I thought there was a similar thread to this but can't find it.
My little one is nearly 5 now and now getting into games in a proper sense. She can move around fairly well but struggles with the second stick camera, but she now realises most games let you recenter with a click so she just stops and does that rather than moving it like you are meant to.
She utterly loves Disney Infinity that we have played for maybe at least a year now, we only play toybox mode though and she likes just making and placing stuff everywhere, putting in bad guys and then running away.
We have also tried the Pixar thing that she does like but she gets bored of the missions being linear and like 20 mins each, we occasionally play Goat Simulator, again she likes that this is open and you can go anywhere, whilst playing she constantly just makes up stories and does voices etc.
What else can people suggest or do you think we should look at? I downloaded minecraft, how easy is that to pick up? Other than a little dabble on the Vita I have never tried that.
Not a suggestion but she loves Mario Kart on the Switch, they have done a brilliant job of how accessible that is as I have the auto acceleration and course correction on for her and she loves it.
Our oldest is 4, and loves Untitled Goose Game - though she's too young and impatient to complete objectives, so she just wanders around honking at people.
She also likes Spyro, but that's more as a spectator sport, making her mother play as she bellows instructions.
My youngest is now 9. She hates games with failure so all she has really played is Mario Kart, Mario Odyssey, Animal Crossing, Minecraft (Vita then PC) and The Sims.
My boy is the opposite, from an early age he liked games with definite objectives and ideally high scores / some sort of progress marker. Open world stuff and freeform stuff bored him (and still does).
We played a lot of Wii U games when he was younger. Nintendo Land, New Super Mario Bros U, Mario 64 (and by extension Banjo-Kazooie), Rayman Legends (especially the touch screen levels), Yoshi's Woolly World. Also Rock Band and Singstar.
As he's got older, his most played games have been Super Smash Bros (both Wii U and Switch versions) and Splatoon 2, as well as Super Mario Maker 1 & 2. Nowadays he's mostly on Fortnite but that's just a social thing and a way for him to talk to his mates really.
Our almost-6 (when the hell did that happen?!) year old first really got into games with Animal Crossing, and that's mostly the speed he approaches games at.
He's keen to wander around and hack away at the world in Minecraft, occasionally stabbing a few blocks together, but he's not really got the enthusiasm to undertake any significant projects by himself yet (though he will cheer me on when I'm handed the controller and given instructions). He loves Lego though, and has started to get the hang of converting ideas into things, so maybe we're close to some kind of Minecraft Magnum Opus once he gets to grips with the interface.
I'm pretty sure he's found more stars in my Mario Odyssey save file than I have, just wandering around and whacking stuff with the hat. Again, long-term goals are not appealing so he flits between kingdoms (and outfits) fairly rapidly.
The latest game he's into is Okami; mostly he likes standing around and torturing NPCs with the wind technique, though he's also got the hang of changing between night and day, the power slash, and drawing lily pads (he's passed many hours standing on a lily pad and sailing himself around with the wind).
He did manage to get to the final boss in Kirby Star Allies more or less by himself, though – I was drafted in to beat the thing, with around zero experience of the mechanics, leading to a very frustrated onlooker and player as he tried to give me a crash course.
Untitled Goose Game was also a hit, especially once the 2-player mode came out. The co-op in Mario Odyssey and Kirby have also been well-exercised.
He's just started school and I reckon once he can read by himself he'll be right into JRPGs. He's well versed in Skies of Arcadia lore as I've been using it as a bedtime story for months, was very keen on watching me play Dragon Quest XII, and I've dragged the GameCube up for some Paper Mario: Thousand Year Door, which he's pretty into.
Forgetting that we also played a lot of Lego Ninjago, again though she isn't into the story missions though and moans as soon as a cut scene turns on.
I have the Wii U packed away under the bed so I might dig that out and see what I can find her for it from CEX next week, thinking about it the mix of thumbstick and touchscreen is probably perfect.
I have Mario Maker 2 and not really got into it so might look into making some version basic courses for her to have a play at then see if she wants to make her own.
she isn't into the story missions though and moans as soon as a cut scene turns on.
This is definitely a thing, I find, even now my son is 12: a zero tolerance approach for any form of non-interactive cut-scene or text box. They just get skipped, immediately, no questions asked. If a game doesn't have him in control and doing something within ten seconds of it starting, he's not interested.
He was watching me play Hades this morning and getting really into it, loved all the upgrades and all the things you could do, but I know he'll never play it himself because he'll just skip or avoid every bit of dialogue and end up getting nowhere.
