Tis' the season for gift giving. With some many great games released this year, finding the perfect gift for that gamer in your life (or for yourself, you selfish jerk!) can be quite a task.

That's where we come in. Destructoid staff writers were asked to make a few holiday, game-related gift picks, either based on personal choice or simply in the spirit of giving. The results were wide and varied, as each staff member's tastes and gaming experiences, uh, vary widely. We're quite an eclectic bunch, that's for sure. 

Hit the jump to see what made the list, and we hope to ignite some gift-giving sparks for you this holiday.

Ubisoft has become the king of creating games specifically targeted for tween girls, in case you hadn't noticed. You know, those games we tend to poke fun at on occasion? The ones that sell millions of copies? Yeah, those! Lord knows my younger sister has at least fifteen of 'em. Curse you, Ubisoft!

On CNBC's Powering Ahead, we finally have the chance to hear about why the company has made a total shift in recent years to target this newly-found audience. Here's what Ubisoft VP of marketing Tony Key had to say on the matter:

"The thing that really started getting us thinking about the girls was that Nintendo told us they were selling an enormous amount of pink DSs a couple years ago."

Really? That was the reason? So ... you're not being facetious? I see. Sorry, all men reading this who happen to own a pink DS. Don't be ashamed.

Quick aside: one of the show's hosts used the phrase "double down." Heh.

[Via Siliconera]

A short while back, Namco Bandai had teased that an RPG will be making a big comeback, and fans excitedly crossed their fingers for a new Xenosaga or other such venerable franchise. If you're a fan of the Xenosaga series, you are to be disappointed bitterly. If you're a fan of the poor man's Pokemon, you are to be thrilled.

Yep, Digimon is coming back.

The big RPG tease was to herald the return of Digimon, Scamco's male-centric Tamagotchi franchise that eventually got its own TV series and became quite a popular Japanese fixture toward the end of the nineties. There is to be no Xenosaga, and no Baiten Kaitos. We should have seen this coming, really.

The new game appears to be called Digimon Story, and it's due for arrival on the Nintendo DS. Yeah I know, this sucks.

[Thanks, Miles]

It’s Monday morning. Aside from meaning that I need a lot more coffee, fat strippers, and protein to operate than on a normal day of the week, it means a whole new host of Nintendo digital downloads are available for purchase across the publisher’s various platforms. Get excited or something.

This week we see the release of BIT.TRIP.VOID, an important videogame as noted by its profuse punctuation and all capitalization, and the venerable Super Mario Kart.

But that’s not all -- Nintendo continues to hack Electroplankton into even smaller chunks for download via DSiware, and several other developers have various releases across all three platforms. Check below the fold for a cute, short list of all the available titles and don’t forget to tell us what you’re downloading this beautiful, need-more-protein-and-coffee Monday morning.

You know, when I posted a video of Love Plus a while back to show off its quirky dating sim charm I thought that would be the last we saw of the game here on Destructoid. After all, it wasn't coming to the West any time soon and it really seemed more like a Japanator thing anyway. Unbeknown to me the game became insanely popular and is even respected by two of my favorite game developers. Needless to say, Love Plus seems to be somewhat of a DS phenomenon, and I am proud to bring it back into the spotlight here at Dtoid.

However, I am not proud of the reason why I am doing it. A man -- a real man -- has legally married one of the characters in the game. Nene Anegasaki, a character from Love Plus, and an unnamed man were married in a church in Guam. The man brought his DS to the church and they are now legally married. The man has invited press to come to his reception on November 22, but unfortunately Mr. Destructoid's invite got lost in the mail.

The one place where a guy in a giant, metal helmet wouldn't be the oddest person around and we don't get invited... jerks. We'll just have to watch via webcam at 12 p.m. on November 22. If you need a crazy fix right this moment, you can head over to Japanator and see a picture of the church the wedding took place in and the wedding invitations.

I have to indulge in a little narcissism right: not only did I get farther along in the second dungeon of Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks than any other journalist who previewed the game, I had all of Nintendo congratulate me on the achievement. I then proceeded to destroy them in the freshly announced multiplayer mode (except one round where I lost horribly, but we don't talk about that.)

All in all, I came away as the best Zelda player in the universe, proving once and for all a college education is really going to change your life.

While I'm sure some of you are utterly fascinated with this information, I bet even more of you are interested in Spirit Tracks itself. After all, it is a freaking Zelda game, and it is coming out in less than three weeks. Any other year, and we'd all be crapping ourselves to get a hold of this game. After spending sometime with this little choo-choo that could, I think there's going to be a whole lot to look forward with this game. Hit the jump to see our latest preview on Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks.

Along with a USB stick containing the opening of the upcoming Nintendo DS title The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks, Nintendo sent me a wooden train whistle. Oh, and there were also some pretty neat pieces of artwork on the USB stick, too. 

But what you're interested in is the train whistle. So I put the rest of today's work aside to spend some hands-on time with the train whistle, just for you guys. We'll have an updated preview of Spirit Tracks soon, but you want your train whistle coverage as soon as possible, and far be it from me to keep you from it. 

Once you're confident that you've acquired enough wooden train whistle knowledge, hit the jump for the opening "cinematic" from The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks, which hits stores on December 7.

