Recommend game for kids to move from casual games to more normal gaming

JohnB7 · 06-04-2014 01:47PM #1

I've been trying to find games for my kids to get into other than wii titles and Facebook games.
Got all the lego games and 100% on each but looking for something different. Not Mario, sonic or little big planet as they don't like them.
Any suggestions?

Dave_The_Sheep · 06-04-2014 02:24PM

Minecraft.

CiDeRmAn · 06-04-2014 03:27PM

Dave_The_Sheep wrote: »

Minecraft.

Crack Cocaine for kids

Dozen Wicked Words · 06-04-2014 03:44PM

Ratchet and Clank are quality games suitable for kids but great fun regardless of age.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar · 06-04-2014 04:28PM

they don't like mario or sonic?

adoption's always an option

Antar Bolaeisk · 06-04-2014 04:42PM

JohnB7 wrote: »

I've been trying to find games for my kids to get into other than wii titles and Facebook games.
Got all the lego games and 100% on each but looking for something different. Not Mario, sonic or little big planet as they don't like them.
Any suggestions?

I think you need new kids, not new games

What's wrong with the games they're playing now? What age-group are they?

The first Plants vs Zombies is excellent for all ages.

There's also Dead Space which is free on Origin right now, they'll never sleep again but will have so much more time to play games.

MadYaker · 06-04-2014 05:32PM

+1 for Dead Space.

rcdk1 · 06-04-2014 05:59PM

What hardware do they have access to?

landsleaving · 06-04-2014 06:08PM

Kids seem to like skylanders. I recommend you make them play Mario until they grow some taste.

CiDeRmAn · 06-04-2014 06:34PM

Hit the markets and get them a cheap PS2.
Oodles of great games there.
Ico, Jack and Daxter, Ratchet and Clank, Amplitude, Frequency, Guitar Hero, Tony Hawks, Super Monkey Ball, Gran Turismo 4.
Ico is a superb way to join growed up gaming, a lot of fun with swinging and climbing, threat but not scary, environmental puzzles, and it's beautiful. It might be a little expensive but it's one of the greatest games of all time.
But Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time on the 3DS is a simple must have and the perfect game, and every third person adventure since owes a huge amount to it.

CiDeRmAn · 06-04-2014 06:34PM

Hit the markets and get them a cheap PS2.
Oodles of great games there.
Ico, Jack and Daxter, Ratchet and Clank, Amplitude, Frequency, Guitar Hero, Tony Hawks, Super Monkey Ball, Gran Turismo 4.
Ico is a superb way to join growed up gaming, a lot of fun with swinging and climbing, threat but not scary, environmental puzzles, and it's beautiful. It might be a little expensive but it's one of the greatest games of all time.
But Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time on the 3DS is a simple must have and the perfect game, and every third person adventure since owes a huge amount to it.

Retr0gamer · 06-04-2014 06:46PM

Dark Souls.

titan18 · 06-04-2014 06:50PM

Might be Mario, but Mario Kart?

Or get a 3DS and Pokemon X/Y

CiDeRmAn · 06-04-2014 07:13PM

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Dark Souls.

And they a little young for all that failure?

J. Marston · 06-04-2014 07:30PM

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Dark Souls.

Throw them in at the deep end.

Proper order.

JohnB7 · 06-04-2014 07:41PM

Older games is a good choice. Went routing through the collection and found the gamecube, dreamcast and ps2 so will dig th games on it to find some.
Skylanders could be an option. Bit young for dark souls and dead space but the eldest girl loves zombies* in games and big fan of Lord of the rings, back to the future, Harry Potter, marvel and so on so picked up games related to those.

*yes zombies

JohnB7 · 06-04-2014 07:43PM

titan18 wrote: »

Might be Mario, but Mario Kart?

Or get a 3DS and Pokemon X/Y

Oh yeah pokemon, eldest girl who is 8 was playing that until ds broke. Will hunt out cheap 2ds maybe.

deathrider · 06-04-2014 07:54PM

Pokémon is the man for the job. It's light enough to be played on a casual level, but deep enough to have more substance, if that's what you're looking for. Also, it's filled with cutesy animals and badass beasties, so your wee ones really can't go too far wrong with it. Also, if there's more than one kid playing it in the house (two carts and two consoles), they can trade pokémon between them, and have a bit of craic battling.