I'm impressed that aniki is raising the next generation of JRPG fan there because it's certainly not going to happen here.
she isn't into the story missions though and moans as soon as a cut scene turns on.
This is definitely a thing, I find, even now my son is 12: a zero tolerance approach for any form of non-interactive cut-scene or text box. They just get skipped, immediately, no questions asked. If a game doesn't have him in control and doing something within ten seconds of it starting, he's not interested.
My son does this too. And then I have to try and help him work out where to go in, say, Pokémon because he didn't read the information telling him where to go. Sigh.
Mine aren't overly fussed by games. 17 yo will happily play Persona 3 Portable over and again but appears to have bounced off of both Persona 4 and Persona 5, she mostly plays Minecraft.
8 and 6 year olds have shown a passing interest but when faced with learning to play anything quickly lose any desire to try and would rather go and do anything else. Though our 6 yo is obsessed with all of the Pokemon and Sonic the Hedgehog series on Netflix
I get people think it's from me but it's not, but Soph is into Sonic the character too, when we went to the National Video Games Museum she kept talking about Sonic because of the statue, and as soon as she saw it started telling me about him and that there was a pink girl Sonic too, and I have no idea where she has picked that up from other than Kids YT.
Slight tangent, but still kinda answering the OP:
I can recommend running TTRPGs for kids and their friends. I started running games for my elder daughter when she was 13. A couple hours, every week or two. It's easily doubled the amount of time we spend together which isn't spent arguing about homework, mess, dog walks, screen time… Instead we spend a couple of hours arguing about spell durations, how big a target Jabba The Hutt is, what the difference is between a halberd and a glaive.
I get people think it's from me but it's not, but Soph is into Sonic the character too, when we went to the National Video Games Museum she kept talking about Sonic because of the statue, and as soon as she saw it started telling me about him and that there was a pink girl Sonic too, and I have no idea where she has picked that up from other than Kids YT.
Kids YouTube is where Freya's obsession begun. She's seen the movie but, well, she's not fussed about all the live action aspect of it, though she has seen Knuckles will be in the sequel so is a little bit more excited.
So we tried Minecraft properly this week. 3-5 hours of not liking it and having no idea what to do, then suddenly hilarity of shearing a sheep and seeing it run off bald.
Oddly there seems to be no tutorial with this version now, I have some memories of playing the Vita one a tad but that was easily 5 years ago now.
Later on I am going to look into if we can get The Switch connected with the Xbox Game Pass version so we can play in the same world but on separate screens.
Feels weird to re-read this post and consider the time before Minecraft. My kid is a Minecraft obsessive now. She only plays on the Creative mode but already makes some incredible stuff and is always assigning us little roles and characters as we play. She is massively into the Jurassic Park Minecraft theme world too as she had seen that on something or other.
Anyway the last two days I had downloaded her Slime Rancher after spotting in on Gamepass, has anyone played or seen this? It's surprisingly complex and has a slight Viva Pinanta mixed with Pikmin vibe to it in terms of the management and the way you are upgrading and progressing to different areas, but I can't believe how much she has picked up from it and how she is constantly thinking about the game when not playing it. And despite being a single player (at least locally) it's fun to just sit and watch or casually observe and just help her with the reading or slightly trickier game mechanic parts.
Big fan of Slime Rancher here, I loved playing through it and then my boy became obsessed with it too a little while back. It's a great game that only ever has as much pressure in it as you want, and as you say the progression in it is perfect.
Got the new Lego Star Wars Skywalker Saga today, it's the first Lego game in a while and they've made a number of much-needed changes to the formula, not least a switch to a behind-the-shoulder viewpoint and a more traditional split-screen format. Cut-scenes are plentiful but very short and usually involve some form of ridiculous slapstick. Just played through the first level or two so far but it looks like it's going to be loads of fun - and also absolutely massive.
Have they made it so that when you're playing in co-op, both players get achievements? Because that's never been a thing before and it sucks.
Doesn’t seem that way. We’ve unlocked a couple of achievements and we only got one pop-up for each.
Slime Rancher is absolutely wonderful. I played it for a long time myself, with my son watching me, and then he took over. He absolutely rinsed every corner of it. We've found every single pod, completed all the expansions, explored every corner of the map. Our farm house is covered in baubles, and there are musical balls strewn around the place after unsuccessful attempts to arrange them in tunes. My kid loves it, and I'd say it's one of my favorite games of all-time too. There is a sequal in development, due to be released this year.
