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I trash throw and button mash in all fighting games against my kids. Mortal Kombat? Bring it on. I'm Johnny Cage, punk. The only one I go hard on is Switch bowling. I'll kick you 5 ways from Sunday.
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Oct 15, 2023 21:13
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a podcast for cats posted:I'm trying to avoid the mobile gaming curse by trying to raise my 5 year kld into a PC gamer. Ah, I forgot about that Alba game. The kid loved searching the island.
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Oct 16, 2023 00:09
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a podcast for cats posted:I haven't seen Alba mentioned in this thread and it's absolutely worth checking out. I got Alba in a bundle recently. Looks chill as hell. I'm going to install it and introduce my 5yo to it. Thanks for the reco! (Also, added it to the OP. Wasn't sure if 4 or 6 was better. My system is pretty arbitrary as it is.)
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Oct 16, 2023 03:48
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I'm surprised A Short Hike isn't on the list. It's conflict absent exploration of a space with a few small short term objectives and challenges scattered around fez_machine fucked around with this message at 09:30 on Oct 16, 2023 |
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Oct 16, 2023 09:28
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fez_machine posted:I'm surprised A Short Hike isn't on the list. Great suggestion! Added. Edit: Same down below. Good-Natured Filth fucked around with this message at 02:14 on Oct 17, 2023 |
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Oct 16, 2023 16:05
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Some more kid friendly games. Toem is a delightful exploration and puzzle game about taking pictures that's very cute and just great. Flower and Journey are by the same dev and have a similar feel. Both are exploration games with some puzzles and a bit of conflict at certain parts. Most of what Nintendo puts out, I think Mario Party would be the most accessible, you can practice each mini game before playing them. I think Superstars is the better of the recent two but I'm not 100% on that or if it matters that much for these purposes. Also New Pokemon Snap is often overlooked in general and it's rather good.... And it's also kind of an exploration game with puzzles and taking pictures...hmmm.
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Oct 16, 2023 16:44
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My five year old's first game when he was 4, was Super Mario 3d world + bowser's fury, specifically bowser's fury. He was so bad at it that I thought he was sort of hopeless. We then played mario odyssey together and I had to play a whole lot of it myself to show him. He then played some other games and came back to those games a few months later and it was night and day. he's still no pro but he's a billion times better. He has finished odyssey by himself, completely! He's got super mario 3d world almost complete (his own doing, not mine!) and I've been helping him get the last few stars needed to unlock bowser, and THAT is a bad time. I'm telling him 'go slow! we need to find all of the secrets! We haven't found any stars in this level, we need to look everywhere for them!' but he insists on collecting all the stuff before me, and going faster than me and beating me to the flag etc etc, I'm like 'slow down we need to find stars! I'm only playing this to help you find the stars!' and he's like 'lol owned'. I think if I really want to help him I should get the stars by myself. Other games he loves are minecraft, minecraft story mode (he can't read he just presses the buttons when it's choice time), turtles:shredder's revenge.
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Oct 18, 2023 21:44
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Shredder's revenge is such a good pick for playing with your kids. Hell, your parents too. I had a fun time watching my kid drag them over to the arcade machine for some 4 player turtles last time we had my folks over.
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Oct 18, 2023 22:00
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Going to second Kahn Academy Kids as an excellent learning app for tablet. Everything from Toca Boca is also excellent.
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Oct 19, 2023 12:43
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A podcast I listen to just had an interview with Roblox' VP of Economy. I potentially see this game looming in my future, so it was interesting. Wanted to share: https://pca.st/episode/8d7c87be-3535-4900-a2a7-d4e4138c051e
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Oct 19, 2023 12:50
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I played Super Mario Wonder and WarioWare: Move It! with the kids (8 & 5) this weekend. Both are very fun games to play with kids. Super Mario Wonder has some niceties that make playing with younger kids easier. Nabbit + Yoshis cannot get hurt by enemies (but also can't gain powerups, which is maddening). There are badges that make things like high-jumps easier, especially for kids that can't get the coordination down to hold run + jump at the same time. When you die, you have 5 seconds to be revived by a teammate before you lose a life from your shared pool - this is usually nice, but there are levels where it's pretty much impossible to save someone who has died. There's also a difficulty rating on each level, and you don't have to play every level to progress. WarioWare: Move It! is a blast once the kids got the hang of each microgame. They are all quirky and in normal play, they come at you fast. My kids were getting frustrated until I reassured them that we could play them many more times to get the hang of them. It also helped that I was losing as well because some of the microgames are not obvious. It adds a "second chance" that allows you to continue from where you left off if you run out of attempts during the story mode, instead of having to restart the chapter from the beginning, which makes progression and unlocking more microgames easier. The kids liked WarioWare more than SMW, and I attribute that largely to Mario's need for greater coordination with a controller to succeed. Good-Natured Filth fucked around with this message at 15:56 on Nov 7, 2023 |
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Nov 7, 2023 15:54
