The Game Recommendation For Your Kids thread

Thanks all! The eldest is 5 turning 6 in December. He did well with Minecraft Dungeons as long as I was riding coop so i dont think it will be a problem. Looking at the advice here i think ill go Marvel or LOTR The Hobbit. I err more LOTR myself so that might push the decision

Both my kids have loved Mario Party since the WiiU one, which puts at least one in the target age range. The younger really enjoyed (still does) being the bad guy in that entry.

Thanks Jonman! My daughter is not really good with a controller at all. But to be fair to her she only started using one about a week ago when I bought Mario Kart so we can "race" together. Before that I encouraged her to hit the A button after I lined up a shot in the free golf game, or to hit A to dig/open treasure in A Short Hike. But I just put a controller in her hands so she can try to navigate with it about a week ago.

I expect we'll play more this winter as we spend more time indoors and she'll develop some familiarity.

Zwickle wrote:

Thanks Jonman! My daughter is not really good with a controller at all. But to be fair to her she only started using one about a week ago when I bought Mario Kart so we can "race" together. Before that I encouraged her to hit the A button after I lined up a shot in the free golf game, or to hit A to dig/open treasure in A Short Hike. But I just put a controller in her hands so she can try to navigate with it about a week ago.

I expect we'll play more this winter as we spend more time indoors and she'll develop some familiarity.

I'll say this - I feel like Mario Party was instrumental to my kid's getting comfortable/familiar with a controller. Starting out just doing the board-game sections, that's a super low bar, and not dispiriting. You're still making Mario/Peach jump up and hit the dice and move around the board and fun stuff happens. It's super welcoming.

As she's as she's grown, she's "aged into" the minigames, and that's given her scope to learn more complicated controls (even though they're still very simple - left stick and one button, very occasionally two).

Just turned in some old games for credit and got a second controller for playing lego games with the almost 5 year old.

Started with Avengers.... geez... really really bad opening section.... he wanted to quit because it was too hard. Took me 20 mins to figure out we could not actually beat a shock tank and had to both hit B next to the pad... while being shot.... then another 3-4 minutes to do it myself so I could go track down the kid who gave up.

Which Lego game starts easier? I want something that is as simple as possible so he can start getting used to the way controls work. He can do all the basics, its the reticle aiming and multi-button stuff that gives him issues.

Eh. I had a similar experience with Lego Incredibles with my daughter at that age and the inescapable conclusion was that she was to young for that game.

Jonman wrote:

Eh. I had a similar experience with Lego Incredibles with my daughter at that age and the inescapable conclusion was that she was to young for that game.

I was afraid of that. Wouldn't be an issue if we weren't being shot at.... I have LOTR and Star Wars also.

manta173 wrote:
Jonman wrote:

Eh. I had a similar experience with Lego Incredibles with my daughter at that age and the inescapable conclusion was that she was to young for that game.

I was afraid of that. Wouldn't be an issue if we weren't being shot at.... I have LOTR and Star Wars also.

I know some people have their 5 year old playing them, but my kid didn't remotely have the controller skills at that age.

Splatoon 2 has been everything I was hoping for as an intro to online FPS for my seven year-old son. No comms, a competitive but not overly violent concept and objectives other than ‘kill every goddamn motherf*cker on the map’ has been perfect Also helps that the motion controls are pretty great and you earn stuff every match regardless of your individual performance.

DC Malleus wrote:

Splatoon 2 has been everything I was hoping for as an intro to online FPS for my seven year-old son. No comms, a competitive but not overly violent concept and objectives other than ‘kill every goddamn motherf*cker on the map’ has been perfect Also helps that the motion controls are pretty great and you earn stuff every match regardless of your individual performance.

I got Splatoon 2 for Christmas this year hoping to do this very thing with my daughter this year. I'm very happy to read all of that. Thanks for sharing it! Any experience with the DLC or any form of bots? I really want to start her out with lowerkey stuff than online matches.

Haven’t touched any DLC that isn’t gratis and we spent the first day of play learning how to move around the hub and working through the initial single player challenges. None of that involved bots, just standard mooks in challenge arenas. The online experience has been pretty gentle so far, he’s definitely lost more than he’s won, but he is enjoying the general experience and seems to have a natural instinct for painting the town red (or blue, or green, etc. ).

My experience to date has been if they cant read - they cant play most games unless you sit with them and talk it through. The lego games are not bad in the 5-6 yr range - if they have controller skills - especially camera movement. Most can be played if you sit with the child and play or guide together. Around 7 when the reading skills really pick up - I found my now 11 year old really expanding out and "playing", my current 6 yr old is in that in-between area where he wants to play, but gets too easily frustrated.

