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Games to play with young kids

WoJ

Member
Hey there gaf, my daughter is turning 5 this month and has shown a little interest in gaming. She likes to play tablet games while I game on consoles. So I've tried to tailor what I play to her a little bit in hopes she will get into games as well.

I played through the Brave game that is BC on Xbox. She seems to like Mario as well, so I will play the Super Mario Galaxy games when she and I hang out. I've thought Kingdom Hearts might be fun as well since she loves everything Disney.

Lately she has taken an interest in trying to play the games instead of just watching. She isn't quite there yet, but I'm guessing over the next year she will be. What are some good co-op games to play with a young kid (or,at least to try and play with a young kid)? I'd like to try and morph or time hanging out to her and I playing games together.

I always hear the Lego games recommended. We have played a little tumblestone but she isn't quite there yet. We have a series X, PS4, Wii U, 360, and PS3 easily accessible. Appreciate any thoughts?
 

Codes 208

Member
-lego
-minecraft
-sackboys big adventure
-any kirby/yoshi game
-sonic racing
-mario kart 8

Lego and minecraft games aside im having trouble thinking of appropriate games for xbox/ps4. For her age i would say the wii u should be your priority (unless you decide to opt for a switch)

Avoid kingdom hearts. Disney aside that shit is complicated even for adults.
 

Midn1ght

Member
Had a blast with my 5 yo daughter on Sackboy Big Adventure.
She also loves Fall Guys, choosing the costumes and sometimes play simple levels.

And yes, I forgot Astro of course. She loves Astro.
 
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odhiex

Member
Hey, my daughter is also turning 5 this month..*internet high five.

She is kinda obsessed with the Astro's Playroom, I am sick of it now hahaha.. planning to buy more kids games this holiday sales.
 
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Codes 208

Member
Hey, my daughter is also turning 5 this month..*internet high five.

She is kinda obsessed with the Astro's Playroom, I am sick of it now hahaha.. planning to buy more kids games this holiday sales.
Definitley a good game but op only has a ps4 and 3, no 5
 

kingpotato

Ask me about my Stream Deck
I have a 4 year old. Best games for mine to play are low risk, colorful and less task oriented from my experience. To watch mine mostly loves all the Zelda games.

Try:
Loco Roco 2 on PS4
Breath of the Wild Wii U
Animal Crossing City Folk Wii

If you could get a PS5 I would also recommend: Astro's Playroom
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Do you have more people to play with? Try Mario Party. There's a new one that came out earlier this year, as well as the old one from a couple years ago. Not a good game to play with only two people. I've seen my nieces play two player and it's meh. But if it's 4 people goofing around it's hilarious.

For two player action, check out videos of Snipperclips Deluxe. There's a regular version and the deluxe edition with more content. My nieces and nephews liked it and its a two player coop game.
 
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Why not playing one of the New Super Mario bros games. You can play them simultaneously together and help her out in the tough spots.

That being said I also have a 5 year old daughter (and a 3 year old son) and I don't plan to let her play games anytime soon. As long as she does not approach me and ask to play games, why force her, when she can spend much more time in the real world or doing something more creative.
 

BigBooper

Member
For playing together, Mario Party Superstars, Minecraft, Yoshi's Wooly World have been the most popular with my kids. The Lego games have some frustrating tricky parts that she will not enjoy if she isn't very patient, where you have to use a certain character to interact with a certain object.
 

Saber

Gold Member
You might be not familiar with this one. I would recommend to play Swords of Ditto.

Its a hack-slash Snes Zelda style game with charming funny art and has cooperative couch play with total share items(meaning if you pick a item, both can use with no penalties). But mind the difficulty, put on easy and have a blast.
 
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FeldMonster

Member
My 5 year old daughter recently started the Peppa Pig game (on Stadia). There are also recent Paw Patrol and PJ Masks games, though the PJ Masks game looked a bit tougher for her, so we stuck with Peppa Pig.

However, the game that she has played and loves the most, by far, is Power Rangers: Mega Battle (on Xbox), which is great fun for me having loved Season 1 of MMPR as a kid. I even got my wife to play. Brought back memories of the Arcade X-Men and TMNT games. The game made her totally Power Rangers crazy though, which lead to toys, puzzles, and sticker books.
 

RoboFu

One of the green rats
My kids favorites from 3 - 6 yr

mk8
Smash bros
Kirby 2d switch ( I can’t even remember the name but they beat it co - op together )
 

Northeastmonk

Gold Member
Kids are big into crafting and free roaming. Craftopia on Xbox is a good one, but you’d have to play on two different machines for multiplayer. Lego is a huge hit or miss. My step daughter hates the Lego games because she can’t stand doing puzzles. Kids will love anything that is like Animal Crossing or MineCraft. You could also setup Roblox on your phone and then on the PC/Xbox. Meet up in the same world and play together. I did that a couple times. She used my PC while I was on my phone.
 

