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Interesting thread; I'm glad I came across it. I have a gripe about how bad little kids' games are these days. I feel like it's due to the fact that boxed software used to be $20-40, so it was made with some thought and attention by actual companies and sold in stores. iPad apps are only a few dollars (if that) in which case they are toys, or they are subscription-based in which case they want you to pay that much per year. Free games are mostly even worse, since they are loaded with ads and dark patterns. I've posted this before but I went to pains to find a 360 version of Angry Birds, which is the only way I know of to play the original game without any of that garbage. Other games that my kids have done OK on are obviously Minecraft, Mario Kart Wii, and What The Golf. One will sometimes play New Super Mario Bros Wii, but only with a cheat that makes you invulnerable to enemies (you still die from falling though.) I'm not actually sure whether this is good since it leads to not ever wanting to play with the cheat off. They enjoy Just Dance and Kinect Party but they're barely games. Never got into Wii Sports or Wii Fit.
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Jul 26, 2023 08:43
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| # ? May 3, 2024 01:41 |
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notwithoutmyanus posted:Sago mini style games (my city and all the other kindle fire stuff). The "My Town" games' intro with the man's deep bass saying "This is my town" always made me question whether I should be concerned, but they're ultimately virtual dollhouses which is fine. I generally don't like the Kindle Fire stuff, and we're prematurely canceling the free Amazon Kids+ subscription when school starts back up. I'm going to curate the hell out of what apps they are able to access on it moving forward. ~Coxy posted:One will sometimes play New Super Mario Bros Wii, but only with a cheat that makes you invulnerable to enemies (you still die from falling though.) I'm not actually sure whether this is good since it leads to not ever wanting to play with the cheat off. I've had the same thought. Playing as Nabbit in NSMBU Deluxe is easy mode, but it allows them to focus on the controls of platforming. Once they have that down, they can practice avoiding enemies as well. It's sure as hell a gentler ease into video gaming than when my parents bought me a Nintendo with SMB3 for Christmas and said "This is the only game you get this year. Have fun." as they walked out of the room. I do think I'll have to come to terms with the fact that my kids likely won't be into pixel-perfect platformers like me. Much like I'm not into twitchy shooters like my brother. Everyone has their own preferences and grew up with different games of the moment. As much as I'd love to play through the Super Mario World special levels with my kids, I also don't want to force them to try to enjoy something they don't.
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Jul 28, 2023 03:00
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Playing with cheats and other easy-mode stuff is fine! It's not a failing if someone doesn't want to play a game without cheats, games are supposed to be fun. Also as mentioned it's a great way to learn platforming since you can focus on just jumps to begin with. When I was a kid I'd use cheats in games all the time, then when the internet came about I'd find trainers for games and all that. Eventually I got bored of it and wanted to be challenged by games, it didn't ruin me.
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Jul 28, 2023 06:42
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Fun coincidence: I'm solo with my 3 year old all weekend and had already decided I was finally gonna buy Untitled Goose Game so we could mess around with it -- and then it goes on sale on the eShop yesterday!! 
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Jul 28, 2023 12:22
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External Organs posted:Fun coincidence: I'm solo with my 3 year old all weekend and had already decided I was finally gonna buy Untitled Goose Game so we could mess around with it -- and then it goes on sale on the eShop yesterday!! You're gonna have a blast! My kids love the hell out of that game. Just be ready for an annoying amount of honking, but that's kinda the point.
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Jul 28, 2023 12:36
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When I was a kid there was a whole ecosystem of cool educational games. Where did that go?! I'd kill for a new iteration of Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego or Zoombinis, hell even a Math Blaster. We lost a golden age of excellently written, skill building treasures on a CD ROM.
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Jul 28, 2023 13:49
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A Bad King posted:When I was a kid there was a whole ecosystem of cool educational games. Where did that go?! I'd kill for a new iteration of Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego or Zoombinis, hell even a Math Blaster. Imo those games got supplanted by free flash games, which then died and were replaced by mobile phone apps that all suck because they were made to pump money rather than edutain.