We are just hitting the stride with 3d games now. I found for us 2d games with a controller were good from about 3/4 but Minecraft et al definitely didn't become possible till 6.

What 2D games do you recommend?

We are almost finished with the first Yooka Laylee (him telling me what to do). He can work a controller looking around and running... but that's kind of his limit. Does well with Minecraft on a tablet.

manta173 wrote:

What 2D games do you recommend?

We are almost finished with the first Yooka Laylee (him telling me what to do). He can work a controller looking around and running... but that's kind of his limit. Does well with Minecraft on a tablet.

Rayman Legends has been perfect for us. Its still in hard rotation and the current lums collected well over 2 million. For first games you can play together I cant recommend it enough!

manta173 wrote:

Just turned in some old games for credit and got a second controller for playing lego games with the almost 5 year old.

Started with Avengers.... geez... really really bad opening section.... he wanted to quit because it was too hard. Took me 20 mins to figure out we could not actually beat a shock tank and had to both hit B next to the pad... while being shot.... then another 3-4 minutes to do it myself so I could go track down the kid who gave up.

Which Lego game starts easier? I want something that is as simple as possible so he can start getting used to the way controls work. He can do all the basics, its the reticle aiming and multi-button stuff that gives him issues.

I don't think either of my kids stuck with Avengers. We started with Lego Marvel Superheroes and eventually got to LMS2, and those felt really good, but Avengers felt tedious.

manta173 wrote:

What 2D games do you recommend?

We are almost finished with the first Yooka Laylee (him telling me what to do). He can work a controller looking around and running... but that's kind of his limit. Does well with Minecraft on a tablet.

It's a sh*t game, and god forbid you're in the same room while it's being played, but Paw Patrol: On A Roll was my kid's introduction to platformers. She struggled with using both thumbs at once, and that was basic enough, and an IP that she was into enough, to get her to persevere with moving AND jumping at the same time.

Jonman wrote:
manta173 wrote:

What 2D games do you recommend?

We are almost finished with the first Yooka Laylee (him telling me what to do). He can work a controller looking around and running... but that's kind of his limit. Does well with Minecraft on a tablet.

It's a sh*t game, and god forbid you're in the same room while it's being played, but Paw Patrol: On A Roll was my kid's introduction to platformers. She struggled with using both thumbs at once, and that was basic enough, and an IP that she was into enough, to get her to persevere with moving AND jumping at the same time.

lol I might have to look into that. Ok, I understand the dislike, but Paw Patrol is definitely better that a lot out there.

Jonman wrote:

It's a sh*t game, and god forbid you're in the same room while it's being played, but Paw Patrol: On A Roll was my kid's introduction to platformers. She struggled with using both thumbs at once, and that was basic enough, and an IP that she was into enough, to get her to persevere with moving AND jumping at the same time.

PP oaR is actually one of my "completions" this year, as my 3.5 year old insisted I play large stretches of it for him.
Multiple times.

It's actually pretty good for its target audience, but MAN does it get tedious quickly for anyone past 6ish.

AUs_TBirD wrote:
Jonman wrote:

It's a sh*t game, and god forbid you're in the same room while it's being played, but Paw Patrol: On A Roll was my kid's introduction to platformers. She struggled with using both thumbs at once, and that was basic enough, and an IP that she was into enough, to get her to persevere with moving AND jumping at the same time.

PP oaR is actually one of my "completions" this year, as my 3.5 year old insisted I play large stretches of it for him.
Multiple times.

It's actually pretty good for its target audience, but MAN does it get tedious quickly for anyone past 6ish.

I seem to have been lucky and dodged this particular bullet.

Santa left my middle schoolers Acer Swift 3 laptops (which are incredibly well-rounded machines, by the way!), and I'm wondering what the best way to gift them occasional games would be. They both immediately asked for Among Us, which was a no-brainer at $4. What are your recommendations for facilitating them on their gaming journey? Stick with the Microsoft store and do it through family settings? Create new Steam accounts for both and gift through the client? Something else?

Bang for the buck is important, which is why I gravitate toward Steam, I'm just not sure Steam accounts for middle schoolers is entirely appropriate.

Related question: I pay for Game Pass for Xbox, but I'm assuming this doesn't carry over to my Microsoft family on PC, or if it would work if I had to be logged in everywhere.

Just a quick recommendation. My 8 year old daughter loves it.

