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Good games to play with young children

Morpheus Kitami

Liturgist
Joined
May 14, 2020
Messages
2,476
The Looney Tunes games from the PSX/N64 era were pretty good. You've got two collect-a-thon platformers in the form of Bugs Bunny: Lost in Time and Bugs & Taz: Time Busters, plus a very nice stealth/puzzle game in the form of Sheep, Dog 'n' Wolf/Sheep Raider. There is some text and dialog, but most of it isn't important.
 

VGMG

Novice
Joined
Jul 29, 2021
Messages
20
Rain World, on the easiest difficulty.
Supports multiple players too, with mods, if you have more than one device.
 

3 others

Scholar
Joined
Aug 11, 2015
Messages
147
I can swear by this shit:

We clocked +60 hrs on this and 100% it a few times. There's a bit of English text, but you can get by doing a quick and dirty translation.

Great, absurd humor, in the vein of Gobliiins, completely language independent.

You can also check if the vaccinations took hold and the kid developed the kind of autism necessary to learn programming with The Incredible Machine,
the recent remake is called Contraption Maker.

These are exactly the kind of recommendations I was hoping to get. Thanks.
World of Goo is another classic, language independent puzzle game to check out.


This is basically remade Lost Vikings with purdy 3D graphics. You can do coop and there are physics-based puzzles.
There's also a bit of fighting going on, so check if you're fine with this level of violence.

Huh, didn't think of these even though I have them. Worth a shot at some point. I should have a Kirby game for Wii somewhere still too. Great poast full of ideas. Didn't know there was a continuation of The Incredible Machine.

Either play educational games or puzzle games. Let the kid play games while forcing himself to think and develop the most important skill, more so in this society: think. This is a good game:

Do not let the kid-looking game fool you. It can have some interesting puzzles.

Yeah, Toki Tori is a FIERCE game. I think the difficulty curve might be too steep still but I'll keep this in mind.

Keep your kids away from video games, games are nothing but garbage.
In the end, this is the credited response tho.
 

Kev Inkline

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Nov 17, 2015
Messages
5,072
A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Minecraft (Java edition) is awesome for anyone 6 and up. Also teaches them English on the side, as I won't allow to have language changed to their native Finnish. And typing server commands kinda makes them a bit more familiar with using the command line instead of just mousing around.
 

Jonathan "Zee Nekomimi

Hoarder of loli kats./ Funny ^._.^= ∫
Patron
Joined
Mar 4, 2019
Messages
6,352
Location
Brasilien
Codex+ Now Streaming!
Minecraft (Java edition) is awesome for anyone 6 and up. Also teaches them English on the side, as I won't allow to have language changed to their native Finnish. And typing server commands kinda makes them a bit more familiar with using the command line instead of just mousing around.
that's child abuse and i'm calling spurdo police
 

kangaxx

Arbiter
Joined
Jan 26, 2020
Messages
1,385
Location
Atop a flaming horse
I highly recommend Overcooked, those games are great fun sofa co-op multiplayer games. They add a light puzzle element into the mix as well.
 

Ivan

Arcane
Joined
Jun 22, 2013
Messages
7,473
Location
California
had a good time with the nephew playing:

Thumper
Brothers: Tale of Two Sons
vvvvvvvvvvvvv

+1 Chuchel
 

MurkrLurkr

Learned
Joined
Aug 23, 2020
Messages
444
Location
Serbistan
From personal experience I can wholeheartedly recommend these games as I played them with my four year old son and he, even after a year, still remembers them fondly and often talks about them...

1. Abzu

It's atmospheric exploration game about reviving ancient waterworld.. You control extraterrestrial diver swimming through primeval sea, gathering information about marine life and learning about submerged civilization whose remnants he encounters along the way... In subtle way, without extensive infodumps and through environmental gameplay, it relates itself with Sumerian and Babylonian creation myths. My son is fascinated by water creatures, prehistoric and contemporary, since he grew up watching Jeremy Wade's River monsters (I've been planning to take him fishing with my friends for a while now and to buy him Ultimate Fishing Simulator), so it was really nice to watch as he enthusiastically recognized different species... We took a lot of screenshots also, as the gameworld is gorgeous.

