Any games a 4 year old could play with?

[rackoon]

Well, I finlay finished my cab and my friends and I have been playing the heck out of it as my 4 year old daughter stands by and watches.

She really wanted to play with the thing so I put on some Ms. Pac-Man and let her give it a go. It was cool seeing her figure out the whole joystick thing.    Her only problem is that she doesn't have the skills to outrun more than one ghost at a time.

I was thinking that there must be some game on there that a four year old could play for longer than 30 seconds with out dying. Any one got any ideas?  

[mlalena]

After reading the title of your post, Pac-Man was the first game I thought of.  For kids new to games, it is great for teaching the simple up/down/left/right relationship between joystick & game character.

I also think Road Blasters is a good racing game because compared to other games it is easier to keep the car on the track.

If you play with her, then Gauntlet is also good since you can load her up with health and she will never die. Most of the monsters die when you run into them, so not a lot of skill is required.

[bobdslob]

A couple of classic games that my (then) 5 year old daughter had fun with are Rally X and Dig Dug.   Rally X has a really big play field and what, one enemy at the earliest level?  She could tool around on that for a good while.  Dig dug was cool too.  First level is really easy, just need to teach her how to inflate the bad guys.  Also teach her how to coin up and continue, and she'll be good for a while on either game.  

[SlayerAlex]

i remember some games where you look at 2 pictures and spot the differences. Like in the funny papers. I'll see if i can remember those.

Then theres the wheres Waldo game, but i think that used a trackball. My little bro likes those two.

[DrumAnBass]

Funny; PacMan never received too much interest from my little guys...

Couple of suggestions to try out:

Cosmo Gang
Dr. Toppels Adventure
Inspector X
Magical Cat Adventure
PowerDrive
SpinMaster
SuperPanic
Dynamite Dux
City Bomber
Cosmo The Video

Have fun!

[AMDman13]

World Class Bowling

[Gatt]

I dated a girl with a 3 year old and introduced her to mame.  She absolutely adored Cheese Chase*,  and surprisingly Pole Position.

*I think it's called Cheese Chase,  you play as a mouse with a view very similiar to Marble Madness trying to navigate a maze.

[anyeyeover]

My 5 year old niece loves track ball games, especially world class bowling.  Sometimes she will also tag along in a beat 'em up with us.  She can move the character around but she just jams the attack and jump buttons...which we all have been guilty of at some point. She might not be playing the game correctly, but she has a lot of fun.  Thats all that counts. 

[Nataq]

Another vote for World class bowling. My son still didnt turned 2 years old and he want to play that game everyday... funny to hear him say "bowling! bowling!". I should keep track of his high score. He also want to watch me play "running escape kids" (or is it escape running kids...). He cant really control a player but it is a funny game to watch.

[ivwshane]

The simpsons!

[Xiaou2]

Leprechaun - Was designed for kids.

  As for dying, you may wish to consider enabling cheats for certain games as
well.

 Kids at the arcades always did love The Simpsons.

 Beat-em-ups work good cause you can just change them to freeplay for
infinite lives.

[Blanka]

Beat-em-ups work good cause you can just change them to freeplay for
infinite lives.

Arcade games are meant to make money, so on all games serious skills are needed to get any further. Continue options at least give the feeling that you progress, so for kids games with continues are good. When I go myself into Kid-mode, I prefer 1944, but I doubt if the bullet hell is compatible with a brain's child. Maybe there is a Parodius kind of 1944 (as a parody of course, not with boobs).

For simple control, I think Mappy is great too, only left/right for basic functionality, and a button to open doors. On the other hand. The gay-cop-mouse is even more disturbing to a child brain than Parodius or 1944 .

Themewise I think Pac Man, Tetris and Arkanoid are very safe.

[HanoiBoi]

Definitely Trog & Frogger

Space Invaders, if it holds her attention

Maybe Popeye & Donkey Kong.

Bagman might be difficult to get far, but she might be able to avoid the bad guys long enough to feel successful  


And, on a bit of a side note....for the PC (and possibly other systems), try the Pajama Sam series of games.  Their really fun to play, equally fun to watch and will get your kids thinking.   