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Jul 28, 2023 14:24
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CuddleCryptid posted:Imo those games got supplanted by free flash games, which then died and were replaced by mobile phone apps that all suck because they were made to pump money rather than edutain. I found a 2015 Zoombinis title on Steam. I saw the $10 price and balked. Yeah, you're basically right. I am part of the problem. My mom was crazy to spend ~$60 in 1992 dollars for a Zoombinis title. We can't have nice things if we say no to them.  Socialize endutainment games! This is how you build class consciousness.
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Jul 28, 2023 14:42
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A Bad King posted:I found a 2015 Zoombinis title on Steam. I saw the $10 price and balked. Yeah, you're basically right. It's also tricky because the the games that filled that genre in the 90s were a lot of point and click adventure games which have generally fallen out of favor in the industry. It's partially because people want to play other things but also they're kind of hard to make and animate. I watched Game Grumps play Putt Putt Goes To The Zoo, which I loved as a kid, but the animation and general design is *rough* by modern standards. Also, not to get all old man shaking a stick at these drat kids, there's the idea that kids games should be generally easy because the dumb kids shouldn't get frustrated. And yet here I was at 6 years old pixel hunting and trying to invent swear words because I couldn't find what I needed in Freddi Fish. E. And of course it's hard to push formal games on kids when "screen time" is said in the same tone as "cyanide" for a lot of families.
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Jul 28, 2023 14:58
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It's not really a "game", but Khan Academy Kids is a solid, free learning app. Duolingo ABC is pretty good, too, in that regard. I long for reboots of games I played in computer class at school: Super Solvers and Odell Down Under come to mind.
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Jul 28, 2023 18:34
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Just picked up Disney Illusion Island. Going to see how my Mickey-obsessed kids take to Metroidvanias.
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Jul 28, 2023 19:30
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All the kids game energy moved to mobile and got monetized to gently caress and back.
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Jul 28, 2023 19:46
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Don’t sleep on the humongous games, imo they still hold up. I had picked up a bundle of all of them on Steam a while back and my 3yo really caught on to Putt Putt (Goes to the Moon, Zoo, and Circus) and Freddi Fish (Kelp Seeds).
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Jul 28, 2023 20:14
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The Backyard sports series ruled
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Jul 28, 2023 20:42
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Good-Natured Filth posted:
Just noticed this section, and wanted to add that handheld retro gaming consoles work very well for this too. They're pretty cheap, can emulate anything up to a PS1, and allow you to save state at any time so they're easy to put down. I played through a large chunk of Earthbound and FFVI with a sleeping baby strapped to my chest. There's a great thread that goes into those: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3937810
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Jul 28, 2023 23:32
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I played a lot of Rock Band with my kid in a sling and she loved it.
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Jul 29, 2023 00:20
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Lead out in cuffs posted:Just noticed this section, and wanted to add that handheld retro gaming consoles work very well for this too. They're pretty cheap, can emulate anything up to a PS1, and allow you to save state at any time so they're easy to put down. I played through a large chunk of Earthbound and FFVI with a sleeping baby strapped to my chest. Good call. I'll add it to the list. I've been eyeing a retro handheld for no reason. I already have a steam deck with emudeck setup. I don't need a separate handheld, but I sure do want one.
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Jul 29, 2023 21:29
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A Bad King posted:I found a 2015 Zoombinis title on Steam. I saw the $10 price and balked. Yeah, you're basically right. $10 for a touched up (if flawed) rerelease of an edutainment game from 96 seems like an ok price
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Jul 29, 2023 21:53
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Hippie Hedgehog posted:she apparently "can't stop thinking about Zelda" because it's a scary game. We got back into it! She actually talked me into starting up Link to the Past again. One dungeon a day. Up to the fourth maiden now. Next is to temper the sword and prepare for the Ice Palace.
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Jul 29, 2023 22:31
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~Coxy posted:They enjoy Just Dance and Kinect Party but they're barely games. "rhythm and party games are non-games for dirty casuals" is not a value that i, personally, will be trying to instill in the young gamers i know
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Jul 30, 2023 06:21
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Lutha Mahtin posted:"rhythm and party games are non-games for dirty casuals" is not a value that i, personally, will be trying to instill in the young gamers i know hosed up to be dooming your children to a life of being filthy casuals
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Jul 30, 2023 06:39
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External Organs posted:Fun coincidence: I'm solo with my 3 year old all weekend and had already decided I was finally gonna buy Untitled Goose Game so we could mess around with it -- and then it goes on sale on the eShop yesterday!! I got this and Donut Country on sale since my boyfriend and his four year old are staying with me this weekend. We had a blast and both are good stress free intros to figuring out controls! So much honking.