_{[Music credit: "Hyrulian" by djpretzel]}

Black Friday and all its horror will soon be upon us, and the Internet has gotten its talons on GameStop's list of ludicrous offers. The list is absolutely huge, some great bundles such as a PS3 with God of War: Collection and LittleBigPlanet for $299, and tens of dollars to be saved on all sorts of games.

While we're here, how many of you are planning to venture out and brave the crowds of braying imbeciles next week? Is the lure of cheap stuff you've never needed enough to make you part of the dignity-sucking problem, or are you going to be like me and hide under a pile of coats until it all goes away?

While you answer, hit the jump for the list of GameStop chicanery.

Jesus C*nting Christ! Despite there being roughly ten billion Sonic the Hedgehog compilations, it seems that Sega feels we can always have more, and has recently submitted Sonic Classic Collection to the OFLC for rating. This time, the blue blur will be reliving his long-lost glory days on the DS.

Sega has not officially announced the game yet, but we all know what to expect -- a bunch of Genesis games we already own, flavored with the irony of Sega constantly re-releasing good Sonic games while being unable to make any decent new ones. It will probably lack anything new, interesting or rarely seen, and the only one worth replaying will be Sonic 2, which everybody already has eighteen copies of.

I can't believe Sega is still able to make money doing this.

With the DSi LL set to be released in Japan this Saturday, display units have started popping up here and there to help Nintendo promote it. Anoop over at Andriasang got to peep some at the Bic Camera and Tsutaya in Shibuya today, and he confirms what many people seem to have assumed would be the case from the start: It's big and ugly.

None of the display units were playable, so there's no telling if the big screen makes up for the Gina syndrome. It shouldn't be much longer before these beasts start showing up on display shelves stateside, however, so we'll all get to see for ourselves. In the meantime, take a look at some of Anoop's spy photos in the gallery below.

If the latest gossip is to be believed, Scribblenauts is going to become a franchise, and it will do so as early as next year! Warner Bros. accidentally let slip its list of 2010 games, with Scribblenauts 2 revealed among them. Not only that, it will expand beyond the DS to include both a Wii and PC version as well.

As well as Scribblenauts, the other big leak was F.E.A.R 3, the follow-up to the rather awesome F.E.A.R 2 that released earlier this year. Batman: The Brave and the Bold is also listed for DS and Wii, along with a bunch of licensed properties and silly casual titles that nobody cares about.

Scribblenauts was a good game with a promising premise, let down by bad controls and shoddy physics. If a sequel could fix that, it may be excellent, but the overall gimmick will have lost its novelty value. It will be very interesting to see what, if anything, can be done in the sequel to make it worth a return trip. As for F.E.A.R 3, the last one impressed me enough to keep me moderately excited.

What about you? Do these sequels sound like good ideas, or should Warner Bros. focus on something more original?

The VGAs may be looked at with cynicism and contempt by a great many among the gamer community, but there's no denying that it's about as mainstream an award show as we're going to get. With that in mind, the nominations are in, and we now get to see who's vying for the biggest accolades that Spike TV has to offer.

Game of the Year is between Assassin's Creed 2, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Left 4 Dead 2 and Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. Best PS3 game is between inFAMOUS, Killzone 2, Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time and Uncharted 2. Best Xbox 360 game nominees are Arkham Asylum, Halo 3: ODST, Forza Motorsport 3 and Left 4 Dead 2. For the Wii we have New Super Mario Bros. Wii, MadWorld, Punch-Out! and Wii Sports Resort. The PC contenders are Dragon Age: Origins, Left 4 Dead 2, Plants vs. Zombies and The Sims 3.

It's interesting to note that the 360 nominees include multiplatform games, one of which (Arkham) was better on the PS3. 2009 really was the killer year for PS3 exclusives.

On a personal note, I'm asking everyone to vote for Demon's Souls as RPG of the year. The very fact it's a nominee is amazing, but it would be incredible to see the game win. It truly, truly deserves it, even though I know in my hear that Borderlands or Dragon Age will probably beat it.

Anyway, go check out the nominations, vote, and let us know who you're rooting for.

Right now, all sights are set on Other M, the beautiful Wii Metroid game that is set to be released next year. But what about Metroid Prime? Was it all over with Metroid Prime 3: Corruption? Maybe not.

Nintendo's Kensuke Tanabe, who previously oversaw Retro Studios' work, gives Prime fans a glimmer of hope in a quote from the next issue of Official Nintendo Magazine:

We are always planning to make new games in the Metroid Prime series. Depending on the timing and the situation, we cannot deny the possibility of realising it on DS or DSi.

It's been a few years, and I think it's high time we see something new. A DSi game wouldn't get in the way of the Other M Wii release, so what's stopping you. What do you think Retro's been up to?

[via CVG]

Nerdy gamers like myself want to know a bit about the electronic guts inside their gaming systems. I can still rattle off some of the specs of the last few generations of systems, in fact. And if you're anything like me, these rumors on the next portable generation's chipsets will be interesting.

DS - Word is that the next DS wil be using an Nvidia Tegra 2 chipset, which gives it about twice the power of the currently available system. We heard earlier that this chipset will provide backwards compatibility. That's always good.

PSP - The next PSP is rumored to be rocking a fancier version of the iPhone's IMG PowerVR chip. There's a few potential issues for this chipset, though. One is that it won't ship until 2011. Another is that it may be more difficult to develop for. Oh, Sony.

I feel dirty for thinking about the next systems with my current gen ones sitting here looking at me right now.

[via engadget]