WizardM0de wrote:

What are your recommendations for facilitating them on their gaming journey? Stick with the Microsoft store and do it through family settings? Create new Steam accounts for both and gift through the client? Something else?

I monitor the PC and android devices with microsoft family settings, and rely on a chrome extension called StayFocusd that doesn't do 100% of what I want, but otherwise I'd have to switch to Edge for a browser.

I'm logged into the microsoft store as myself though, which mostly comes down to having bought minecraft on that account. Somehow it lets both kids play at once, so no complaints. Whenever I buy something from the microsoft store (exceedingly rare), I create a temporary credit card with a limit and use that.

Each member of the family has a Steam account, though because the wife has mostly moved to mobile games she shares one with one of the kids. I log into my steam account on their machine, and share my library with them. I trust that they won't install inappropriate games, and will know if they do via microsoft family. TABS has been popular, but not so popular that I've felt a need to buy a second copy to stop arguments and reward them. I've been keeping an eye out for a game to all play together that would need their own copy, but surprisingly none of the kids have been interested in minecraft dungeons. Large difficulty spikes seem to discourage interest.

my kids' games by popularity, 2020 edition. Most steam, some nintendo switch, some web based, and one microsoft

  • Minecraft
  • More minecraft
  • Super Mario Odyssey
  • Zelda: BotW
  • Totally Accurate Battle Simulator
  • https://littlebigsnake.com
  • https://shellshock.io
  • http://diep.io
  • Super Smash Bros
  • Clash Royale
  • Nine Parchments
  • Among Us
  • a bunch of trash pay to win mobile games not really worth mentioning. They usually were requested after visiting grandparents :/

I was a little sad that the following games were essentially complete failures:

  • Wander
  • Overcooked
  • Terraria

Hi wizardmode. We do our gaming on PlayStation but I think the options are pretty similar. My two are 4 and 6 both have sub accounts linked to mine as the parent. This means they can access any game within there age rating that’s on my account , that’s good right now as I am fully curating the choices still, when I allow them they can go into the store in a few years with gift cards. The time controls and age rating restrictions work really well setting limits etc. I think it’s the best option and eventually the accounts just morph into full grown ones.

Thanks for the suggestions of both process and games. So far the parental controls on Windows are working out well - I'm loving the weekly reports on screen time/apps. These girls are so close in age that they usually just play things together, the exception being the oldest enjoying Fortnite with friends, which she plays on Xbox. This means that the laptops so far have been de facto Zoom/video streaming/Roblox machines when they're not doing school work, but I'll keep the Steam thing in mind once they (inevitably) turn the corner to being interested in different PC games that they want to experience alone.

They don't run in circles of friends who do this at all, and I don't game on a PC anymore, so no real pull there - yet. I have hundreds of Steam games out in that Pile of Shame when they're ready. Does Steam let you login on multiple machines and play different games at the same time?

WizardM0de wrote:

. Does Steam let you login on multiple machines and play different games at the same time?

Not quite.

Basically you can share your library with other accounts through the Family Sharing feature, BUT only one account can be accessing the library at any one time (i.e. if you're playing anything on Steam, your kid can't play anything else shared from your library until you stop).

Jonman wrote:
WizardM0de wrote:

. Does Steam let you login on multiple machines and play different games at the same time?

Not quite.

Basically you can share your library with other accounts through the Family Sharing feature, BUT only one account can be accessing the library at any one time (i.e. if you're playing anything on Steam, your kid can't play anything else shared from your library until you stop).

Got it. Thanks!

I have the kids computer logged in on Steam in offline mode which works well for most part.

My 6yo boy, 9yo girl, and XXyo wife are all really enjoying Wreckfest on Xbox Game Pass. It’s just unfortunate there is no split screen.

Wreckfest is a demolition derby / racing game. Pre-COVID we watch the local demolition derby as a family and our relatives sometimes compete so maybe we are a little biased towards enjoying this sort of game.

Just got my soon to be 5 year old an actual android tablet as opposed to the fire tablet that's on it's last legs.

He's really good with taking care of it and has good self control with the limits we give him, but I want to set him up his own android account at this point to help control content and whatnot available to him. As this tablet will be less walled of a garden I want to try to get things right from the get go.

He doesn't really watch youtube much so that's not a big issue, but I assume it will become more prominent as time goes on.

Aside from making him a gmail address I will link to mine and add to our 'family group'... I'm not really sure what else to do to separate things out. Anyone got any pointers? Or am I overthinking things?