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Jul 30, 2023 17:51
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Baby cleared her first Mario level! SMB 3, stage 1-5 or whichever is the underground ice tunnel one. Well, I had to help her make one difficult jump but I was really impressed. That game is so loving hard though, I don’t think we’ll persist. Especially since save states are somehow broken for the NES emulator on my Kodi box. We finished Link to the Past. Got most of the optional items so the final boss was way easier than I remembered it from when, as a kid of 11, I didn’t know about throwing the tempered sword into the fat fairy’s pond… Anyway, kid is nagging me to “play Zelda again” which means she wants to watch me play it. What else is a good game for an almost-5- year old to watch-and-participate in? Not too violent and has to either be on Steam or emulate on a Kodi.
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Aug 28, 2023 20:40
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Maybe I’ll set up GBC emulation and play some OG pokemon yellow?
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Aug 28, 2023 20:43
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Hippie Hedgehog posted:Anyway, kid is nagging me to “play Zelda again” which means she wants to watch me play it. What else is a good game for an almost-5- year old to watch-and-participate in? Not too violent and has to either be on Steam or emulate on a Kodi. Have you done the Lego Star Wars series?
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Aug 28, 2023 20:57
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That might be good! Seems age-appropriate. Is it very dialog-driven? I should have mentioned we're not native English speakers and she doesn't speak it yet.
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Aug 28, 2023 21:52
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I don’t recall it being so, no.
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Aug 29, 2023 02:53
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Hippie Hedgehog posted:Anyway, kid is nagging me to “play Zelda again” which means she wants to watch me play it. What else is a good game for an almost-5- year old to watch-and-participate in? Not too violent and has to either be on Steam or emulate on a Kodi. Me and my kid played the hidden object game series Nightmares from the Deep around that age. It's a mom-safe but spooky ghost pirate game. She could move the mouse around and find objects and hide under the desk when she got scared.
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Aug 29, 2023 16:32
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Good-Natured Filth posted:The "My Town" games' intro with the man's deep bass saying "This is my town" always made me question whether I should be concerned, but they're ultimately virtual dollhouses which is fine. I generally don't like the Kindle Fire stuff, and we're prematurely canceling the free Amazon Kids+ subscription when school starts back up. I'm going to curate the hell out of what apps they are able to access on it moving forward. have I got bad news for you! Kindle functions on a perpetual whitelist approach. and it's a really messed up one because it's backwards but not quite a blacklist. You can only put what you want onto the blacklist, but when new games come out there's no way to have a filter for that to block them. so when people release seven new versions of sago mini or some other incredibly crappy designed game, All of those will be available until you add them on the black list. so every new predatory kid game will show up by definition. so in my case for example I wanted my daughter have the podcast app? I would have to go in and blacklist every single other app in the system which would only work until new games come out - because there is no choice between games and apps you approve.
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Aug 29, 2023 17:44
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notwithoutmyanus posted:have I got bad news for you! Kindle functions on a perpetual whitelist approach. and it's a really messed up one because it's backwards but not quite a blacklist. You can only put what you want onto the blacklist, but when new games come out there's no way to have a filter for that to block them. so when people release seven new versions of sago mini or some other incredibly crappy designed game, All of those will be available until you add them on the black list. so every new predatory kid game will show up by definition. Yeah. Their automatic whitelisting practice was the bane of my existence. Since school started, I've turned off and cancelled the Amazon Kids+ subscription entirely which inherently blacklists everything since they no longer have access to it. I've added a few apps from the Amazon app store to my content list and shared them with the kids, so now they only have access to a very limited number of items that I've shared with them.
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Aug 29, 2023 22:16
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I explicitly, explicitly regret ever allowing or getting any kindle devices ever in this household.
