55 Games & Novelties Gift Ideas (2026)

55 ideas from the games & novelties area of The Man Cave. Nothing is sold here — pick anything up and it opens a pre-filled search at the retailer.

The test of a games gift is whether it stays out. Something that lives on a table gets played; something that has to be fetched from a cupboard gets played once. Weight, wood, a proper case and a decent box do more for that than any feature list.

So this corner is stocked with the things that earn their floor space. A cabinet and a board on the wall, for the rooms with space to spare. A chess set and a poker case that read as objects rather than toys. Paddles for a table that already exists somewhere in the house. A puzzle cube and a putting strip for the ten minutes between other things, which is when most of these actually get used.

It is the right area for a milestone birthday, a new place with an empty room in it, or someone who keeps saying they should have people over more. Pick a piece to see what is out there.

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Arcade Machine

An arcade cabinet is a room's centrepiece rather than a game, and worth treating that way. It is a large, heavy, deliberate object that says something about the space it is in, and it gets played by guests far more than by whoever owns it — which is the point. The scale question is the whole question: full-height cabinets need a wall and a plan, while the countertop and tabletop versions give most of the effect for a fraction of the floor. Decide the footprint before searching, because the listings all look identical until you check a dimension.

1 more option for this piece inside the room.

Dartboard

A dartboard is the most floor-efficient game in this room — it uses a wall and a throwing line and nothing else, which makes it the answer for a flat with no space for anything bigger. The choice is bristle or soft-tip. Bristle is the traditional, quieter, better-playing board and needs a proper surround unless the wall behind it is expendable. Soft-tip is electronic, keeps score, and is the safer bet for a household with children in it. Buy the surround with the board; it is the accessory everyone skips and everyone regrets skipping.

Chess Set

Chess is a gift about the object rather than the game — everyone can already play online for nothing, so a set has to be worth having on a table. Weight is what does it. Weighted pieces and a wooden board turn a game into a piece of furniture that quietly invites someone to sit down at it, which a folding travel set never will. Give the travel one anyway if they actually travel. Worth checking piece height against board square size in the listing, since the mismatched sets look wrong in a way that is hard to unsee.

4 more options for this piece inside the room.

Puzzle Cube

A puzzle cube is the small gift that outlasts most large ones. It costs little, occupies a desk corner, and gets picked up during phone calls for years. The distinction worth knowing is speed cubes against standard ones: the fast-turning versions are enormously more pleasant to handle and cost barely more, so there is little reason to give the stiff kind. For someone who has already solved the ordinary one, the larger and irregular shapes are a genuine step up rather than a novelty. Good stocking gift, good desk gift, good gift for someone who says they want nothing.

2 more options for this piece inside the room.

Poker Set

A poker set is a hosting gift dressed as a game. The chips are what matter: a proper clay-weight set in a case feels like an occasion and a light plastic one feels like a rainy afternoon, and the difference in price is smaller than the difference in use. Sets come in 200, 300 and 500 chip counts, which map roughly to how many people are round the table — anything under 200 runs short with six players. Cards and a dealer button are usually included; a mat almost never is, and it is the thing that makes the table.

3 more options for this piece inside the room.

Ping Pong Set

Table tennis paddles are the gift for a table that already exists — in a garage, a basement, an office, a games room somebody else furnished. That makes them an unusually good present, because most of these tables are played on with whatever bats came free with them fifteen years ago, and a decent pair transforms the game immediately. The specification is grip and rubber rather than anything technical. For a house with no table, the clamp-on net sets turn a dining table into one, which is a better gift than it sounds and takes up a drawer.

2 more options for this piece inside the room.

Putting Strip

A putting mat is for the golfer who cannot get out as often as they would like, which is every golfer. It lives in a hallway or an office, gets used in two-minute bursts, and is one of the few practice tools that genuinely fits into an ordinary day. Length is the specification: the short ones are for stroke and confidence, the longer ones for reading pace properly. The auto-return versions save the walk and are the ones people keep using after the first fortnight. A gift for someone whose hobby is otherwise entirely outdoors.

3 more options for this piece inside the room.

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As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Nothing is sold here — every pick opens a pre-filled search at the retailer, where the real listings, prices and stock live. How this works.