One thing I'd say about kids gaming, is be wary of Roblox. Roblox is not an ethical set-up, it is a commercial enterprise designed to maximise profit by any means possible. There aren't really adequate protections in place for what is supposed to be a game for children. The dangers are more subtle than you might expect - this is not, as far as I'm aware, a torrent of filth and violence, but a gateway to gambling and exploitation. If you want more details, the youtube channel People Make Games (which is closely linked to the wonderful board games channel Shut Up And Sit Down) have two excellent videos in the subject.
https://www.youtube.com/c/PeopleMakeGames/featured
Yeah kept her away from that. She is still learning to read and I remember my nephew and niece playing that and them constantly getting either messages, requests etc regardless of how much my sister-in-law tried to lock down the accounts.
Annoyingly though she does know what it is as is always watching some annoying YouTuber called Cookie world or Cookie Swirl playing that.
Oh god, Cookie Swirl. I'm having PTSD flashbacks to when my daughter was younger…
Guess I didn't get anything out of Slime Rancher when I played. It all seemed too repetitive and pointless from what I played, but maybe I didn't play enough or quite catch on to what my overall motivation was for doing what I was doing, which was throwing slimes into easily escapeable cages apparently?
Pfft, amateur, got to get the high walls and air net upgrades on them pens almost instantly.
Guess I didn't get anything out of Slime Rancher when I played. It all seemed too repetitive and pointless from what I played, but maybe I didn't play enough or quite catch on to what my overall motivation was for doing what I was doing, which was throwing slimes into easily escapeable cages apparently?
It's as much about the overall vibe as anything specifically task-based. There are the videogame hooks of exploring new areas to discover new varieties of slimes and items, the setting up of an economic machine to farm and sell plorts in order to purchase new areas to expand your farm, or to buy items that aid in the efficiency of how you run the farm, or materials for crafting items. Later, there is even the ability to automate certain tasks, which is helpful because, as is often the case in this genre of game, the task of feeding all of your many slimes can become overwhelming later in the game. There are mechanics to the game, ones that are solid, deep enough, and the sort of things you expect in a farming simulator.
What sets Slime Rancher apart though is the atmosphere. It's quite a unique feel. At once cheerful, friendly, and beautiful, but rather lonely. There are no other people in the world, but you instead have the company of these cheerful, bouncing blobs. The blobs have their own personalities, and a common goal of causing good-natured chaos. It's the sort of thing that is going to be utterly compelling to a particular type of child, and it really clicked with my kid.
farming simulator
Guess that's where I got lost. I'm one of the only peoplethe only person on this planet who doesn't like Stardew Valley. Still, didn't really feel like anything was given to me that helped with anything early on, which is really detrimental to someone trying to find something to enjoy so I can keep playing. Sort ofJust like Stardew Valley.
I can see the appeal. Just not for me, I suppose.
I thought Slime Rancher was cute until I realised that the blobs were eating the things I was trying to harvest.
Guess that's where I got lost. I'm one of the only peoplethe only person on this planet who doesn't like Stardew Valley.
OH THANK GOD I'M NOT ALONE.
I like Stardew Valley but it's super overwhelming at first, really gotta' put that time into it…..or play Harvest Moon and get that shit on track in a fraction of the time
I also hate Harvest Moon, but that's more because a) I had to work on three iterations of it, and b) how complacent the publisher/developer got about how the name alone with no evolution or change to the game itself would be enough to keep them relevant.
Yes, Harvest Moon is a hell of a lot more focused. I'm not a huge fan, but it's at least 487 times* better than Stardew Valley.
*specific number was scientifically chosen after 492 hours** of painstaking research
**this number was made up
My 2 year old who's almost 3 now, never stops playing Forza horizon 5. He holds the pad backwards so it's easier to press the triggers. For someone who can only drive forward and backward he dose surprisedly well. He loves Sonic the Hedgehog character, but the games are way too hard for him to play, until last night. He managed to beat the first level with Tails in Sonic advance. He's was over the moon haha.
My go to game tho is a app called "pop us!" On the phone. Really easy for him, just gonna tap all the bubble's and it just keeps moving on pretty fast. One issus though. You'll need to turn off the internet on your phone to stop ads invading.
So today I made my missus have a go on Shredders revenge, she loved you could be April and got really into the game, and then our little one saw us playing and wanted a go - Which has resulted in us playing all the way from 1 to world 9 in a couple of different settings and having an absolute blast.
Little one has stopped fighting the tougher enemies now but is always finding the health and then shouting out who needs it most, as well as being in charge of reviving us.
