First Daddy Daughter Video Games

[Talons]

I'm getting a Wii for the virtual console and was just wondering if my 3-year-old daughter was old enough to play any of the games on it with me. Do any of you have any suggestions for which games I should try first? I'm not looking for games like Princess Barbie's Pony Teaches ABCs, because I wouldn't enjoy watching her play it and she already plays games like that on the iPad.

Should I start out with NES games because they only have two buttons and usually don't require much reading? Or are N64 games more fun for kids because you can't die in the first 5 seconds? Should I try to find games with a girl protagonist like Super Mario Bros. 2? Or should I wait a year before I introduce her to console games as I'm not sure she'd understand the control system and get frustrated?

Any reminiscing about playing video games as a child is also welcome in this thread, especially if you played with family members.

[Whistler]

try out super mario galaxy! Its second player option is pretty basic (although if you play with a 3-year-old, just resign yourself to the fact that she will shoot all your stars as soon as possible -_-). I've also let 5-year-olds play Kirby's Epic Yarn, which is kind of kiddie but challenging enough that me and my husband enjoyed playing it. Lego Star Wars is pretty good too, although it's easy to get stuck on some kind of puzzle where you need a certain character's ability. But younger children don't mind just exploring the first level for a loooong time.

You might want to wait until she is a little older. iPad games are great if you can touch and point. Squeezing a certain button and moving a guy around are a little more frustrating... but you can always let her try and see. Maybe she'll really enjoy it and it will hasten her fine motor skill development! You might also like dancing with the Just Dance games with her (that way even if the controller frustrates her, she can feel like she's playing along... although I haven't tried them myself).

[Whistler]

You were probably looking for virtual console recommendations, huh. She might like the old Mario Kart? I feel like most of the NES/SNES games are super difficult with frustratingly few checkpoints.

[Talons]

Well I'm not opposed to buying Wii/GC games. I have always wanted to try SMG and Kirby's Epic Yarn, so maybe this can be my excuse. Thanks for the quick suggestions!

[Emiliana]

I'm not a huge gamer, but I do remember being beaten at Mario Kart Wii by a 3-year-old girl at some point. I think it partly worked because you can use the controller like a steering wheel? But again, not virtual console friendly.

[Yarjka]

Any game is fine as long as you realize that her attention span might not be very long for it. My daughter and I have enjoyed playing pokepark wii, but we only play for 5-10 minutes before she wants to do something else, although sometimes she enjoys watching me play for longer. She also enjoys Mario Kart even though she ends up going the wrong way and usually wants to switch controllers with me halfway through. It works out fine as long as you don't care too much about the outcome of the game itself.

[Giovanni Schwartz]

I just want to say that I started playing video games at the ripe old age of 2 (or maybe 3. But I'm pretty sure 2.) I started understanding them at about 4, but I still liked them before that. I remember one of my favorites was Super Mario Bros. 3. And I also tried to play Ghouls and Ghosts (or whatever it was called. You know, the one where you walk through the zombie graveyard?) but I wasn't very good at it (heck, I tried to emulate it while back, and I STILL wasn't any good at it.) I second the nomination for the original Mario Kart (Super Nintendo, yes?). Good memories with that one. And also anything with side-scrolling is generally a pretty good idea. I know that by age 5 (Nintendo 64 came out, which is how I know.) I was skilled enough that I could actually make progress on Super Mario 64, and I could pwn just about anyone at Mario Kart 64. So I definitely don't think 3 is too young.

[Talons]

Any game is fine as long as you realize that her attention span might not be very long for it. My daughter and I have enjoyed playing pokepark wii, but we only play for 5-10 minutes before she wants to do something else, although sometimes she enjoys watching me play for longer. She also enjoys Mario Kart even though she ends up going the wrong way and usually wants to switch controllers with me halfway through. It works out fine as long as you don't care too much about the outcome of the game itself.

This seems like good advice. I think I'll try out Pokemon Snap with her before spending the $30 on Pokepark. She has always loved taking pictures on my phone.

And I also tried to play Ghouls and Ghosts (or whatever it was called. You know, the one where you walk through the zombie graveyard?) but I wasn't very good at it (heck, I tried to emulate it while back, and I STILL wasn't any good at it.)

Ghouls and Ghosts has to be one of the toughest video games ever. I remember loving it as a kid, but then when I went back to it as a teenager and again as an adult I realized just how difficult it is. I think I just didn't mind starting the first level over and over again because I didn't realize I was failing, I was just having fun. I guess we'll just see if my daughter is the same way. I too started at an early age, but Atari controllers only had the joystick which was pretty easy to grasp, and one button, so it might have been easier to learn back then.

