Fez - lots of environmental stuff going on, a day-night cycle, plenty of interactivity, nonviolent, forgiving almost to a fault. This was one of my son’s first VGs at 3. He would play with the controller upside down sometimes and still have a good time. The right-angle perspective shifting is a pretty unique mechanic, too.
PLayed som Super Mario 3D World with my kids and it’s great for playing with littles:
- the levels are fairly short, so there’s a good sense of constant progress
- every level has some portions that aren’t too challenging, there’s usually one or two small things that a kid can do in every level, even if it’s just picking up a star or hitting the checkpoint flags
- up to 4 players at a time
- players that get left behind or die are bubbled, and then float behind, following the leader. So, they can float in the bubble over any hard sections (its also possible to carry one another, but that’s trickier)
- If you hit 0 lives, there’s minimal penalty. All that happens is that you get kicked out of the current level. Goodie huts (toad / jackpot houses) respawn, and you’re given 5 lives per-player. That means that if the lead player / adult can beat the level in 10-15 or less lives, you’re never going to get stuck.
- Star gate (progress check) requirements are pretty lenient, seems like getting about half the stars is enough.
I have 2 kids, so Mario Odyssey and Bowser’s Fury are a little trickier since only 2 players can play at a time. Once the older one is a little more experienced though, I’ll see if she can play in assist mode with her little sister in the helper spot.
My older daughter loves pokemon and can read now, so we’re going to try to take another stab at one of the pokemon games (probably Let’s go Eevee). We played it a bit when she was younger but she lost interest because it was hard for her to understand what was happening and didn’t really have an attachment to the characters yet.
I’ve had some success with Moving Out, most recently.
It’s a comedy-physics game, so there’s lots of stupid things happening that trigger lots of laughter. There’s sort of no failure states and no individual time-pressure on specific tasks, so the kids can derp around as much as they want, as badly as they want, but still contribute. It’s up to 4 players, but one player (i.e. me) can basically carry the team through to the end of each level, so there’s no hard stops, you’re able to plug through and get to new content pretty easily and consistently. The controls require a tiny bit of chording for some actions, but it’s possible to accomplish something with just the analog stick and one shoulder button, so it’s pretty accessible.
It also has a bunch of “assist mode” options, which kind of generally make the game easier. I’ve turned most of them on to make time limits more generous and remove some of the trickier fail states.
I tried New Super Mario Bros U Deluxe with them, which has some “easy mode” characters, but the overall design isn’t nearly as friendly as 3D World. Levels are easier to get trapped in, and the lives are less generous, and the save system is a weird checkpoint thing where you have to reach certain stages before it will save progress, which means it’s much harder to drop in/out of and make sure you’re making progress. I may play it myself, but not great overall.
The 2D Marios are in general a lot less forgiving in my experience. Odyssey, on the other hand, was absolutely perfect for my then-7yo with Assist mode on. She adores that game, and beat the whole thing by herself. I could see her starting to trust herself and her reasoning and investigation and experimentation skills, rather than asking (me, usually) for a solution, as she played through.
The Switch more than earned its keep in my house for that alone.
I never enjoyed the 2D Marios either. It still amazes me that the 3D Marios are soooo good, but the 2D Marios seem to be targeted toward much more hardcore audiences for some reason. I had a much better time with Braid or the Ori games, to give two better examples of 2D platformers, than the 2D Mario games.
Oh, I love every single* 2D Mario to death. I’m just agreeing that they are less forgiving and demand more from the player. I’m just invested enough in 2D platforming that I actively enjoy clearing the bars they set.
2D Mario has consistently hit the right level of challenge for me, personally.
One of the first times I was playing video games with my toddler in the room was NSMBUD (what an acronym). My wife walked into the room and asked what was going on, and my daughter answered, “Watching the red boy fall”. Not wrong.
Recently my kids have been playing Smash together and having a lot of fun. My oldest son likes Samus (because that’s daddy’s favorite), my daughter likes playing as the purple Squidling, and my youngest likes being either Donkey Kong or Yoshi. They’re terrible, but ironically my daughter consistently beats her 3 year older brother who gets very frustrated about that.
One time he was about to throw the controller when I stopped him. I then set up a match and took over for my daughter and just destroyed him. After the match I simply said ‘are you going to get mad about your sister winning now?’
Sometimes you need to just show them their place.
I’ve also downloaded the Yoshi’s Crafted World demo, which has been a hit. Might have to get the full game.
One game that never got mentioned before is Katamari Damacy and series. Sure winning might elude them, but simply moving around the world in those games is incredibly amusing for them.
I just saw this thread bumped (by spam, it looks like?) and thought I’d report in with my 3- and 6-year-olds current adventures. They continue to struggle with patience in games that I assumed would be great for their age groups, and seem to love games that I think will be way too complex or challenging. But there has been some movement!
