Some of my earliest memories of gaming include sitting on the floor cross-legged, guiding Mario through the early levels of Super Mario Bros. and staring in wonder at the grey box that brought so much joy to my five year-old life. Even today nearly 25 years later, I still prefer to sit on the floor when I’m gaming on a console. The unfortunate side of that is since I’ve gotten older, sitting for hours at a time in the cross-legged position actually hurts.
If you’re looking for a gift idea for the gamer who has everything, maybe making them comfortable while gaming is a thought. I recently purchased two new recliners for our living room and I love them for watching movies, but playing games on my TV I still feel really far away from the action. For that reason, I purchased something to make floor gaming a little bit easier on my 29 year-old bones. Check out some of these chairs and then I’ll show you what I have.
Deluxe Gaming Chairs
If you had told five year-old me that in just 20 short years we’d have chairs dedicated to gaming, you would have blown my mind. Back then, any chair was a gaming chair so long as it was plopped right in front of the TV. That’s how these chairs are mean to be designed as well, but they come with fancy hookups for audio so you can really feel like you’ve got surround sound while you’re playing. It’s fancy and neat, but also pretty expensive. Searching Amazon for gaming chairs turns up several results, most of them around the $100 mark for just the chair.
Chairs with audio run higher because of the electronics and speakers. The X Rocker pictured costs $239 at the time of writing and is the number 1 best seller in its category. It looks comfy, but it’s awfully bulky.
Standard Gaming Chairs
Say you don’t need armrests and full surround sound audio. There’s a chair for that. Some of the more basic models on Amazon start out at around $50. This one below also has audio inputs, but they’re only 2.1 so you’ll not be shocked out of your chair at any explosions that happen on screen. Either way, it’s a comfortable-looking chair for someone who just likes to chill and play.
Bean Bag Chairs
Back before fancy molded chairs with audio in the headrest and cup holders in the arm rest became commonplace, the ultimate gaming chair was the bean bag chair. It’s what I bought for myself a few months ago when I realized I liked sitting in the floor more than sitting in the fancy new recliners I bought when it comes to gaming. It really emulates that nostalgaic experience of sitting on the floor when I was younger and the Big Joe bean bags come with enough stuffing so when you get up your rear end isn’t sore.
The advantage to bean bags is that they can be molded to sit any specific way, so if you like to sit on top of a mountain of beans with no back support, you can do that. The only real downside to bean bags is that using them frequently means sometimes the beans can get flattened. But you can buy replacement beans and refill the bag at your leisure, so if you want something more flexible than a molded chair, I definitely recommend a bean bag.
Most parents get up in arms about bean bags. I know my parents did. I was never allowed to have one as a child since my mom was afraid our dog or cat would puncture the bag and beans would go everywhere. That was probably the case for the cheaply made bags you could buy in the 90s, but Big Joe bean bags are made out of a water-resistant, puncture-resistant material. My cats sleep happily in mine when I’m not gaming and I’ve had no problems with rips or tears.
Wii U Daily Gift-A-Day Giveaway
This post is part of our Gift-A-Day giveaway that we announced earlier this month. Each day until December 21 we’ll be posting one unique gift idea for any gamers in your life, including yourself! We know how hard it can be to get something for the gamer who has everything, so we’re hoping to make that a little easier this holiday season. Prizes include Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, GameCube controllers, amiibo, and even some special surprises we’ll reveal in our live hangout when we announce winners.
Enter below for your chance to win. Winners will be announced on December 22 in a live hangout, where winners will be matched with their prizes. For a look at some of the things we’ll be giving away that day, check out the original announcement post.