My six-year-old and I recently attended an event at Nintendo to get a firsthand look at some of their best offerings for the holiday season. Not only did my daughter make her own Nintendo-themed holiday wish list, we are ecstatic to share an incredible prize back with Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival and her other top picks with one lucky reader!
Nintendo invited a small group of kids from across the country to their Redmond office for a tour, meet and greet with staff and famous faces, and hands-on time with their products coming out this holiday season.
After we walked through the halls and tried to peek into the Treehouse, a door opened to a winter wonderland of Nintendo’s latest games. The delighted kids ran inside to get their hands on the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS consoles arranged around the wonderfully decorated room.
My daughter made an immediate beeline to amiibo Festival, the latest Animal Crossing game.
Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival (Wii U)

Animal Crossing meets Mario Party in this Wii U title, packed with a board game and mini-games that can be played with amiibo figures and the amiibo cards you picked up for Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer. Isabelle and Digby are included with the game along with three cards, and both cards and figures are used to play and collect Happy Points.

Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival is the cutest game you can pick up for your next family game night. (Now available, $59.99)
Yo-kai Watch (Nintendo 3DS)

Yo-kai Watch seems destined to be the next big hit for the gotta-catch-em-all crowd. Players use a special watch to find Yo-kai, spirits responsible for causing mischief and silliness, hidden around town. Along the way you’ll collect your own team of Yo-kai, including the adorable Jibanyan, who was greeted by squeals at the holiday event. (Now available, $39.99)
Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash (Wii U)

Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash is a game that’s easy to pick up and play with friends. Up to four kids can grab a controller and mash the X button to start swinging the racket wildly (which is how I play tennis in real life). Online matches and amiibo support update the Nintendo franchise for this generation of games. (November 20, 2015, $49.99)
Giveaway!
At the end of the day, my daughter chose her top items to be on her holiday wish list: Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival, The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes, the pink yarn Yoshi amiibo, Super Mario Maker, and Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash.

This is your chance to win her top holiday picks, thanks to the generosity of Nintendo! Enter the contest below to win the games and amiibo figure in the picture above.
Entry is open to U.S. residents 18 or older only. To enter our giveaway, just log into Rafflecopter with your Facebook account or email address (please use a valid email, so we can let you know if you win) by November 18, 2015.
Winners will be chosen randomly using Rafflecopter and notified by email. If there is no response in two days, then a new winner will be chosen. Good luck!
Travel expenses, promotional items, and prizes were provided by Nintendo for this post.
My all time favorite Nintendo game is Bubble Bobble! 🙂
Ha! I almost picked Tetris or Bubble Bobble, but stuck with strictly Nintendo properties. Bubble Bobble was the first arcade game my son played and now is one of our households go to games. Soooooo much fun. That and Saturn Bomberman.
I’m pretty excited to get on Yo-kai Watch! Pretty sure a couple copies will be materializing on Christmas morning 😉 Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival looks like a ton of fun and The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes is great with other players (had a blast trying that out at PAX!)
My favorite Nintendo game(s)? Pokemon something… Probably HeartGold/SoulSilver. While I love the older games, these two are probably my favorites. A very close second to Pokemon is Mario Maker. For years, my son used the various Mario level editors/hack tools to create his own levels. We were so excited when Mario Maker was announced and it did not fail to live up to expectations (although my son still thinks Smash Brothers Melee is top Nintendo!)
My all time favorite is the original Mario Bro. My kids can’t believe that after all these years that I still remember where all the Easter eggs are!
My favorite Nintendo game of all time is Starfox 64. Lots of fun hours playing multiplayer with friends.
My favorite is the original Mario Brothers. I know I’m totally dating myself! Ha ha.
My favorite Nintendo game, such a difficult question… 😛 I’ll have to go with Super Metroid! So much fun!
I think Mario Cart would be my fav!!
My favorite Nintendo Game of all time has to be Super Mario Bros. 3!
My favorite is Mario Party on Nintendo 64.
I’d have to say Super Metroid.
I can’t pick just one all time fave game! But current fave is Yoshi’s Woolly World! With the Mellow Mode, my four year old can actually play along without getting frustrated about falling down pits and when he’s holding us up too much, I can just have my Yoshi swallow his and drag him through tricky parts! Hah!
Super Mario World is my favorite.
Mario kart!
My favorite Nintendo is the original Animal Crossing. My friends and I use to visit each other’s towns and sell all our fruit. It also helped we set ours to different months.
My all time favorite Nintendo game is Pokemon Silver.
Anything Professor Layton 😉
legend of zelda!
My favorite Nintendo game of all time has got to be Super Mario Brothers 3. I was in middle school when it was released, and it was such a big deal. My best friend and I would play it constantly, trying to get to the end. It was so much fun! Thank you for offering such a generous giveaway – we have a WiiU, and my kids are dying to try Super Mario Maker!
Fire Emblem! All of them.
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time! I still play it to this day and I beat the game when it came out in 98!
mcfallsk8er[at]aim[dot]com
My favorite has always been Super Mario 3.
Super Smash brothers on n64.
We Like to play Super Metroid
Mario is by far my favorite Nintendo game.
My favorite Nintendo game of all time is Animal Crossing!
Same here. I remember trying to find out what all the codes were for the Nes games. I had placed all of them in my basement.
hmm. Favorite Nintendo Game of all time? Super Mario Bros 3. In a lot of ways I thought of it as the pinnacle of NES games.
Mario Kart on the N64!
I always loved Tetris and Dr Mario. With my kids I love playing MarioKart 8, we play online with our friends.
My favorite Nintendo game is Kirby honestly
I think I would have to pick Super Mario 3 because it’s one of the only ones I can beat time and time again and still LOVE playing!
My favorite is probably Mario Kart but really any of the Mario games are great.
Mario Kart is my all-time favorite! Love that game!