The Game Recommendation For Your Kids thread

jrralls wrote:

Best typing games for 7 and 9 year olds?

Typing of the dead.

Or that would have been perfect for my 7 and 9 year olds.

troubleshot wrote:

Anyone here know much about the Lego games? Specifically which ones are best for parent child play out of Lego Movie 1 & 2, Harry Potter years 1-4 & Jurrasic Park?

They’re kind of all the same, so it’s really about what IP you prefer.

That said, I thought the first Lego Marvel Heroes game was top notch.

Also, if you want to go on a very expensive scavenger hunt, Lego Dimensions is quite good. I can recommend the Ghostbusters set.

Jonman wrote:

My 6 year old finds them frustratingly finicky (we've tried Batman and Incredibles). To be fair, her controller skills aren't that good yet - I expect she'll age into them before long as they improve.

Yeah we tried Batman back then too, it's ease of play was no match for Marvel. It has more fiddly puzzles with the use of different gadgets etc. The first Marvel game was far easier for the boy to pick up.

Jonman wrote:

My 6 year old finds them frustratingly finicky (we've tried Batman and Incredibles). To be fair, her controller skills aren't that good yet - I expect she'll age into them before long as they improve.

My daughter was the same. 8 years old was the sweet spot for her.

doubtingthomas396 wrote:
jrralls wrote:

Best typing games for 7 and 9 year olds?

Typing of the dead.

Or that would have been perfect for my 7 and 9 year olds.

Typing of the dead isn't too scary/mature for kids? I was about to pull the trigger on Epistory -- Typing Chronicles but I want one that is going to encourage proper finger placement, etc... Am I stuck with Mavis?

Edgar_Newt wrote:
doubtingthomas396 wrote:
jrralls wrote:

Best typing games for 7 and 9 year olds?

Typing of the dead.

Or that would have been perfect for my 7 and 9 year olds.

Typing of the dead isn't too scary/mature for kids? I was about to pull the trigger on Epistory -- Typing Chronicles but I want one that is going to encourage proper finger placement, etc... Am I stuck with Mavis?

I never claimed to be a good father.

But seriously, that’s a kid by kid basis. My kids have loved zombie and horror games since they were 7 and 9 (they’re two years apart) but they’re also mature enough to handle them. They have always had a strong sense of the difference between fantasy and reality, and teaching them they can fight the monsters rather than being afraid of them seems to be working.

But for kids who aren’t related to me, I don’t like Mavis Beacon, because she’s boring for adults already, let alone kids. Typing Shark was pretty fun, though, and definitely more typically kid friendly.

Edgar_Newt wrote:
doubtingthomas396 wrote:
jrralls wrote:

Best typing games for 7 and 9 year olds?

Typing of the dead.

Or that would have been perfect for my 7 and 9 year olds.

Typing of the dead isn't too scary/mature for kids? I was about to pull the trigger on Epistory -- Typing Chronicles but I want one that is going to encourage proper finger placement, etc... Am I stuck with Mavis?

My 6 year old is doing this "learn to type" freebie on the BBC: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topic...

She does Dance Mat Typing at school but finds it boring. I need something one step up from that. I may try Typing of the Dead. Thanks again for these recommendations.

Edgar_Newt wrote:

She does Dance Mat Typing at school but finds it boring. I need something one step up from that. I may try Typing of the Dead. Thanks again for these recommendations.

Warning, Typing of the Dead: Overkill (the one on Steam) is EXTREMELY NSFW. Absolutely littered with swearing, and the final scene is one of the most tasteless you'll ever see in a videogame.

Regular Typing of the Dead is just zombies. Overkill is the B-move blaxploitation version of it.

David Lynch Teaches Typing is a thing that exists. Just saying.

Edgar_Newt wrote:
Jonman wrote:

My 6 year old finds them frustratingly finicky (we've tried Batman and Incredibles). To be fair, her controller skills aren't that good yet - I expect she'll age into them before long as they improve.

My daughter was the same. 8 years old was the sweet spot for her.

Our experience is similar. My 5yo struggles with all the older LEGO games (like the ones that came out on Xbox 360) but seems to do well in more recent ones like Ninjago. My 8yo was fine with them all. Both like LEGO Worlds but that is a different kind of game.

Thanks for the heads-up Jonman.

Re: Epistory, I think it'd be too hard/frustrating for a kid. I found even some of the early stages quite tough and I regard myself as a decent typist. Perhaps there's an easy mode I missed, or maybe one has been added since I last played.

There are a bunch of co-op games I'd recommend as an alternative to the Lego games. One my son and I really like is Portal Knights, which is like a "my first action RPG". It has 3rd person lock-on, dodge rolling combat, perks to assign, and it also has minecraft-like building. It's probably one for when the controller skills have established more though.

Anyone know how difficult Unravel 2 is to play two player parent and child?

troubleshot wrote:

Anyone know how difficult Unravel 2 is to play two player parent and child?

The second player stuff is mostly optional. It’s the same game if you play single player and just swap between the characters. You’ll do most of the puzzling, and your kid will mostly be in charge of standing in one place.

Unless the puzzles ramp up later. Portal 2 this ain’t.

My 9 year old just totally powered through AC:Syndicate.

I'm not totally sure how I feel about that.

When he first expressed an interest in it, I thought he would bounce off of it pretty quickly because he usually doesn't have the patience for many complex or analytical game mechanics. Maybe the modern AC games can be played without having to worry about those things. Certainly, he played the game in a different way than I did.

He asked good questions throughout about the historical figures and the context. But, man he liked beating people to death.

I've decided that he should play AC:Origins next.

polq37 wrote:

My 9 year old just totally powered through AC:Syndicate.

