switch and actually buying Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2

Everyone of a certain age will have memories of playing Tony Hawk on their PS1 in their dorm room. (Ok. Might just be me.) This is a well-done remaster of the first two games of the series. It is gorgeously remade and includes some quality of life improvements that will help us share the game with our kids as we remember it (as opposed to how it actually was).

PlayStation Plus/PS Now

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Look. The reality of our situation this year is that it might be tough to find games in boxes to wrap up and put under the tree. Gift cards for PlayStation Plus and PS Now should be readily available though. These are “practical” gifts (or at least as practical as anything game-related could be). But, they will be appreciated nonetheless.