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Good games to play with young children

MurkrLurkr

Learned
Joined
Aug 23, 2020
Messages
444
Location
Serbistan
Boosting thread, not resurrecting it, cus gaming with your children shouldn't ever cease...

1. Morphopolis



It's highly stylized, point and click, hidden object game whose theme deals with the life, transformation and passing of insects... It has 5 phases, in which you manage different beetles, from caterpillar to spider, crawling through the thicket to the sounds of aboriginal timpani.. Atmosphere is immersive and presentation colorful, but the controls are wonky and oftentimes unresponsive. We only had minor difficulties with chinese checkers like puzzle at the 4th stage and in the hindsight enjoyed it quite a bit, but that damnable last one was a disaster. I still don't understand why game devs insist on slider puzzles :argh: It was pretty fun until that point and instant recommendation for autumn evening with your family, but that last puzzle left a sour taste in our mouth and lesions on our brains... Still I urge you to at least give it a try, cus it wasn't too challenging for our five-year-old, not counting that last abysmal obstacle.

2. Labyrinth City: Pierre the Maze Detective



We played this one at my son's birthday, and it was fun for the whole gang. The children took turns navigating zany labyrinthine passages in search of a culprit, constantly being distracted by vivid and busy backgrounds. It was amusing watching them squabble (I'd recommend playing it on larger TV screen, so that all the small details would come to the fore), about the ways in which they can progress...

3. Dragon's Lair

You already know the drill... Watching Don Bluth's filmography with my kid and in the light of the upcoming Njetflix live-action adaptation I thought we should try this interactive cartoon, as I didn't have the chance or the inclination to try it before... What should I say!? Can't imagine playing and enjoying it myself, but watching my kid heading Dirk (that didn't sound right) around the castle and how annoyed he could get when missing some sequence of moves made me appreciate it. With its simplistic, but sometimes unfair, gameplay you can't go wrong with this one, especially if your kid enjoys tall tales of fantastical creatures and heros of old. It was priceless to see the elation of a child who feels in control of the events unfolding on the screen, like a little director of animated fairytale. We played it with xbox controller and felt a serious input lag on more than one occasion and I read that the game is nigh unplayable with a mouse, so despite all recommendations, tread carefully my friend :love:
 

Ontopoly

Disco Hitler
Joined
Jan 28, 2020
Messages
2,993
Location
Fairy land
You need the classic cereal box games. Freddie the Fish and Pajama Sam. Filled with humour. Fun Character. Some engaging puzzles that won't frustrate the little ones. Easy controls. Exploration. These games are perfect for the children in your life.
 

Dadd

Learned
Joined
Aug 20, 2022
Messages
2,725
Are there recent games with good art direction that require some thinking to play? No gore or sexual things.
 

Incognito/STK

Educated
Joined
Oct 5, 2021
Messages
147
Are there recent games with good art direction that require some thinking to play? No gore or sexual things.
My kids enjoyed Mario+Rabbids, Captain Toad and some Paper Mario a few years ago. Those required a bit more thought than the usual Minecrafts and Fortnites. Nintendo art and obviously no smut.
 

levelworm

Literate
Joined
Aug 11, 2022
Messages
8
Try early DOS games such as Alley Cat and Big Top. Both are very fun and challenging games. Can also try Jumpman and other platformers. I spent the whole pre-teen years playing games such as these and still found them fun.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZDG4dlU5uY&ab_channel=Subypowa
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7dGLWodlhI&t=56s&ab_channel=BacktotheRetroGames
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hiknrw3_Qjc&ab_channel=TheRarestGamer

Better, you can start teaching them how to make such games (not difficult unless you really want to target the original platform).
 

Jarpie

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Oct 30, 2009
Messages
6,603
Codex 2012 MCA


This is coming next year, could be feasible, looks like there's eight available languages.
 

CryptRat

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Sep 10, 2014
Messages
3,548

NecroLord

Dumbfuck!
Dumbfuck
Joined
Sep 6, 2022
Messages
7,930
Location
Southeastern Yurop
Captain Claw.
Has it been mentioned before? A really fun game, but a bit challenging.
46c8c6fc5c51d363395634b82dfe61c3.jpg

claw-02-big.png
 

Gunnar

Arbiter
Joined
Jul 10, 2016
Messages
819
Broforce, castle crashers, hammerwatch, lego games can all be played co-op and are enjoyable to young children in my experience. For consoles, get smash bros and mario party for n64, mickeys playhouse, sunset riders for snes, streets of rage for genesis. Older children that i have introduced to dungeon keeper really liked it.
 

Dadd

Learned
Joined
Aug 20, 2022
Messages
2,725
Which lego games are good? I'll look at the other games recommended here.
 

Burning Bridges

Enviado de meu SM-G3502T usando Tapatalk
Joined
Apr 21, 2006
Messages
27,562
Location
Tampon Bay
I found small kids really like memory games because they are so exceptionally good at them.

Other than that I mostly play Lego with kids. It is so much better for them than computer games and it makes me proud when I seen them copy my techiques.
 

Neuromancer

Augur
Joined
Jun 10, 2018
Messages
1,238
Which lego games are good? I'll look at the other games recommended here.
I would recommend Lego City Undercover.

The game has an original setting and story (unlike all the movie and superhero franchise Lego games) and has a quite decent length.
It pays homage to many different settings (film noir, gangster stories, buddy cop movies... and even Kung Fu and Science Fiction).

And important IMO, there is both humour for children and adults, so it (hopefully) won't get boring to watch your kid play.
(For example there is one level later in the game with a character, who spouts One-liners from different Arnie action movies - which children definetely shouldn't have watched at that age. ;) )
 

Gunnar

Arbiter
Joined
Jul 10, 2016
Messages
819
Which lego games are good? I'll look at the other games recommended here.
I can vouch for Lego star wars and lego batman. Did not like lego indy or lego lord of the rings. Haven’t tried any others.
 

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