Games to play with your children

Serfax

Does anyone have a resource, or compiled a list somewhere, of games targeting entry-level humans. Or maybe a transition map of how complicated/suitable a "good" game is for specific ages. For example: here's a list of games good for age 3, and the concepts they involve. Then age 4, 5, 6 etc...

I am a long time gamer. I started gaming well before my parents entirely knew what gaming was - that is, the meaningful experiences I had with my parents never involved video games. I am somewhat jealous of the recent PA comics depicting grown-man-parents being able to play games with their kids of somewhat older age than mine. There are a slew of mobile apps that my 3 y/o has been occasionally interested in. Is this the only way to go? I really want to jump ahead to playing something truly multiplayer with him. Like, "A Brothers Tale" sounds perfect but I think the controls are still a bit too complicated - not coordination-wise, but problem solving.

Thanks

Shadowfire

A friend of mine used to just let his kids hold a controller that wasn't hooked up while he played. After a while he just started hooking it up and letting them go to town.

My 10 month old already tries to grab my phone out of my hand if I'm playing Final Fantasy Record Keeper.

I mean... Why not just let the kiddo try? Just plug in some games and let him decide what he likes. Maybe he won't be able to handle it today, especially coop games, but over time he'll improve and you'll start playing together.

Don't rush him. Like everything else with parenting, it's going to take time to teach.

Bartholamue

You could always try Super Mario Bros. You know, the first one. The first levels are easy enough.

surrealitycheck

but in all seriousness it honestly depends on the child

early readers will be able to have fun with adventure games, kids who like messing with stuff will enjoy buildy things or stuff like minecraft etc

i think it depends on ur objective and the child

Stupid

We've had a lot of luck with the small humans in our world with two player "helper" games - where the primary player controls that action and the second payer is a "helper" character that can only influence the gameplay but not directly affect it. For example: Child of Light and Never Alone work very well.

The key is to give the kid the main character control and the parent/guardian plays the helper. That way you can help "guide" them while they actually PLAY the game.

TDawg

Serfax wrote: »

Does anyone have a resource, or compiled a list somewhere, of games targeting entry-level humans. Or maybe a transition map of how complicated/suitable a "good" game is for specific ages. For example: here's a list of games good for age 3, and the concepts they involve. Then age 4, 5, 6 etc...

I am a long time gamer. I started gaming well before my parents entirely knew what gaming was - that is, the meaningful experiences I had with my parents never involved video games. I am somewhat jealous of the recent PA comics depicting grown-man-parents being able to play games with their kids of somewhat older age than mine. There are a slew of mobile apps that my 3 y/o has been occasionally interested in. Is this the only way to go? I really want to jump ahead to playing something truly multiplayer with him. Like, "A Brothers Tale" sounds perfect but I think the controls are still a bit too complicated - not coordination-wise, but problem solving.

Thanks

Despite what it looks like, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons is absolutely a single player game, and trying to make it a multi-player game throws a lot of the charm and impact of the story out of the window.

For younger kids, its probably best to stick to simpler stuff, like 2D Platformers. Kirby games come to mind as something spectacularly well-suited towards kids, because its easy to control, and is fairly lenient on the player. Both Kirby games on the Wii have co-op and are well regarded.