2. Gorogoa

It's a nice, short puzzler more in line with the capabilities of five-year-olds than your examples of The Witness and Talos principle (if I wasn't in a friendly mood I would say you're full of it, but I won't ;)).. Wholesome, contemplative experience with a picture book visuals, its gimmick is based on rearrangement and manipulation of parts of the images. Modest point and click affair but since it was his first in the genre, I sympathized with his infatuation with it. On several occasions we had to seek help from walkthroughs, but that's because I suck at these types of games...

3. Hidden folks

Hidden object game, with DIY aesthetics... I love the sounds which developers made by themselves. We spent a lot of time on it, and have it installed on my android phone. Even my wife who opposes the notion of raising a child to be a gamür enjoyed it... That's saying a lot, believe me :roll:

I can also recommend old Disney platformers, such as Aladdin, The Lion King, and The Jungle Book coupled with watching them off course.. Better than this grooming shit the studio produces today. Happy gaming dad who sacrifices free time to play with his children!
:love:
 

Zlaja

Arcane
Joined
Aug 17, 2006
Messages
5,682
Location
Swedex
Team Hospital
B9hBJjxIEAEPlXv.png:large


Sly Cooper games
sly%20cooper%20hovedbilde%201.jpg


Harvest Moon
Harvest-Moon.jpg
 
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3 others

Scholar
Joined
Aug 11, 2015
Messages
147
From personal experience I can wholeheartedly recommend these games as I played them with my four year old son and he, even after a year, still remembers them fondly and often talks about them...

1. Abzu
It's atmospheric exploration game about reviving ancient waterworld.. You control extraterrestrial diver swimming through primeval sea, gathering information about marine life and learning about submerged civilization whose remnants he encounters along the way... In subtle way, without extensive infodumps and through environmental gameplay, it relates itself with Sumerian and Babylonian creation myths. My son is fascinated by water creatures, prehistoric and contemporary, since he grew up watching Jeremy Wade's River monsters (I've been planning to take him fishing with my friends for a while now and to buy him Ultimate Fishing Simulator), so it was really nice to watch as he enthusiastically recognized different species... We took a lot of screenshots also, as the gameworld is gorgeous.

2. Gorogoa
It's a nice, short puzzler more in line with the capabilities of five-year-olds than your examples of The Witness and Talos principle (if I wasn't in a friendly mood I would say you're full of it, but I won't ;)).. Wholesome, contemplative experience with a picture book visuals, its gimmick is based on rearrangement and manipulation of parts of the images. Modest point and click affair but since it was his first in the genre, I sympathized with his infatuation with it. On several occasions we had to seek help from walkthroughs, but that's because I suck at these types of games...

3. Hidden folks
Hidden object game, with DIY aesthetics... I love the sounds which developers made by themselves. We spent a lot of time on it, and have it installed on my android phone. Even my wife who opposes the notion of raising a child to be a gamür enjoyed it... That's saying a lot, believe me :roll:

I can also recommend old Disney platformers, such as Aladdin, The Lion King, and The Jungle Book coupled with watching them off course.. Better than this grooming shit the studio produces today. Happy gaming dad who sacrifices free time to play with his children!
Thanks for the suggestions. The 5yo in question watched me play Gorogoa last year but she wasn't really drawn into it. I'm going to give it another shot. The other ones seem to be just what I'm looking for, too.

As for The Witness being suitable for kids: despite its reputation for being challenging, plenty of areas had loads of introductory puzzles. And it certainly depends on the child's affinities. For my daughter, the tetris blocks, light reflection puzzles, and castle areas that require mapping environmental cues to the grids were totally incomprehensible, but she managed to make plenty of progress elsewhere as long as I took the time to go through the puzzle rules with her via Socratic dialogue :smug:. And the game is beautiful in itself. Very suitable for Baby's First Walking Sim.
 

3 others

Scholar
Joined
Aug 11, 2015
Messages
147
With my daughter - we both really enjoyed playing "Beyond Good and Evil" which never got too violent or such. And it had a lot of fun moments. A combination adventure, racing, and combat type game - with stealth thrown in as well as item collecting. There is a bit of communication, but there are a few languages to choose from.
Damn, this was a nice game. Can't think of it fitting for preschoolers but let's keep this in mind for the future. Unfortunately I have no optical drive and I must CD.

