Main > Main Forum
Games for young children (advice and game suggestion thread)
ragnar:
Well, my son is 6 years old (5 years, 10 months). I have the cabinet up and running and he loves it. The problem is, kids have a short attention span. So my son has to like a game immediately or he just does not like it and will not retry it no matter what I say to him. Some games he does like though. So, what advice can you provide and what games do your young ones (6 years old or so) like?
ADVICE 01:
Some issues are .... too many games available. So, if you haven't set things up yet, only give your kids 5 games at most to choose from. Otherwise impatience can cause big problems with a child trying to find a game that he really really likes. But with 5 games, he or she will try to play one game and get better at it in theory.
ADVICE 02:
I keep telling him to play pac-man but he doesn't understand the idea of beating a high score. Kinda commonsensical I suppose but when scores like 100,000 can be made in various games, the scores are high enough that he has no concept of what the numbers mean. So, while getting a high score is important to slightly older children, it is not important to the very young.
ADVICE 03:
Games with 2 or fewer buttons are best. This is a generality but with small hands, young kids can't be 6 button button smashers yet.
GAMES THAT WORK:
So far, two games are very enjoyable to my son:
Super Mario 64 (For N64) ... he just likes running around. An analog stick is needed though.
The Simpsons (Arcade) ... he hasn't played it on his own but he and I did play it all the way through! With just punch and jump for buttons,
GAMES THAT KINDA WORK:
Bump and jump .... He likes it but refer to impatience comment above. He will not play it for more than 1 minute before getting upset.
CONCLUSION:
Please add observations and game suggetions.
CrazySwede:
Interesting topic as I have been suffering the same problem with my kiddos. While I have yet to get all my favorites on my cocktail (I am still putting it together), I have only found a few games that my kids like.
My daughter (age 3.5) likes Frogger.
My son (age 5.5) likes Tetris and Marble Madness (w/ Joystick, not trackball).
Neither of my kids are any good at these games but they will play them for more than 3 minutes.
Like your kids, most of the other games just seem to bore them. I am hoping, really really hoping, that time will solve this issue....
-Leif
HanoiBoi:
I know there are plenty of other threads on this topic...give it a search.
Here are a few games to try that my kids have enjoyed: Trog, Bubble Bobble, Nightmare in the Dark, Diverboy, Joe Mac Returns, Boogie Wings, EDF (Earth Defense Force),TMNT and really just about anything that you can keep pumping credits into and smashing the buttons.
If you have a spinner, let 'em at Cameltry.
At that age, they aren't looking for challenging or beating high scores. They want it to be fun to watch and easy to play.
Hoopz:
--- Quote from: HanoiBoi on October 03, 2010, 06:23:25 pm ---I know there are plenty of other threads on this topic...give it a search.
--- End quote ---
Yep. ;)
--- Quote from: Hoopz on September 27, 2010, 10:09:31 am ---
--- Quote from: ragnar on September 27, 2010, 09:20:03 am ---Yup, did it last night. Turns out my 6 year old is lacking some patience. Every time he plays a game, he gets frusterated after about 2 minutes. Of course, with coin based arcade games, the makers had to make it so you had to stuff a quarter in every 2 minutes in order to make it profitable. Not good for my 6 year old. Myabe a new thread for games for 6 year olds.
--- End quote ---
There have been a few threads over the past couple of years with games for younger children.
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=99162.0
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,10806.0.html
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,27379.0.html
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,38192.0.html
--- End quote ---
Check out those links for a lot of choices. I'll throw out Golden Tee or a bowling game if you have a trackball. One of my daughters was playing Golden Tee at 3 fairly well. Super Mario War is also good. You can easily play with just one button per player too (3 buttons is normal for jump, speed, and power up).
DeLuSioNal29:
My son absolutely LOVES a game called Hyperbowl. It's a PC game that's no longer available, but you can find the demo (fully functional, but restarts after every game (which is a long time since bowling has 10 frames).
He's only 2 but since it's a trackball only game it's really easy for him. He even cheers at gutter balls. LOL. He's playing the DEMO version in the video below.
DeLuSioNaL29
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
Go to full version