‘Twas two weeks before Christmas and all through the site, SEGA fans deserved presents, whether naughty or nice.
Okay, “site” and “nice” don’t rhyme. But you get where I’m going with this. The holidays (Christmas specifically, let’s not beat around the bush) are approaching, and you need ideas for what to give the SEGA fan in your life. If you don’t have a SEGA fan in your life, chances are YOU’RE the SEGA fan in your life. So what follows are five unique gift ideas for the holiday Christmas season.
Valkyria Chronicles: Design Archive
Price: $28 at Amazon.com
I’m going to leave games out of this guide, as I’ll assume most SEGA fans have all the “must have” releases. However, very few fans have snazzy art books to go alongside their favorite games. Published by Udon Entertainment, this English language version of the Valkyria Chronicles: Design Archive art book features just what you’d expect: awesome art from an awesome SEGA game. At 400 pages, you can expect to find loads of sketches, concept art and completed art.
Jazwares Classic Sonic Action Figures
Price: $9.99 to $19.99 at ToysRUs.com
Perhaps one of the best things to come from Sonic’s 20th, aside from Sonic Generations, was Jazwares classic line of figures. Throughout the 1990’s, Sonic fans wished that Sonic would receive his own action figure line. It wasn’t until 1999 that we got figures, but every character had their Sonic Adventure redesign. No yellow collared Eggman, no tutu and tennis shoe’d Amy and no black eye’d Sonic. But now, in 2011, give Sonic fans what they want: Eggman with Egg Robos, Sonic with Motobug, Tails with Grabber, Super Sonic with Collector’s Tin, Sonic and Amy Rose Comic Pack and 10″ Classic Sonic.
XBLA and PSN Cards
Price: $10+
Given the large number of downloadable titles SEGA released over the past year, there is a very good chance that the SEGA fan in your life did not catch every release. A PSN or XBLA card is the perfect way to give a downloadable title without tying the receiver down to one game. Renegade Ops, Daytona USA, Space Channel 5 Part 2, SEGA Rally Online Arcade, Guardian Heroes and the upcoming Sonic CD are just some of the downloadable titles available. Just make sure they use the card for a SEGA game and not Call of Duty DLC.
GP2X Caanoo MAME/Console Emulator
Price: $169 at Think Geek
3DS this and Vita that. Ha! Throw a SEGA fan a curve ball and gift them this awesome handheld. Released by Korean company Game Park, the Caanoo is a handheld capable of running a multitude of apps and emulators wholly developed by the fan community. Even with a tiny 4GB memory card, you can carry around every Genesis, Game Gear and Master System game ever made and still have room for a few SEGA CD titles and arcade classics. SEGA fans with a love for other consoles can emulate the NES, SNES, Game Boy, Game Boy Advance, Atari consoles, Neo Geo, a number of old school computers and of course MAME. Features include a touchscreen, stylus, tilt controls, microphone, flash card slot and a USB slot perfect for a USB controller or wi-fi dongle. The only downsides? The handheld is limited to what the community does for it, but thankfully thus far they’ve done a lot.
The History of Sonic Book
Price: $40 (estimate) from Pix’n Love Publishing
From French publisher Pix’n Love comes a 300 page hardcover beauty of a book that promises to cover Sonic’s complete history, with a bit of input from SEGA of Japan. While the English version of the book has yet to go on sale, a pre-order is expected to arrive before the year’s end with a January 2012 release. The French version of the book has been up for pre-order over the past few weeks, priced at 30 euros ($40 converted), so we should expect that the English version will be at a similar price. Pre-order this for a SEGA fan, print out an image of the cover, stuff it in an envelope with the promise that it will release soon and come January you’ll have a very happy Sonic fan.
Ad:
The Jazwares toys have great sculpts for the classic figures, but are seriously fragile and poorly colored. I do not regret getting the Sonic one I bought, but that is because I can just glue it and stand it up, he broke literally minutes after I opened the packaging.
Also, giving someone a pre-order of something is kind of lame, unless it is something that has to be installed like a pool. You can still get it for me if you want, though!
Sorry! No pre-order gift for you! You called it lame!
Seriously though, I’ve gotten a pre-order as a gift before and I can tell you it’s awesome. It’s like, just when Christmas is wearing off, you get a bonus gift a few weeks after the holiday.