I'm not totally sure how I feel about that.

When he first expressed an interest in it, I thought he would bounce off of it pretty quickly because he usually doesn't have the patience for many complex or analytical game mechanics. Maybe the modern AC games can be played without having to worry about those things. Certainly, he played the game in a different way than I did.

He asked good questions throughout about the historical figures and the context. But, man he liked beating people to death.

I've decided that he should play AC:Origins next.

I have good news, you have a 9 year old boy....

Edit

Cross post from the switch thread:

Saw some Links Awakening talk earlier, so we finished that up last week and it was great! Playing with my 6 year old as co-pilot has been a lot of fun, she even picked up on a few boss cues and dungeon puzzles I was missing which made me proud, the last boss felt a bit frustrating but that may have been because we were rushing towards the end. I had played the original on gameboy back in the day so I loved the nostalgia trip, I presume I never finished it?

We've since started playing Unravel 2 co-op and my 6 year old is showing more platformer competency than I'd have expected, tied (pun!) with the fact the game has great options to get through any puzzle thus far atleast with one experienced player and one with limited ability.

I also picked up the Lego Harry Potter series, only first level in but its just what I'd hoped to play with my eldest. Will be even better when my youngest is old enough they can play together.
Getting weird urges to buy Breath of the Wild again (i borrowed a friends WiiU and played it on that when it came out), and actually finishing it. But no way would I have the time for that.

Asmodee, are offering free Print & Play board games in the hopes of helping families who are having to spend more time at home.

“In these difficult times due to the Covid-19 worldwide crisis, we at Asmodee are happy to offer families a way to play together from the comfort and safety of their home. We hope that these free ‘Print & Play’ games can offer some measure of relief, adventure and fun for everyone while staying safe at home.” - Stephane Carville, CEO of Asmodee

Also Ticket to Ride: First Journey is currently free on iOS

My almost 6 year old has been having fun with Stardew Valley, but is starting to get bored with it. Anything along those lines? Mostly exploration and chit-chatting?

I don't have any consoles, she's just playing on my laptop.

I don’t know if it’s pc but my almost 6 year old loves grow home. Pootling about as a robot and growing a flower suits him well it seems.

Lester_King wrote:

My almost 6 year old has been having fun with Stardew Valley, but is starting to get bored with it. Anything along those lines? Mostly exploration and chit-chatting?

I don't have any consoles, she's just playing on my laptop.

Short Hike could work? Loved that game. Light platforming involved but no fail/death mechanic.

My daughter loves character design. Is there any game or program which is solely character design?

Does anyone have recent experience with Roblox?

Our 12-year-old daughter is very interested in playing thanks to some YouTuber she discovered, but I'm hesitant because 1.) the game looked like hot garbage when our son played it years ago on Xbox and 2.) the community generated content seemed a bit too open for my comfort, or at least it did many years ago.

Any suggestions or thoughts? She seems interested in the whole mini-game thing but has bounced hard off of traditional questing games I've introduced.

jrralls wrote:

My daughter loves character design. Is there any game or program which is solely character design?

The Sims? My daughter and I have had a great time going through and creating characters.

Or even Spore?

I still am amazed that my son truly enjoys Breath of the wild and i am very surprised that he is good at it. He is jsut 5 years old.

Id recommend

Yoshis Crafted world
Super Marios bros U

Maybe there's a better thread for this, but any advice on migrating my 9yo from my Steam account to his own? He's starting to want to have his own friends online so I'd like to separate him from my account; I may also build him a PC before too long

I figure I just need to create a Steam account for him and add him to my family sharing. Then I'll probably go back to using Windows accounts on the PC so he'll log in as himself there; he won't remember to log himself into Steam every time, and I won't remember to log *out* every time. Save games and workshop items will have to be case by case I suppose, that'll be the annoying bit.

Any other pitfalls I'm missing?

Biggest pitfall with Steam Family Sharing is that only one person can be accessing the shared library at any given time. So if you're playing something, he's locked out. Not an issue if there's only one PC you'll be sharing on, but might come back to bite you in the butt once he's up and running with his own machine.

But otherwise, yeah, you're on the money. Own Windows account, own Steam account. Save files will have to be manually transferred. Workshop items should be fine given the library share, I think?

Make sure you lock down his Steam account so it's age-appropriate. It's pretty self-evident how to do it in the Family View of steam. This will also let you set access to only a subset of your library under Family Sharing, so that he can't play Anime Pantie Simulator 2020.

I'm OK with single access for now; sometime when I build him a PC we'll have to see. Usually he wants to use the PC between school and dinner when I'm still working, so no problem there. When contention became an issue with older daughter I just got her a copy of Stardew Valley for her PC, but she doesn't game much.

I have a separate account for no games like Anime Panty Simulator, so no worries there :). And he's not yet interested in anything else I don't want him playing. Usually I leave him in family mode just to lock down the social stuff but with no games locked out. That might change if one of his online friends invites him to play something inappropriate that I happen to have installed. He actually tends to choose his games from a desktop folder full of shortcuts, not Steam at all, so he doesn't have a great idea what I actually have, and doesn't seem to care very much.

thanks!

Totes. I was joking about anime panty simulator, but even a library devoid of that kind of nonsense still might have a lot of stuff that's isn't suitable for a 9 year old. I'm not sure I'd want my 9 year old playing the Doom reboots, for instance, or Just Cause.

It was easier for me to whitelist games than it was to trawl through the thousand+ games (many of which got acquired through bundles and remain unplayed, so I don't really have a handle on how appropriate they are), and blacklist the ones I didn't want accessible.