I Cast Fist

Also, the switch is a portable console, so the kid will want to take it everywhere. Oneser made a great point about a restricted use gift: it won’t actually belong to the child.

Unlike late 80s and 90s’ kids’ upbringing, current consoles and phones and whatnot don’t foster real social connections because of the internet. OP said they got a N64 in 1996 and friends would come over to play, that very rarely happens nowadays because you can play whatever free game, at home, with your friends. The internet also ruined playground game talk because every information is on the internet, so rumors and cheat sharing just don’t exist anymore, anyone can watch youtube videos on their consoles or phones.

I’m slightly older than OP, I grew up with games and if I had kids, I would NOT give them any consoles. I would let them play on a rpi3 emulator box with a very limited number of games: leaving a whole library of games available would immediately spoil them. Start out with only Super Mario World and Top Gear, maybe something with coop from the PSX era. They’ll know frustration and will get bored after a while, they won’t want to continue playing forever because the games aren’t meant for that.