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I'm very likely buying a desktop pc this week, mostly for my sons to use (they're 9 and 6 years old). I'll be getting them both Steam accounts, fudging the age because I'm pretty sure there's a hard restriction there, making sure the accounts are verified and all that so I can share my library with them but can I ask in ITT for recommendations or guides on the best way to child-proof Windows 11? Is there a better thread for that? I don't know if Steam itself has any sort of age restriction control going on (I'll be looking into that) but I heard that Windows, in general, does. My kids aren't totally PC literate yet anyway, but I want them to learn to be. Oddly enough, the things they want to play the most are Fortnite and Geometry Dash, aside from the games we have on Switch, so I don't have much worry (yet) of them deciding to quietly install Doom 2016 on there and play it. Still, I'm sure that'll happen eventually. What I don't want is unrestricted access to YouTube or other sites. Edit: ok, I had asked here because I didn't think I'd have enough time during my lunch break to look it all up myself, but it seems as if Steam DOES have parental controls, plus I just watched a walkthrough of how to use the family settings for Windows 11. Holy crap. Extensive! My question is now, any recommendations for really good educational games on either Steam, or certain websites? Even if they're just puzzle solving. Rupert Buttermilk fucked around with this message at 18:23 on Nov 23, 2023 |
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Nov 23, 2023 18:02
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Microsoft Family Safety is pretty ok. I use it with my kid, and it lets you use a whitelist for applications and websites (if Edge is being used), and lets you control how long their screentime is, and when. It's irritating to set up because it's a Microsoft product, but it's 99% hands off now, and I can track usage on an app. e: Scratch is kinda like a YouTube for kids who are blocked from YouTube. Yes, it's ostensibly for some STEM genius kids nonsense, but in reality, it's a bunch of animated memes that (so far) are mostly harmless.
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Nov 23, 2023 18:35
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doctorfrog posted:Microsoft Family Safety is pretty ok. I use it with my kid, and it lets you use a whitelist for applications and websites (if Edge is being used), and lets you control how long their screentime is, and when. It's irritating to set up because it's a Microsoft product, but it's 99% hands off now, and I can track usage on an app. Yeah, so I just learned that Edge isn't based off of IE, but rather Chrome, which kind of blew me away. Must be why it doesn't completely suck. When I set up their profiles, they'll be locked away from using any other browser, at least for now. Maybe I can actually, truly rid their brains of skibbidy toilet (YES YES YES). I've never heard of Scratch, I'll check it out thanks! As far as Steam games I already own that I think would be good for kids, the ones that I can think of off the top of my head are: - Puzzle Agent 1 and 2 - Battleblock Theatre - Braid - Fez - Contraption Maker - Castle Crashers, though I'm mindful of the blood, so who knows about that one - Shovel Knight - Mini Metro and Motorways - Carcassonne - Sim City 4 - Cities: Skylines (this and SC4 would obviously take some real studying to totally understand, but I can see my 9 year old getting into them) - Scribblenauts - Ducktales - Castle of Illusion starring Mickey Mouse (delisted, so only available through library sharing) We already have Minecraft and Fortnite, the latter which will be limited like hell, but it's something my 9 year old's friends all play, so I relent and let him on there once in a while. I'm sure I'm missing a lot. Based on this list, does anyone have any recommendations for what I can add? Rupert Buttermilk fucked around with this message at 18:52 on Nov 23, 2023 |
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Nov 23, 2023 18:48
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Portal might be good for your older kid if they like Fortnite & puzzle games. My 6yo (at the time) really liked A Short Hike. It's a casual 3D exploration game. Alba: A Wildlife Adventure and Toem are also chill 3D exploration games with a focus on taking pictures. Fez might be complicated. I haven't played it in years, but I remember having to take lots of notes for the puzzles.
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Nov 23, 2023 20:51
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Good-Natured Filth posted:Portal might be good for your older kid if they like Fortnite & puzzle games. Portal and Portal 2 are two that I forgot to add to the list of stuff I already have. However, they haven't come close to beating 1 and I don't think they've played 2, so thanks for reminding me! I've never heard of Alba or Toem, but I'll check them out, thanks! Edit: forgot to mention that I'll also be letting them play Sea of Thieves, though without any non-friend voice chat. My wife and I are best friends with a gaming couple who has a 9 year old, and she plays SoT with her parents all the time, loves it, and she's comically ruthless. My older son's tried it and he seemed to enjoy it enough. It'll be nice to sail the high seas with him instead of taking turns with my Steam Deck. Rupert Buttermilk fucked around with this message at 20:59 on Nov 23, 2023 |
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Nov 23, 2023 20:55
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Rupert Buttermilk posted:I'm very likely buying a desktop pc this week, mostly for my sons to use (they're 9 and 6 years old). I'll be getting them both Steam accounts, fudging the age because I'm pretty sure there's a hard restriction there, making sure the accounts are verified and all that so I can share my library with them but can I ask in ITT for recommendations or guides on the best way to child-proof Windows 11? Is there a better thread for that? I don't know if Steam itself has any sort of age restriction control going on (I'll be looking into that) but I heard that Windows, in general, does. I just went through something similar; if you want to get limited accounts to friend each other then you have to use the one-time link option, not friend codes. Sharing games between family members is kind of clunky but works. If you want to un-limit your kids' accounts, but you don't necessarily want to buy them some crappy game just to do so, then you can add $5 to their wallets, or use the kid account to buy a game that you want as a gift to your main.