The 6-year-old is finally loving the LEGO games (Jurassic Park, specifically) and is willing to engage with the puzzles on his own, so I think he’s finally on board with learning game systems. Yay!
Super Mario 3D World is great for both, but incredibly stressful to play as the only person in a 4-player game able to complete the levels :) Fun in small doses.
2-player hardcore SHMUPs and anime fighting games continue to be the favorites for both, and are engaging for me as well. In the SHMUPs (Mushihimesama and Deathsmiles on Switch, Ketsui on PS4) I can have fun while they just press the start button when they’re out of credits. And with anime fighting games getting auto-combos (Under-Birth: XYZ and Melty Blood), they can pose somewhat of a challenge to play against while having fun doing flashy moves. In both cases, the 6-year-old is starting to understand the deeper mechanics since the environments are low-pressure.
Same with my 8 year old. And the 5 year old as well. Both have ‘beaten’ the game but keep playing the levels. And they beat the game largely without my involvement. Once I showed them things like how to switch characters. or how some interactions required mashing a button they were good.
They are completely incapable of progressing in QTE fights though. Things like the indominus- t-rex fight are impossible for them. They don’t fail, because Lego game, but they are stuck until I get them past it. They simply aren’t familiar enough with button locations and can’t transition fast enough.
I love how my 6 year old’s face immediately lit up when he caught me playing Forza. “Can I play Cars with you?”
Of course, he doesn’t know how cars work in real life or in games so when I let him drive he’s absolutely terrible at it. I tried explaining going faster on right trigger and slower on left trigger but he doesn’t get it yet. He crashed a LOT.
I wonder if the Forza Horizon series is a better on ramp for terrible children.
Edit: It is interesting that he really couldn’t get excited about Mario Kart, but seeing a game with real cars, and seeing me drive what looked like my car in real life immediately captured him though.
My ten year old daughter is now loving Sims4. My six year old son absolutely loves the ( game finished, everything unlocked in my profile) sandbox of Lego City WiiU.
Having a PC in the living room has opened us up to all kinds of multiplayer games… which is weird since the WiiU should have scratched that itch but I dunno, we never got this kind of multiplayer kick, even out of NintendoLand. We’re playing all kinds of coop stuff… Overcooked, Lumbermills, ToolsUp… just crazy manic teamwork that seems to really appeal to them, and even if half the time it’s screetching at each other about how the other one ruined everything, it’s also teaching them a fair amount of cooperation and task delegation, and a strong sense of satisfaction when we get past a hard level. PLatesUp they love as well but we hit a wall with the progressions system, it’s convoluted as F.
Boomerang Fu, Crazy Chicken Horse and SuperBomberman2-4 (snes emu, haven’t picked up the PC version yet) have been great fun, all kinda operating as PVP or PVE single screen party games that have been a great hit with the kids.
Heavenly Bodies is a hoot 2 player coop, my son has trouble but my daughter is getting it.
Two daughters 8 and 10 and they’re still stuck in the Roblox, Minecraft, and Toca trifecta of PhD designed-to-be-addictive revenue generators.
Minecraft I actually like, as their creations are both mind-blowing and hilarious: a multi-story zoo hotel with a waterslide from the roof. The chickens got out and made it into the guest rooms.
Roblox I’m sick of as it seems like crappy addictive time-wasters but there’s a lot in there I guess.
Toca is ok though pure gender-confirming with all the dress-ups, dolls, and rooms to decorate.
They’re both interested in trying new things which we dabble in too. I like the idea of these teamwork games @spiffy I’m going to research them a bit. My PC is upstairs but I run moonlight to my TV.
My daughters have dabbled in Minecraft, but have dodged both Roblox and Fortnite, finding them unappealing even when other kids are playing them. Some Toca when they were little, but none in recent years.
They both have a strong preference for playing on their own Switches, and rarely bother with single-player games on other systems – even going so far as to spend birthday money on their own portable copies of games that we already have on another system.
The biggest hits for them to play individually have been Animal Crossing, Splatoon 3, Ooblets, Story of Seasons, Pokemon, Monster Hunter Stories 2, Musynx, New Pokemon Snap, Melatonin, Sayonara Wild Hearts, Beacon Pines, Cat Quest, and Miitopia.
For multiplayer, they get stressed out by Overcooked and similar frantic co-op games, but ones with a bit less time pressure are great. Trine series, Unravel 2, Adios Amigos, Totally Reliable Delivery Service, Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime, Soundfall, Minecraft Dungeons, and Chicory.
Also chaotic competition types of party games, especially when their cousins visit. Gang Beasts, Big Crown Showdown, Boomerang Fu, Party Animals, Knight Squad 2, Mario Kart, and Smash Bros.