Video games can bring imaginations to life and cure the awful infection of boredom.

They have been a childhood staple for the past 40 years, from Atari to Nintendo to the PlayStation to the Xbox. Especially during the holidays, kids all over the world hope to wake up to find the latest, greatest video game under the Christmas tree or next to the menorah. With many video game publishers releasing several new games in time for the holiday season, The Neersyde asked the question, what games are students most looking forward to this year?

“Call of Duty WWll and Destiny 2 are the top games of 2017 holiday season,” said seventh grader Anthony Pace. “Call of Duty has realistic graphics and the campaign is a great story. But I would add another class,” he said, referring to the addition of another type of soldier in the game. Call of Duty WWll came out on November 3. The first-person shooter (FPS) game has gone back to its original roots. The game has gone from taking users into the past to the present to the future throughout its series of 11 titles, and now is back in the past.The first Call of Duty actually took place during WWll.  The latest version allows users to drive tanks and pick up flamethrowers or other weapons from the enemy (and, for some reason, users can battle zombies on certain levels).  According to shareholder reports, the Call of Duty franchise has made over $11 billion worldwide.

Seventh grader Jasper Wright also said that “Destiny 2 and Call of Duty WWll are the top games. Call of Duty has a great story and amazing graphics. So does Destiny 2. I wouldn’t change anything else [about the game’s].” Pace also said that “Destiny 2 has good graphics and good gameplay.”  

Destiny 2 is an open-world multiplayer FPS game developed by Bungie. It is the sequel to the shared-worlds Destiny, and was released on September 6, 2017 on the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 platforms. It was released on October 24, 2017 for personal computers. The plot of the game focuses on how humanity has been destroyed by an overwhelming invasion of aliens in the near future. The aliens, led by Ghaul, the imposing commander of the brutal Red Legion, are who players are up against. Users venture to mysterious, unexplored worlds of our solar system to discover an arsenal of weapons and devastating new combat abilities in order to defeat Ghaul and his Red Legion.

Of course, there’s another game that just hit stores on November 17 which takes place a long time ago in galaxy far, far away.

Star Wars Battlefront 2 , the much-anticipated sequel to Star Wars Battlefront is now available for the Xbox One and Playstation 4. Sixth grader Matthew Brodner likes Battlefront 2 because “it is more realistic than any other Star Wars game I have played, and it has cross-era gameplay, and arcade [mode] is like a sandbox because you can do what you want. There are more maps and characters, [and] my favorite part is the starfighters because it is more fun.”

Also dropping this November was Need For Speed Pay Back. The game takes place in Fortune Valley (basically Las Vegas) and features three playable characters, each with their own unique skills. “From what we’ve seen, it looks kind of like Fast and Furious the game,” according to BGR.com, a leading online site for news about consumer technology.

Other titles racing to the stores this holiday season are, Assasin’s Creed Origins and Super Mario Odyssey. Ubisoft, creator of Assassin’s Creed Origins, took a year off from the franchise, but is now back with the first new entry in the series since 2015, and aside from introducing a new environment to explore, the development team has also completely remade the combat system. The game is set in Ancient Egypt during the Ptolemaic period (48 B.C.) and recounts the secret fictional history of real-world events. The story explores the origins of the centuries-long conflict between the Brotherhood of Assassins, who fight for peace by promoting liberty, and The Order of the Ancients (forerunners to the Templar Order), who desire peace through the forced imposition of order.

It’s been seven years since Super Mario Galaxy 2 arrived for the Wii, which means seven years since the last true 3D Mario game, until now. Super Mario Odyssey, released for the Nintendo

Switch, Nintendo’s latest console, is one of the most anticipated games of the year. There are a ton of bizarre new worlds to explore, Mario can take control of enemies and assume their powers with his hat, and the game received  perfect 10/10 scores from IGN and GameSpot, popular gaming review sites.

In fact, in a recent poll of 101 middle school students, the majority (29%) responded they are looking forward to purchasing or have already purchased Super Mario Odyssey this holiday season. In second place was Star Wars Battlefront II with 26%, and in third was Call of Duty WWII with 22%.

Surprisingly, despite the fact that most people want or already own Super Mario Odyssey, according to the poll, only 9 percent of middle schoolers currently own the Nintendo Switch, the only console on which they can play that game. That means that most students are hoping to receive a Switch or purchase one over the holidays. Not surprisingly, the overwhelming majority of students own an Xbox One (59%), followed by the Wii U (35%) and the PS4 (27%).

So, what’s your favorite game? Tell The Neersyde in the comment section below.