Bojanglez

The Amiga Brotherhood
I would suggest (based on my 6yo)

Sackboy adventure
Animal crossing
Minecraft
Pokémon Let's Go!
Mario Party
Mario Kart
Roblox

My daughter (slightly younger, nearly 4) likes the Disneyland Adventure game on Xbox, it is a probably a hit of your daughter likes Disney, even though it's not much of a game.
 

Filldo

Member
My loved loved Knack. Got it for free and told him if he beat it I would get him the second one. He beat the entire game as a five year old. I think it has co op. Knack 2 definitely does and everyone will make fun of me for saying this but I seriously love Knack 2 and hope we get a third one.
 

Filldo

Member
Oh, I also second those who said Minecraft and the Lego games, though I do get sick of talking about Minecraft, like seriously, his whole room is Minecraft and when he was allowed to watch YouTube he watched Minecraft videos. Even now at seven it’s Minecraft morning noon and night. I am starting to hate it.
 

TwiztidElf

Member
Lego games.
Always Lego games for little kids.
Drop in, drop out. No real fail conditions. Nice progression. A lot of fun including for the older/experienced participants.
 

WoJ

Member
That being said I also have a 5 year old daughter (and a 3 year old son) and I don't plan to let her play games anytime soon. As long as she does not approach me and ask to play games, why force her, when she can spend much more time in the real world or doing something more creative.

We balance things out. I'm talking a couple hours a week tops here. We go to the park and the zoo more than we game. She's shown an interest when we hang out in my game room and I'm gaming as described above so I figure I'd try and find something she can actually play.

Thanks for all the suggestions. She likes Super Mario Run and the Mario Kart mobile game on tablet so I'm thinking sticking with the Mario theme is a good idea. I hadn't thought of the New Super Mario games. That's a great call. I'm definitely going to try out some of these. Thanks so much!
 

Rawker

Member
I got a 6 and 8 year old and it started with my arcade machine and ninja turtles 4 player. Then we moved to the SNES and some 2 player games, the mickey circus game was a great co-op platformer that they could handle easily. From there we all played Roblox together, some fishing game, a camping game, and the pet game. Roblox sucks but it's free and you can play on any device along with them. Then came Minecraft and it's an amazing game for kids to learn, build, and explore. Once you get into redstone builds it becomes a great learning tool for them.

Some great games to enjoy with them are overcooked, untitled goose, moving out, and sonic all starts racing.

Mine only play on weekends or if they earn it during the week and it's always about playing together with them. We tried a few single player games but they just aren't interested in the narratives.
 

Havoc2049

Member
OP, if you are a hardcore gamer, it will probably rub off onto your daughter naturally.

Once your daughter gets into school, she will play what's cool with all the other kids. My 9 year old daughter is mainly into Roblox and plays a ton with her friends and cousins.

My daughter is already kinda a hardcore gamer. When she isn't playing Roblox, we play Sea of Thieves together online and she is almost a Pirate Legend. She also likes Balan Wonderland, as it has a two-player couch co-op mode and she likes all the bright Sonic Team dreamlike graphics and music. I've been slowly getting her into more hardcore gamer genres like RPGs and FPSs and we just finished the original Dark Alliance co-op on the OG Xbox together. She also wants to start going through the Halo games together in online co-op. She likes to watch me play Tales of Arise, as she likes the anime cut scenes and graphics. I need to find her a simple starter JRPG to play.

My daughter also likes to kick it retro sometimes and likes to play simple shooter and platformer games like Pitfall, Pitfall II, HERO, Centipede, Frogger, Miner 2049'er and River Raid on my Atari 65XE computer. She also likes some retro edutainment games I have like Kids on Keys (typing and spelling skills) and In Search of The Most Amazing Thing (math, diplomacy and exploration). We have also completed The Oregon Trail together.
 

TheInfamousKira

Reseterror Resettler
Play a rousing game of "Don't put the controllers underneath the bed," or "Don't break dance on the tablet," those two were hits with my kids, but they rarely won.

Serious answer, most kids I've seen have absolutely dug Zelda, Smash Bros, and Kingdom Hearts.
 
Viva Pinata
Minecraft
all Lego Games - especially fun in co-op
New Super Lucky's Tale (has better controls than regular super Luckys Tale)
Stardew Valley

I definitely second Mario Kart and Rayman Legends as well!
 

Starcheif

Member
Minecraft! My 5 year old love it so much he also enjoyed the Lego Marvel Avengers games that's included in a bundle of 3 games for about 15 bucks.
 