[HanoiBoi]

i remember some games where you look at 2 pictures and spot the differences. Like in the funny papers. I'll see if i can remember those.

I've played them on Mega Touches when they're called Photo Hunt.  If they make it for Mame, please let me know.  I am starting to put together a touchscreen jukebox.  If you know of Photo Hunt or similar for that, please point me in the right direction!

[javeryh]

My daughter didn't start to understand games until she was almost 5.  This was not due to a lack of trying on my part - we play all the time.  The first games she was able to fully grasp and succeed at were Dig Dug and Galaga 3.  She can get to the 3rd or 4th level in each without continuing which really gives her a sense of accomplishment.  She tried Ms. Pac-man but doesn't last long - she understands the concept but doesn't have the reflexes yet to avoid the ghosts.  She likes Donkey Kong (a lot since it is my favorite and I play it all the time) but she cannot clear the first level (she makes it about 2/3 of the way up).  She enjoys the beat-em-ups - The Simpsons specifically - but she is continuing all the time.  Games that require timing and thinking ahead are the most problematic (which is 95% of them).  Arcade games were designed to make money so they are tough - especially on kids.

P.S. anyone that claims to have beaten SMB or something when they were 2 or 3 is just lying.

[RayB]

There's some site called kneebouncers.com or something similar (try Google). They can help you find all sorts of software for pre-gamers.

[DashRendar]

Rampage might be a good one for a 4 year old. 

Cartoony characters, doesn't require a lot of coordination, and with a lot of credits you can have fun pounding buildings and taxi cabs for a long time. 

[Dizzle]

Not a MAME game, but my 5 year old daughter absolutely loves to play Freeway (Atari 2600).  Simple up/down controls.

I'll have to check out the other suggestions made on this thread.

[tucker670]

My 6 yo daughter started playing Frogger at 4. She still loves it and is getting better all the time.

[armi0024]

http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=110799
 

 
    
    

[saurian333]

Not a MAME game, but my 5 year old daughter absolutely loves to play Freeway (Atari 2600).  Simple up/down controls.

Hehe...this made me laugh, because a few years ago, I read that David Crane was inspired for this game by watching a guy try to cross the interstate in Chicago.  Its original title was "Bloody Human Freeway," which would have been considerably less suitable for a 5-year-old. 

armi0024: awesome, that kid is loving Pac-Man!

Themewise I think Pac Man, Tetris and Arkanoid are very safe.

Themewise, yes...but dude, Arkanoid is hard!

[gnateye]

one more vote for frogger, my 3 year old love it, hes starting to love any and all games tho, even if her cant do them right, he just loves being involved.

on the non-mame emu side he loves thomas the tank engine on genesis, as well as barney hide n seek, i keep both on the cab for him and he asks almost everyday to play "bideogames"

[bkenobi]

I would think most basic puzzle or maze games would work.  I'm thinking Tetris, Puzzle Bobble/Bust-A-Move, Bubble Bobble, I'm Sorry, etc.

[Ed_McCarron]

Moon Patrol.  Set the dip switch for 'invulnerable' and my 4YO played it for hours.  Until he realized one day that he could play without touching the controls.

[quarterstringer]

Try out J.J. Squawkers, it is an easy game to play.

[ale8oneboy]

How about Burger Time?

[bkenobi]

Yeah, I was trying to remember the name of Burger Time. 

How about tapper.  Btw, I'm surprised noone caught my attempt at humor earlier.   

[Brutal E]

How about adding pinball flippers to the set up for video pinball. Easy for a youngster to get the concept of hitting the flippers to move the ball around. Tons of variety as there are lots of different tables out to choose from. Lots of sounds and lights to keep there interest. Seems like a decent choice to me. Also punch/kick beat em ups like Streets Of Rage and Final Fight are games that kids can usually grasp the concept and if you have a two player set up then you can watch there back and help lead them along.

[Spaz Monkey]

My son likes playing the street fighter games.  Just turn the difficulty to 1, enable free play, and he's happy.  Born button masher.

[KRAMEX]

TUG BOAT....would be an easy game , i think it was designed with small kids in mind .



.