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Nov 24, 2023 01:22
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~Coxy posted:I just went through something similar; if you want to get limited accounts to friend each other then you have to use the one-time link option, not friend codes. I've done family sharing in the past with my wife, and I know how clunky it can get, so no surprises there. As for legitimizing their accounts, I'm totally fine with them each getting a quality game, like Portal 2 or something. Can I gift them the game for that to work, or does the payment have to be from their account for it to no longer be limited? I'm assuming the latter.
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Nov 24, 2023 05:24
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Correct, the payment has to be from their account.
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Nov 24, 2023 05:57
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Not listed in the OP: <4 Metamorphabet was a big hit with both my kids. 4+ A Little To The Left incredible mouse-driven game filled with tiny puzzles perfect for kids and really helped my daughter learn how to use a mouse. She went from this to Donut County and Mario Paint. Humongous Entertainment has a pack of all their games on Steam that I got for $50 that has all the Freddy Fish, Putt Putt and Pajama Sam games. Crayon Physics Deluxe current favorite, though a bit fiddly. Atoramos fucked around with this message at 06:05 on Nov 24, 2023 |
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Nov 24, 2023 05:57
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Here's another suggestion Shin chan: Me and the Professor on Summer Vacation The Endless Seven-Day Journey https://store.steampowered.com/app/2061250/Shin_chan_Me_and_the_Professor_on_Summer_Vacation_The_Endless_SevenDay_Journey/ If you're familiar with Tim Rogers you'll be familiar with "Boku no Natsuyasumi" and this is the first of the series to be distributed in English. This is literally the same undirected enjoy a vacation in a Japanese rural village game play except with the Crayon Shin Chan characters (but not the usual risqué humor). fez_machine fucked around with this message at 10:30 on Nov 24, 2023 |
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Nov 24, 2023 10:26
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Anyone have recommendations for books on Mario and/or Nintendo for an 11 year old? I bought the Super Mario RPG remake for my nephew for Christmas and I'm looking to supplement it. I got him the Super Mario Encyclopedia a few years ago so that one is out. Do they still publish strategy guides?
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Dec 1, 2023 01:25
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This isn't exactly what you're after I think, but I downloaded the official strategy guide for Super Mario 64 and printed it out and put it in a three ring binder. My kid has probably spent more time reading it than actually playing SM64...
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Dec 1, 2023 02:05
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Those Nintendo Power strategy guides were pretty good!
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Dec 1, 2023 04:42
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That reminds me of being a broke kid (though lucky enough to have a Game Boy), but rich enough to get Nintendo Power magazine. Devoured 'em every month, a dream in every screenshot.
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Dec 1, 2023 05:12
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My 3 year old loves the PBS Kids Games app on iOS. It's got probably a hundred plus "games" of various difficulties, a lot of simple stuff like dress up or really easy hide and seek games, but some are much more involved and would still be good for kids a year or two older too. It's all free and there are no in app purchases.
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Dec 20, 2023 00:34
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Cookie monster foodie truck is my fuckin jam I tell you what. 2nding it. The PBS app is great for little ones
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Dec 20, 2023 00:45
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Games my kid enjoys at almost 5: Katamari Damacy Reroll - mostly just likes to watch me play it, but will always ask to use the controller for a little while. Gets a real kick out of the vibrations from the controller, especially when she discovered she could summon them at will with the vibration on/off button. Has some trouble with the dual stick navigation and still isn't very good at it, but has visibly improved over time and that progress is a real joy to witness. Just Dance 2016 - she'd probably enjoy a newer version too but this is what we have. Has lots of fun dancing and playing back recorded clips at the end of each song. A bummer that we can't save the clips to share with family because the JDTV2016 social media server is defunct. Paint by numbers - I don't know the name of the specific game (one of a million clones) but grandma has a very chill, meditative coloring app on her tablet that they like to play together. It looks like a paint-by-numbers kit where they tap a color palette to fill in a black and white line drawing. We plan on downloading it ourselves for a long car ride. Games with avatar creation - did you know that the character customization screen of FFXIV is a game all by itself? I scroll through the options and she tells me which one to choose. We have over a dozen female miq'otes saved to file because she loves "making kitty people". She also really liked the animal people options in Sonic Forces.