You could look at buying the Nintendo mini NES or mini SNES and/or emulators. Those old school Nintendo controllers are a great introduction to gaming for young kids, simple d-pad and two buttons with great games that are easy and fun to play together. I had a blast with my daughter and Zelda, Bubble Bobble, DK, Excitebike, Double Dragon and SMB/3.

On any device Minecraft is a good one to share.

As she gets the hang of controls games like Rayman Legends will last you years and years while scaling up as she gets better skills. Coop is brilliant fun here too. There are of course things like Mario Party, iPad games like Where's My Water or Plants vs Zombies (not the FPS one).
 

UnNamed

Banned
My nephew loves Mario games and the girl from Indivisible. She's 3yo, I would love to play with her but I think she's still too little to play games. I started on Atari 2600 when I was 5.
 

Rockondevil

Gold Member
I got Cars 3 for my 3 year old. I only let him play maybe an hour every couple of weeks.
But it’s very easy for the younger kids.
The cars ahead slow down a lot and you can’t go backwards.
 
Kids love the switch. The youngest one creates Miitopia characters a lot, the Mario games, Captain toad, yoshi’s crafted world.

Tablet games are fine too, Toca kitchen, lots of puzzle and drawing apps. They can be addictive though, especially the loot based games.

I honestly try to get them off of the games more.
 

DelireMan7

Member
With my 5 years old daughter, we beat Rayman Origins in coop. She really liked it.

I show her Journey recently. It's not coop but we kind of play together, she walks around and when she can't succeed the jump part, I do it for her. She really likes it and enjoy a lot the exploration of the world.
 

Smasher89

Member
yoshis woolly world, or any kirbygames i bet would work. Kirby also will have some longevity since it starts very easy, but have some challenges that prob will take a 5 year old years to beat even with friends, so its something they can get back to later when older too!
 

Beechos

Member
Wow i dont think ive seen roblox mentioned yet that is like the defacto game for young kids my son has been playing that since he was 6. Overcooked is good fun and simple too.
 

Flintty

Member
You really can’t go wrong with the Lego games.

OG Sonic the Hedgehog was a good one for my kids to start solo. It was brutal at times but they enjoyed it and learned a lot about speed and reactions. Some might call me a bastard, a monster even, but I’m ok with that.
 
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SSfox

Member
Street of rage , Tekken, Street Fighter, Genshin Impact, Any Mario game. To name some.
 
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Sergeant701

Neo Member
Im playing Animal Crossing on Switch with my kids 8 and 5 years old. They really love it when i send them ingame Presents. Sometimes i make treasure hunts for them at night, and they play them the next day.
Mario Maker is also great, they make levels for me and i make some for them. Its really fun!
 

SF Kosmo

Al Jazeera Special Reporter
So I realize there's a big difference between 5 and 6 when it comes to this sort of thing but I started gaming with my girlfriend's 6 year old (recently turned 7) this past year. Some of what we've been enjoying together as co-op games:

Toejam and Earl: Back in the Groove
Unravel Two
Kirby Star Allies
Just Dance
Sonic Mania

On her own she likes Lego Worlds, Animal Crossing, and Roblox.
 

Bo_Hazem

Banned
This one is a must:

SIE-Blog_Featured-Image_Sackboy.jpg


It's a cooperative game instead of competitive, it's great to start building team spirit and cooperative skills. It's a lot of fun for us adults as well as I've enjoyed every minute of it!
 
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Definitely lego games... Perfect training on how to use a controller and moving in 3D.

Lego GTA is fun for both the parent and the kid and can be played split screen:

 

Hustler

Member
My daughter is 6 years old. She loves anything Mario related, Mario Kart and the newer 2D mario games. her favorite game by far is Sack boy's big adventure. She's now wanting to play what her older brother plays, so she's playing a lot of mniecraft, fortnite and Spider-Man on PS4. The web swinging mechanic makes it easy to traverse and putting the game on easy makes it a lot of fun for her.

Once your daughter gets used to gaming with a controller, I would recommend It Takes Two. You may have to help her from time to time, but my daughter loved it. We beat the whole game together.
 

Warnen

Don't pass gaas, it is your Destiny!
my niece and nephew seem to love games (3 and 4). The younger one plays mostly tablet stuff but does enjoy stuff like animal crossing in a passive manor (ie tells she wants to play then tells me what to do). The older one has started playing tablet like games on the Apple TV with a controller (stuff like crossy castle), he seems to like puzzle games too and goes nuts over pac man (dressed up like pac man for Halloween).
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Maybe Crash Bandicoot games(?). I havent played them since the PS1 days, so maybe these games are too reflex orientated for 5 year olds. I remember a lot timing needed for good crate box jumping and shit.

Maybe some puzzle games where she can play solo or against a low level AI. Doesn't Tetris do coop play now? Two players play together on the same board? Not sure. If real time puzzles are too fast, maybe some colour gem matching games which you can take as long as you want to make a move.
 
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