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Aug 30, 2023 03:04
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Good-Natured Filth posted:I figured out my new go-to for the kids playing games together. I bought the latest star wars lego anthology game (skywalker something) when it came on sale recently That is the only "action" game I feel comfortable playing around my nearly 3 year old at this time, it's pretty great, and she can watch it and be entertained
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Aug 30, 2023 18:56
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My almost-16-yo (Jesus Christ, I still have trouble with that) has been playing Lego Star Wars and such since she was about 3, and she still breaks it out with her friends when they come over. It’s a lifetime companion.
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Aug 30, 2023 19:04
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Hadlock posted:I bought the latest star wars lego anthology game (skywalker something) when it came on sale recently This piqued my interest enough that I’ll probably pick up the previous one (not the skywalker saga) and play a couple levels to check out before putting her in front of it.
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Aug 31, 2023 14:59
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The light saber stuff is inevitable (I mean, come on) but there's no extreme violence or whatever. If they bop them on the head, they do it off screen and you hear a noise. They're pretty methodical about keeping it PG to (almost) G
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Aug 31, 2023 16:20
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Good-Natured Filth posted:Ages 8+ We just had the first major cold since summer, and the nearly-5-year-old has enjoyed this game a lot. She's not a fluent reader, and speaks no English to speak of, but the game works well when I'm seated next to her and reading out the prompts and dialog. Controls are very forgiving since you can't accidentally step into stuff and die. On the second-to-last level, navigation starts to get a little complicated, with lots of one-way gates to navigate, so there have been several times where she has handed me the controller because it's just too much mental effort. Right now we're playing this, and Pokémon Yellow on GBC emulator. In fact, we're pairing the TV series' season 1 with the playthrough, though we've watched ahead a pretty long way by now. The game mechanics are simple enough that she can sort of grok them (at least the rock-paper-scissors aspect of them), and she loves catching and finding new pokemon.
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Oct 11, 2023 19:17
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I really hope they make sequels. If any of you didn't know, this game is based on a book. There are other books in the series
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Oct 11, 2023 23:25
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There was a recent conversation in the "Before I Play" thread about Roblox that I felt was relevant to our little thread here, so I'll cross-post. The discussion starts here and lasts about a page. Also, I introduced my 7yo daughter to Stardew Valley a couple weeks ago, and she is smitten. I love that it's pretty open to how you play, and there are no hard deadlines (like in the original Harvest Moon games). You can take it at your own pace and do as much or as little as you want. Good-Natured Filth fucked around with this message at 14:06 on Oct 14, 2023 |
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Oct 14, 2023 14:03
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I'm trying to avoid the mobile gaming curse by trying to raise my 5 year kld into a PC gamer. In practice it means we play Untitled Goose Game, Donut Country and Alba: A Wildlife Story a lot. I haven't seen Alba mentioned in this thread and it's absolutely worth checking out.
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Oct 15, 2023 07:05
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| # ? May 3, 2024 01:41 |
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A lesson in humility: Having been called in as the ringer uncle to help my nephew learn how to deal with defeat I have learned that there is a window for this. When he was 6 my sister had me come over to play smash bros wii u with him. I asked if I should go easy on him and she stopped smiling and said, "crush him". He was a sore winner and sorer loser, but went undefeated in their house. Thankfully smash bros doesn't change much and my muscle memory from high school playing melee was intact. Side-note: it's really hard to keep beating someone in a game when they're telling you "good game" with tears in their eyes. About 3 years later my nephew asks me to play smash ultimate. At this point he seems to know how to counter every move and is calling his shots while beating me. I only got a win when I used the most recent dlc character because he hadn't fought them enough yet. He wasn't a sore winner or loser this time though. He's ten now, last time they were in town I was allowed to play Street Fighter 6 with him, with the battle damage turned off. It was on classic controls and he couldn't do a quarter circle, but a dragon punch? Sure. Tech every throw attempt? Yeah. Somehow figure out drive impact and counters after a round? Yep. He could barely do any of the special moves and it was still really hard to beat him. I was about to switch him to modern controls but they had to go at that point. Pretty sure he would've slaughtered me if there had been time. Moral: The difference in reaction times will catch up with you. So humble your kids while you can I guess.
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Oct 15, 2023 20:29
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