I think I will try Super Mario Kart. It has cars and a princess you can control, and you don't die and have to start over at the beginning.

[Yarjka]

Oh, actually, a great one that my daughter requests a lot is Mike Tyson's Punch-Out for the Wii. It's really straightforward - you just punch with the controllers, so it works great. She laughs uncontrollably when we punch out the Frenchman 'Glass Joe' and the bread goes flying. She calls him the "bread guy". You may not want to expose your daughter to all the stereotypes that are played up in the game, not to mention the violence. It has been a bit difficult to teach her that it is usually inappropriate to punch people in real life, but I think she's got it now.

She's pretty good at shooting games, too, but I try to limit her exposure to those. Duck Hunt was one of my favorites as a kid, and I know I played it at a pretty young age. (But actually, I didn't get the NES until later, so the shooting game I played as a toddler would have been Shooting Gallery for the Sega Master System, which is a phenomenal game that I miss very much. When I got a little bit older, I really liked TransBot). /nostalgia

[S.A.M.]

She also enjoys Mario Kart even though she ends up going the wrong way and usually wants to switch controllers with me halfway through. It works out fine as long as you don't care too much about the outcome of the game itself.

Plus one on this. It drives my older kids crazy to play mario kart, etc. with their kid brother. He just has a blast driving around, running into things, and driving off cliffs. In other racing games, he likes to crash cars intentionally just to see how awesome the wrecks are. For him, the experience is fun, not the competing (yet).

[Random]

She also enjoys Mario Kart even though she ends up going the wrong way and usually wants to switch controllers with me halfway through. It works out fine as long as you don't care too much about the outcome of the game itself.

Plus one on this. It drives my older kids crazy to play mario kart, etc. with their kid brother. He just has a blast driving around, running into things, and driving off cliffs. In other racing games, he likes to crash cars intentionally just to see how awesome the wrecks are. For him, the experience is fun, not the competing (yet).

...Why do these young children playing video games sound exactly like how I play now? I can't remember what I played when I was a kid. I think I mostly watched my siblings play video games, and I was content with that since that was spending time with other humans, which I've always been a fan of. Maybe Bob remembers what I managed to play when I was little. She was probably old enough to remember me at 3... I think I might've played one of the Super Mario games, but I was always Luigi and never got far (Bowzer's castle was far too creepy for little me!). I think I played some games with my little sisters, though. Sometimes I'd just sit them on my lap and let them make all the decisions for the game, and that was pretty entertaining for them. They also liked playing DDR, even though they almost always failed the song.

I think the ideo of having Daddy/Daughter video game time is both adorable and awesome!

[Giovanni Schwartz]

If your kid is into crashing cars on a racing game, try some of the old Burnout games (I think number two and beyond). The goal is actually to MAKE THE BIGGEST WRECK YOU CAN. Tell me that's not cool.

[blpsara]

My little nieces and nephews love playing the new Super Mario brothers with me. We taught them how to put themselves in a protective bubble, and most of the time they are perfectly content to just hold a controller and ride in their bubble beside me.

[S.A.M.]

The goal is actually to MAKE THE BIGGEST WRECK YOU CAN. Tell me that's not cool.

That's cool! Also big in the smash things genre is Rampage: Total Destruction. You are King Kong, Godzilla, or other large monster types and you crush buildings for fun!

[Giovanni Schwartz]

My little nieces and nephews love playing the new Super Mario brothers with me. We taught them how to put themselves in a protective bubble, and most of the time they are perfectly content to just hold a controller and ride in their bubble beside me.

+10000. I vote for this one.

[Indefinite Integral]

My little nieces and nephews love playing the new Super Mario brothers with me. We taught them how to put themselves in a protective bubble, and most of the time they are perfectly content to just hold a controller and ride in their bubble beside me.

Yes, those bubbles are a great equalizer so people who are not so good at video games (me) can play with those of a much higher skill level (my friends) and still enjoy themselves.

[Whistler]

pshh if you are playing in a bubble you are virtually IN A BUBBLE and not playing (I find constantly having to shift to bubble-mode quite frustrating).

[Random]

New Super Mario Brothers for the Wii is hilarious. Seriously, I have never laughed so hard at a game as I did with this one. Every. Time.

[Talons]

We're having fun for a few minutes at a time before she gets bored, which is fine, but I think she'd have more fun if she could figure out the d-pad or joystick. I've tried explaining it to her, but I don't think I did a very good job. Any tips for how to help her make the connection?