Mr Bloat · 08-04-2014 04:01PM

My eight year old is getting a bit sick of the Lego games and has recently moved onto Portal. He's really enjoying that. However, he loves Mario and Sonic games too, if he didn't I would be questioning my wife because there is no way he could be mine if he didn't like those games.

kwestfan08 · 08-04-2014 04:05PM

The recent Rayman games maybe? I have smaller cousins (10 and 8) and they had a ball with them. They're co-op too if you like so they can play together ( but it's not essential, you can drop in and out of co-op when you want)

krudler · 08-04-2014 04:07PM

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

And they a little young for all that failure?

I let my 10 year old nephew have a bash at it and he actually did alright, managed to go from the Undead Burg bonfire to the Taurus Demon, I was telling him what to do but he managed the combat surprisingly well.

CiDeRmAn · 08-04-2014 07:26PM

I should have gotten my 10 years old to get me past the Hydra, instead Retr0 did it and I know I'll never hear the end of it!

srsly78 · 08-04-2014 07:29PM

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

And they a little young for all that failure?

Some of us are old enough to have grown up with games like Manic Miner...

moc moc a moc · 08-04-2014 09:17PM

There are tons of classic puzzle/adventure games on gog.com

nesf · 09-04-2014 08:37AM

My 7 year old seems to like Spleunky a lot, he's not quite out of his Minecraft phase but this seems to be a good distraction from that game. :P

More "kid-orientated": Rayman is good, Skylanders is good but just a way of emptying parent's pockets. The Lego games are ok. Really though he's more likely to ask to play one of my old games like Age of Empires or similar than to play Rayman most evenings.

nesf · 09-04-2014 08:45AM

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

And they a little young for all that failure?

Have you seen kids playing rogue-likes? It's heroin. I think it's because they can progress once they figure out the world and learn off the tactics needed. It's only a bad thing if they can't complete sections, because of being too young to have that level of manual dexterity or memory or whatever. If the game can be reset and have new levels each time then this seems to be viewed as a really good thing.

I think the biggest mistake people make is giving their kids easy/repetitive games and then wondering why the kids are getting so bored so quickly.

C14N · 11-04-2014 02:18PM

JohnB7 wrote: »

I've been trying to find games for my kids to get into other than wii titles and Facebook games.
Got all the lego games and 100% on each but looking for something different. Not Mario, sonic or little big planet as they don't like them.
Any suggestions?

What aged kids and consoles are we dealing with here? I'm guessing you've got a Wii and PS3 since you mentioned Mario and LittleBigPlanet.

Just speaking from experience, Zelda was the game that I think got me into gaming properly, specifically Wind Waker but I went and hunted down others after that. If you have a Wii or Wii U, then Zelda: Skyward Sword or Zelda: Twilight Princess are good options.

If you've got a PS3, Playstation All Stars Battle Royale is an alright fighting game, easy enough to pick up for kids compared to more serious games like Tekken or Street Fighter. If you have a Wii then Smash Bros Brawl is a must, I've been hooked on that game since I was about 4.

Racing games are usually a good choice too, in my experience kids love Burnout since you can crash cars in all sorts of creative ways and you should be able to easily get Burnout Paradise for €10-15. For more party-type racing, something like Mario Kart or Modnation racers.

For shooting type games, if your kids are maybe 10-12 then Metroid Prime Trilogy on Wii is a great choice. Maybe a little hard since it's easy to get stuck though. Mass Effect on PS3 is a good one too, it's an over-the-shoulder shooter. Has mild sex and violence, inoffensive enough that you would see it in a 12A movie though.

And I know you said they don't like Mario but I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt and assume you mean the kind of trashy New Super Mario Bros type games. If they're willing to give it a try, Mario Galaxy and Mario Galaxy 2 are fantastic games with barely any relation to those other ones apart from featuring the same main character.

Recommend game for kids to move from casual games to more normal gaming

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