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Dec 20, 2023 16:10
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I am getting thoroughly sick of Untitled Goose Game by now, so I've been looking for other local co-op alternatives for my 5 year old's 1 hour each day of the weekend game time. Never Alone has a very cute fox and local co-op, but the platforming got too hard for her at the end and the story leads to the fox dying (and transforming into a ghost/spirit), which ended things pretty abruptly and I doubt the game will be picked up again. It also had a couple of frustrating bugs. Hoa is really pretty, in a Ghibli animation kind of way, and was recommended by another dad with a girl the same age group as my daughter, but there's no multiplayer or coop and the platforming is too hard for a 5 year old. Machinarium has very funny robots and a nice art style, but the puzzles are too hard even for me. Botanicula is similar, but involves bugs instead of robots. The art style and music has appeal, but it gets too hard to hold attention for long. Moving Out has been a smashing hit so far, it has local coop, a cute art style and an assist mode that allows making the game easier, as the difficulty ramps up a bit too quick. Games that didn't work: Hue: Too confusing, single player only. Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles: Perfect on paper, but not in practice. Neither the gameplay loop, nor the graphics/art held her interest. a podcast for cats fucked around with this message at 11:32 on Dec 26, 2023 |
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Dec 26, 2023 11:21
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Rupert Buttermilk posted:Yeah, so I just learned that Edge isn't based off of IE, but rather Chrome, which kind of blew me away. Must be why it doesn't completely suck. When I set up their profiles, they'll be locked away from using any other browser, at least for now. Maybe I can actually, truly rid their brains of skibbidy toilet (YES YES YES). Welp, I pulled the trigger and we now have a gaming desktop pc! I've pretty much learned all about Family mode in Steam, as well as in Windows in general, so everything is how I like it. That being said, I'm now looking around for more kid-friendly games to send them via Steam. The top two contenders right now are Yoku's Island Express and Hot Lava. Anyone have thoughts on them? I'll likely get them both since they're on sale.
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Dec 26, 2023 14:27
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a podcast for cats posted:I am getting thoroughly sick of Untitled Goose Game by now, so I've been looking for other local co-op alternatives for my 5 year old's 1 hour each day of the weekend game time. Karmazoo might work https://store.steampowered.com/app/1661630/KarmaZoo/ Or one of the Lego games
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Dec 26, 2023 14:41
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fez_machine posted:
Oh man, I might forgo the games I listed above and go for Lego City Undercover.
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Dec 26, 2023 14:49
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Almost every Lego game is solid for co-op with kids (the older ones show their flaws though). The most recent Marvel or DC Supervillains is probably the best in my opinion. The Skywalker Saga game added too much junk and the menus got confusing.
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Dec 27, 2023 01:20
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Rupert Buttermilk posted:The top two contenders right now are Yoku's Island Express and Hot Lava. Anyone have thoughts on them? I'll likely get them both since they're on sale. i think a 9 year old kid will have a blast with yoku. it's a really neat game
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Dec 29, 2023 05:37
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My 7 year old has been raised on some neat games out there over the past 2 years which have already largely been covered in this thread. Primarily on the PS5. Donut County, Untitled Goose Game, Peggle, Astro's Playroom, ABZU, Unravel Two, Unpacking and of course Minecraft, which I all think are really approachable and have some great cooperative play. I tried her on cocoon recently after she watched me play it and it was a bit too tricky for her. I've now started her on Yooka-Laylee which Also, Patrick Klepek, formerly of Giantbomb and Vice, now Remap, has his own parenting/children video game that's worth having a read https://patrickklepek.substack.com
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Jan 1, 2024 02:19
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I desperately wish for my children to use some of my embarrassingly large steam library. Unfortunately, outside of a couple rare instances, they mainly just want to play Roblox.
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Jan 1, 2024 06:13
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Volmarias posted:I desperately wish for my children to use some of my embarrassingly large steam library. Unfortunately, outside of a couple rare instances, they mainly just want to play Roblox. Same with mine, except, they'd rather play Fortnite or literally anything on the Switch.
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Jan 1, 2024 06:20
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Whoever decided on the co op stuff for tropical freeze is a monster. And my son really loves playing Donkey kong.
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Jan 1, 2024 07:29
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My 3yo found my Nintendo "game and watch" handheld version of super Mario 1/"the lost levels" and has been low key playing it when nobody is looking
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Jan 1, 2024 08:21
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~Coxy posted:This isn't exactly what you're after I think, but I downloaded the official strategy guide for Super Mario 64 and printed it out and put it in a three ring binder. I read the poo poo out of the original Diablo strategy guide as a kid. Those official guides were the best
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Jan 1, 2024 09:41
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