With my son, we played "A Boy and his Blob" on the Wii but they seem to have a more colorful version available for PC now. Nice puzzle game that gets more progressively complex as you go along. Very little communication, and not required to advance the story.
Oh man, I have this on WiiWare in my ancient console. Wonder if it still works after a decade of downtime. The game was quite frustrating though, wasn't it? Throw magic bean off-screen --> hope that Blob ate it and turned into a trampoline -> jump down -> fall to your death because Blob didn't, in fact, eat the bean and turn into a trampoline

Thanks.
 
Self-Ejected

Lim-Dûl

Self-Ejected
Joined
Apr 11, 2022
Messages
388
HoMM3 hotseat. Strategic gameplay, doesn't require quick reflexes, good looking graphics, replayability, no weird political stuff. Pirates are also cool if you install Horn of the Abyss mod.
 

Ivan

Arcane
Joined
Jun 22, 2013
Messages
7,473
Location
California
mentioning Chuchel made me listen to this earworm again. the yelling always makes me laugh
 

Daemongar

Arcane
Joined
Nov 21, 2010
Messages
4,706
Location
Wisconsin
Codex Year of the Donut
With my daughter - we both really enjoyed playing "Beyond Good and Evil" which never got too violent or such. And it had a lot of fun moments. A combination adventure, racing, and combat type game - with stealth thrown in as well as item collecting. There is a bit of communication, but there are a few languages to choose from.
Damn, this was a nice game. Can't think of it fitting for preschoolers but let's keep this in mind for the future. Unfortunately I have no optical drive and I must CD.
Yah - it's been a while since I played but it got more exciting as we went along. I don't quite remember if there were any parts that were "mature" other than that Pig guy being stolen and the part with the soldiers at the end. But I don't think you died if you were caught, you'd just be put back to the starting location.

With my son, we played "A Boy and his Blob" on the Wii but they seem to have a more colorful version available for PC now. Nice puzzle game that gets more progressively complex as you go along. Very little communication, and not required to advance the story.
Oh man, I have this on WiiWare in my ancient console. Wonder if it still works after a decade of downtime. The game was quite frustrating though, wasn't it? Throw magic bean off-screen --> hope that Blob ate it and turned into a trampoline -> jump down -> fall to your death because Blob didn't, in fact, eat the bean and turn into a trampoline

Thanks.
I know that was a huge pain but he and I worked out a lot of the puzzles together (ok, I'd sneak off and google solutions because I wanted him to think I was smart :cry:). The hardest part I believe was near the end when the blob turns into a rocket ship or such and you'd have to navigate a narrow area going full-tilt.
 
Joined
Nov 23, 2017
Messages
4,010
Try arcade games. Either actual old arcade games, or the type of stuff that could be in an arcade. If it's a game on something like Midway Arcade Origins, Capcom Classics Collections, and Sega Genesis Classics a five year old will both likely be able to play it, and will enjoy it.

- Super Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo
- Tetris Effect
- Those Puzzle Bobble Bust-a-Move games
- Pac-Man Championship Edition
- Pac-Man Championship Edition 2
- Galaga Legions
- Space Invaders Extreme
- Marvel vs Capcom 2 & 3
- Ghosts 'n Goblins Resurrection (I definitely loved playing the originals in the arcade when I was like 5, and that new version has easier difficulties to it than the old original ones)
- Rez HD
- Geometry Wars
- Defense Grid: The Awakening (maybe)
- Nex Machina
- Any number of beat 'em ups (maybe River City Girls, Ninja Baseball Bat Man, and Battle Circuit...new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles looks good and kid friendly)
- SteamWorld Dig 2
- Worms Armageddon
- Mr. Driller
- One Piece Mansion
- RollerCoaster Tycoon
- SimTower
- Nintendo stuff always seem like a good bet

Someone brought up Heroes of Might and Magic 2 & 3, and those might actually be pretty good. I wasn't that young when they started coming out, but they are also pretty simple games to jump into and understand. And like with RTS games you can just play the scrimmages endless. They're also a good game to sit there and place with another person, and they do have local multiplayer so you could play it with them and go first and show them what this or that means without also taking over their part of the game.

I haven't played it, but Into the Breach seems like a pretty simple way a kid could jump into a turn based game of that kind.

Odin Sphere might be a good one. It's a fun, nice looking game, and it's got a good fairy tale type story to it. Almost has the feeling of a '80s Don Bluth cartoon, but as a video game. It's a Teen rated game, but I'm not exactly sure why since I can't remember any bloody violence or profanity. If it was an animated movie it'd probably be a PG.

The Stanley Parable might be a good one as well.
 
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