Anybody know a good game a 4-year old can play?

[Taskmage]

My oldest's 4th birthday is coming up and I'd like to get him some fun game he can play without help. He's been playing R-Type Final (I turn on invulnerability for him) and some awful old Dora the Explorer game for PS1. He really liked the Spiderman 2 game for Gamecube too, which was convenient because in that game when you die you just respawn and keep on playing indefinately, and you can have fun without actually pursuing the story.

He wants to play FFXI and my strategy RPGs, but not only are those games really complicated, but he can't read much yet so that kinda limits his options. I'm thinking something like FF: Crystal Chronicles would be great since we could sit down and play that together and reading isn't really required for the meat of the game, but I'm not looking forward to buying a bunch of hardware.

Basically I'm looking for something with relatively simple controls, a forgiving level of difficulty or continue system, doesn't require a lot of reading and has content that wouldn't shock my grandmother. If it has simultaneous multiplayer, that'd be a big plus. I don't have anything against "edutainment" games but the priority here is funness. Any ideas?

[PotentPotables]

Re: Anybody know a good game a 4-year old can play?

Okay, what platofrm do you want.

If you want console, which console?

If you want PC, PM me.

[Taskmage]

Re: Anybody know a good game a 4-year old can play?

I'd prefer console, so I don't have to fight with him for the PC. ^^
PS2 or Gamecube.

[PotentPotables]

Re: Anybody know a good game a 4-year old can play?

Gamecube! Too easy. Mario Party 7, or 37, or whatever number they're on now. Not only are the games great for multiplayer, but you can dumb down the AI enough for a 3yr old to enjoy it. I know.

PS2..for a 4yr old...idk. Maybe DDR, lol. Or you could always budget shop for Konami Classics.

Then again, you could always go for a modded XBox and put some emu's on the HD...but only if you own the game [disclaimer]. >.>

[DakAttack]

Re: Anybody know a good game a 4-year old can play?

You should pump up the challenge for him, it's never too early spend twelve hours a day playing video games. For the PS2 I'd suggest the FF series, DOA:H, Monster Rancher 1 & 2, and that's all I can think of. I'm not too good with the GC, but I think if you're going for a PS2 game Monster Rancher might be best for kids. It's a pretty addictive breeder. :|

[Taskmage]

Re: Anybody know a good game a 4-year old can play?

Mario Party ... I developed a major prejudice against that series after the first one tore up my palms and left me unable to ...... uhh ... use my palms ... for a week. I guess I should look into it though.

He's played DDR. He always fails in the minimum amount of time, but he enjoys it anyway. I kinda wanted to get him a game he could succeed at though. He doesn't have the reaction time or the ... well legs to play that game yet.

He's actually playing FFX right now. I figured it'd be a good fit since all the important text is spoken and the battle system isn't too complicated. Earlier FFs ... too much reading to know what to do and what's going on.

I thought briefly about getting a fighting game, since you can set the difficult on low and pretty much hit buttons at random and pull off some cool moves for the win. (I know, or I'd never get anywhere in them.) Last time I checked though, those games banked on sex and/or graphic brutality to draw an audience, and I don't really want to expose him to that yet.

Don't know the first bloody thing about Monster Rancher but I'll check it out.

[PotentPotables]

Re: Anybody know a good game a 4-year old can play?

Why not get RPG Maker and make him some quick little RPG's?

Fun for you both!

[dirtyclown]

Re: Anybody know a good game a 4-year old can play?

All children should start gaming with Contra. If you've got an NES and the cart, or a modded Xbox, you're good to go. Put in the code and do some oldschool cooperative alien busting.

[Fliegar]

Re: Anybody know a good game a 4-year old can play?

3 words: We Katamari (Yes it's a game, you roll a bunch of crap into a ball and win the level!)

[Mog]

Re: Anybody know a good game a 4-year old can play?

I could be wrong, but why don't you start him off on a simple console, such as a the SNES? (or on a modded xbox). Plenty of games that don't really require reading but are fun to play: F-zero, Link to the Past, Super Mario Allstars (<--- 's mario games), and many others. Problem with ps2 and xbox is that the majority of games are leaned to teens up. Nintendo games, from what I've seen, are fun for all ages.

Food for thought.

3 words: We Katamari (Yes it's a game, you roll a bunch of crap into a ball and win the level!)

LOL I played that once. What a trippy game....

[Taskmage]

Re: Anybody know a good game a 4-year old can play?

Yeah, we've got Katamari. You'd think that'd be perfect, but he didn't get into it. =/

Yeah, a lot of my old NES games seem right up his alley. The first Zelda, off the top of my head.

[Fliegar]

Re: Anybody know a good game a 4-year old can play?

Yeah alot of the old Snes games are good. Zelda seems like a good start, I started gaming when I was 4-5 on Earthworm Jim .

[Mog]

Re: Anybody know a good game a 4-year old can play?

A few NES games that I personally liked

Zelda 1
River City Ransom
Pro am
Mega man series
World Cup/volley ball
Donkeykong/mario
duck hunt

As for SNES,

final fantasy 2/3
Street fighter (not gory at all)
Link to the past
chrono trigger (too much text though, probably won't understand what's going on)
Mega man series
Donkey Kong Country

Hope that gives you a few ideas. Ahhh...does this bring back memories....

[Fliegar]

Re: Anybody know a good game a 4-year old can play?

What about Donkey Kong? I remember playing that when I was little as well.

[Reincarnation]

Re: Anybody know a good game a 4-year old can play?

.Hack? Reading isn't that big a deal, just gotta gain the combination of words for the Portal you go to the Portal find them manually or just go to the drop box that has it there already and warp. It's hack-n-slash so that kinda contrasts from the fun but playing tag with the Sun Gobs, Data Draining, and killing things at random helps. It's all about quests and gaining new members as friends although with the occasional gigantic-overly-Xagerated-killing monster pops up. If you run low on HP or Data Drain too much you die with the old BIG RED 'GAME OVER' letters. Oh, like most games lately the text is read out so whatever part has the jumbo monolugue or whatever it maybe all ya gots ta do is listen. Easy to understand, difficult once or twice, and keeps you busy.