Each year my company sponsors a needy family for the holiday through Catholic Charities. All we are provided with are the children’s names and ages and some suggested items. Since the parents are well aware this is a donation situation, they usually ask for very affordable and necessary things such as shoes and clothing. We purchase toys after we make sure each child has a complete new outfit.
This year we have two girls that are three and five so they are easy to buy for. However, there is also a boy that is 14. We all know that 14 year olds love video games but we have no way of knowing if he has a system and if so, what the system is. A few people would like to go in together and buy him a video game system along with a couple of games. We can always put a gift receipt in with the gift should he have the system but from the little we know about the family, it would appear he probably does not have any of the current popular systems.
What do you think the best system would be and what games are good and appropriate for a 14 year old? The Wii and the X-box 360 have been mentioned but no one really knows what is better and which has the best games for his age. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
I’d go with a Wii. There are a ton of games on the 360 and PS3 that just don’t look right (to the point of being unplayable) when played on a non-HDTV, which is likely to be the case with a needy family.
XBox, however, is still getting new games. The Wii has been replaced by the WiiU (expensive and not likely to be successful), and I’m pretty sure you can’t play the new games on the old Wii system.
My 14 yo son loves his Nintento DS. Most of his friends also have the Nintendo brand handhelds (DS, DSi, 3DS). I recommend a handheld. If things ever get so bad for them that they have to go to a shelter, often all they can take with them is what will fit in a backpack or suitcase. His DS will fit. Also, he doesn’t need to have a TV to use it, so it won’t cause conflict with other family members who may want to watch TV. Also, since they are less expensive than console, you could get more games, a carrying case, headphones, etc.
Thanks. No one here thought of a handheld which is a much better idea. Now,about games… What are a couple of popular games appropriate for a young teenager but not too babyish?
If you go the DS route (which I’d recommend, but I’m a Nintendo guy), you could go for something like this, if it fits your price range. It’s a 3DS, so it’s a current system, and it comes with Mario Kart, which is pretty popular generally. One good thing about the 3DS is that it plays DS games as well, and there is a huge amount of used DS software available pretty cheaply.
I asked my 14 yo son what games he would recommend considering you don’t know the boy really well.
Any Mario games, he says they’re classics and good fun
Scribblenauts and Super Scribblenauts, even I love this game
Pokemon, a good adventure type series that has maintained its popularity
Kingdom Hearts, another adventure game
Namco Museum, has all the old classic arcade games
If you do know something about the boy, like if he likes Star Wars or Lord of the Rings, the LEGO games for whatever franchise, are lots of fun
Ps3 or Xbox with the new call of duty game …the kid will love it so long as he has Internet. Most game systems need the Internet connection so he can play interactively with his buddies online.
I agree with the portable system idea. I’d go with the 3DS because the Vita’s library still sucks.
It used to be easy enough to just get any Mario game, but I would stay away from Paper Mario: Sticker Star. Super Mario 3D Land would be a great choice though, as would Mario Kart 7. I’d also recommend Ocarina of Time 3D or Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask.
Just throwing my name into the “get him a 3DS” camp here. I would hesitate to tell anyone to buy a Wii at this point (Though the new Wii-mini might not be terrible, but they’ve stripped out so many features to get it to $99 that I remain reluctant) and the concern about lack of an HDTV to work with an Xbox 360 is relevant - some games were near unplayable on my old 37" CRT just because I could barely read the text (Irony: The 360 is currently hooked up to said CRT because the shiny HD LCD TV lags too much for fighting games.).
The 3DS is a very solid system, cheaper than the 360, about the same price as the Wii, and he can take it with him anywhere/doesn’t have to worry about competing for the TV. With regard to games, the new Mario title is doubtless a good choice, the ‘remake’ of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time might be good, Kingdom Hearts has a new entry… I dunno if he’d be too old for Pokemon or not. And I gather Kid Icarus: Uprising is very good if difficult to control. And there’s always Lego Star Wars or Lego Batman. Or I guess you could get him Super Street Fighter 4. That’s a little less of an “all ages” title than the others mentioned here, but I certainly wouldn’t consider it inappropriate for a 14 year old.
Don’t rule out the DS, which may be a little easier for you if you have a tight budget–something I get from the first paragraph in your post. And definitely don’t rule out DS games–many of them are on clearance, and they will run on a 3DS.