[spOOf]

Funny; PacMan never received too much interest from my little guys...

Couple of suggestions to try out:

Cosmo Gang
Dr. Toppels Adventure
Inspector X
Magical Cat Adventure
PowerDrive
SpinMaster
SuperPanic
Dynamite Dux
City Bomber
Cosmo The Video

Have fun!

Thanks for these.  So far I've tried Comso Gang and my 6-year-old loves it.  Even my 2-year-old has played it and enjoyed it (although he goes through a ton of "quarters").

[ahofle]

Ripper Ribbit
And another vote for "Barney's Hide and Seek" on the Genesis, as well as "Richard Scary's Busytown".  Also, Mario Paint on the SNES, assuming you have a trackball.  That one is good for hours of play.

[JohnEDollar]

I'd like to recommend the game Ladybug.

My 3 year old loves it!

[saurian333]

Ripper Ribbit
And another vote for "Barney's Hide and Seek" on the Genesis, as well as "Richard Scary's Busytown".  Also, Mario Paint on the SNES, assuming you have a trackball.  That one is good for hours of play.

I didn't even see that suggestion; yes, consoles often have lots of kids' games available.

I think I have a Mario Paint cart; I know I have an actual SNES mouse.

[DeLuSioNal29]

Believe it or not... Golden Tee is awesome for kids.  All you have to do is move the trackball down and then up.  It's very easy to grasp.  My nieces and nephews love to whip up the trackball (5 through 7 years old).  Tons of fun for them.  Also, when you play multi-player the guys on the screen have different colors to signify each different player.  It makes them learn colors.  Simply play with them and tell them that "yellow" is their color or whatever.  They get excited when it's their color and they say, "It's my turn!" and everyone moves away for them to play.  It also teaches them to be patient and wait their turn to play if it's not their color.

Thumbs up for Golden Tee!

DeLuSioNaL29

[HanoiBoi]

Believe it or not... Golden Tee is awesome for kids.  All you have to do is move the trackball down and then up.  It's very easy to grasp.  My nieces and nephews love to whip up the trackball (5 through 7 years old).  Tons of fun for them.  Also, when you play multi-player the guys on the screen have different colors to signify each different player.  It makes them learn colors.  Simply play with them and tell them that "yellow" is their color or whatever.  They get excited when it's their color and they say, "It's my turn!" and everyone moves away for them to play.  It also teaches them to be patient and wait their turn to play if it's not their color.

Thumbs up for Golden Tee!

DeLuSioNaL29

I hear ya on the patience, but please tell me that these kids know their colors before they're 5 years old!

Anyone ever try the Rock N Tread games?  (1, 2, 3 4, etc.)  They are like an early form of Rock Band.  Hit the buttons at the right timing.  Could work for a late 4's, early 5 kids.

[saurian333]

Hadn't thought of Golden Tee; similar to bowling games.  I think a lot of trackball-based games would be fun for kids.

Anyone ever try the Rock N Tread games?  (1, 2, 3 4, etc.)  They are like an early form of Rock Band.  Hit the buttons at the right timing.  Could work for a late 4's, early 5 kids.

No...I'm pretty big into rhythm games, and I've never heard of that.  I'll have to check it out.

[rooter]

My 4 year old niece LOVED PacMan.  She was screaming, cheering, and jumping up and down.

[mvsfan]

Well, I finlay finished my cab and my friends and I have been playing the heck out of it as my 4 year old daughter stands by and watches.

She really wanted to play with the thing so I put on some Ms. Pac-Man and let her give it a go. It was cool seeing her figure out the whole joystick thing.    Her only problem is that she doesn't have the skills to outrun more than one ghost at a time.

I was thinking that there must be some game on there that a four year old could play for longer than 30 seconds with out dying. Any one got any ideas?  

get yourself a full cheatset (Cheat.ini) (make sure its the right version) for the mame version you are using. then you can set each game up how you want to for the kids.

[mvsfan]

as far as reccomending a game itself, pac man would have been my first choice. another one to try is a game like Twinbee thats geared towards kids.

two more kid games that are a hit with any kids that do come over and play them, and also seem to never get mentioned are Biomechanical Toy, and cheese chase.