Computer/Console games with your kids
 

Do you play computer or console games with your kids? My girls, ages 11 & 12, love playing BZFlag and Jazz Jackrabbit on our home network. I'd like to find some other multiplayer games that don't emphasize violence. I'd even consider getting a console unit if there were viable options there.

Seems like a real marketing opportunity. I know lots of computer geeks with kids these days.

Before the obligatory "fresh air" post, I also play basketball, volleyball and ride bikes with my kids.

Not having offspring, I need to reference what my friend is doing with her brood ...

Most of what her kids play is on the Nintendo GameCube ... her son (9 y.o., IIRC) is playing Animal Crossing (I really don't get the parts where you have to rearrange the furniture), Super Mario Sunshine, and the latest entry in the Zelda games.

The 6 y.o. girl really loves the new Mario Kart game ... and happily acts as bomber when an adult drives. She's not got a lot of finesse, but she's very enthusiastic, although her older brother is the undisputed champion (he drives and bombs for himself).

The 3 y.o. likes the Mickey's Magic Kingdom game which allows the kid to do most of the work, with the grown up giving a little nudge to her pointer every now and again. Great use of cooperative play, IMHO.

Luigi's Mansion is also in the house, but doesn't get played much because, well, it's been declared pretty lame. Vacuuming ghosts doesn't hold the boy's attention very much, although the kids do get some giggles watching a grown-up (i.e., me) try to play and screwing up a lot.

My son is only 2, but he really enjoys watching certain games and I'm working on getting him to play them a bit.

Gamecube: Legend of Zelda - He enjoys watching it.
Animal Crossing - Use this to teach him about different animals and the sounds they make, he calls out the names of the fish I catch, and we do some counting and letter recognition with it.
Mario Party: Not really a 2 year old kind of game, but it's a great multiplayer game for older kids and yes, even adults. Good clean fun.

Xbox: Midway's Greatest Hits - Teaching him to play Joust. :) He mostly just likes pushing the button to make the ostrich fly.

Way way long ago ... my friend's five year old son was better at NES Mario than I was. I needed to hand my controller over to him every time it was time to fight Bowser.

My kids really liked Gameboy stuff, especially Super Mario Advance (AKA Super Mario World for the SNES). And they each had a Gameboy Color that I originally bought to occupy them on a trip to NC, since the cost was down to $30 at Funcoland. Other great hits were the Arthur gameboy color game, Frogger, and 4-in-1 Fun Pack (checkers, chess, reversi, and backgammon--my daughter especially enjoyed the ability to switch sides so she could "win" every time).

They've also been known to play Spongebob and Magic Schoolbus games available on the respective web sites. However the "trouble" has started because she has now learned to go to Google and type stuff in, and click popup ads, etc.....

Oh, I used the past tense above.... She managed to leave a bag with "my" Gameboy Advance (on semi-permanent loan) and one ofthe Gameboy Colors, along with favorite cartridges, behind at the YMCA after we had completed swimming lessons one Saturday. I considered buying a Gameboy Advance SP recently, but decided I don't feel like inciting jealousy in the kids! :D

My kids, nearing 4 and 6, are still too young for video games. We briefly allowed the boy to play them, but didn't like how he was affected by them.

My stepdaughter is 5, and she's been playing Super Smash Brothers Melee on the Gamecube for about a year now.

Now before you think "oh great, violent games for the five year old, no thank you"... It's all very cartoony. You knock people off the screen (no one dies) and then they appear again at the top. And when the match is over, all the characters appear on the screen clapping for the one who won. This was actually very helpful to us because Megan's big problem with games (board, video, card, whathaveyou) is she doesn't like to lose. Once we could show her that Princess Peach was happy for someone else when they won, the idea that it was the right thing to do sunk in a lot faster. Princess Peach and Princess Zelda are pretty much the only characters she plays.

The other game she LOVES is Final Fantasy X-2 (she just watches my husband play; it requires too much reading for her to play herself) because the characters--all girls--change costumes constantly in these elaborate transformation sequences.

Jinx, have you tried any of the Blue's Clues CD-ROMs? I was surprised at how easy and yet in-depth they were.

to clarify that a bit, he becomes instantly addicted. he cannot hear you telling him it's time to stop, and as soon as you make him, he starts to cry. later that day, he'll start bargaining with you so he can play again. the next day, he tells you about how much fun the game is. I can tell he's re-living playing the game in his mind. I want to play with him, but he becomes so irrational, that he makes you miserable when he's not playing.

I feel a little bad about it too, because when he was 3 1/2, he wanted to play, but I told him that if he wanted to play, he'd need to know how to read. The deal was that when I felt like he could read a whole book by himself, he'd be allowed to play. The carrot worked very well, and he was reading by age 4. Early age 4. now, he reads to his sister, he can read fortune cookies, ...he's even read "undertoad" off of the computer screen, and knew enough about it to ask " who's undertoad?"

So, I kind of feel like I went back on my word, but I won;t have him being a video game junkie. He gets enough board game time at school to make up for what he's missing.

That's rough, and I hope I don't have to deal with it. I really love video games and there was a time in my life when I was pretty well consumed with playing them. I grew out of it (probably just a shortening of the attention span), but I have 4 consoles set up and at least 10 games installed on the PC at any given time. So Jamey sees that I don't spend a lot of time playing, and when I do, it's usually short gaming sessions. I hope as he gets older he sees that as an appropriate approach to gaming. The occasional marathon session isn't necessarilty *bad*, it just cannot become a common occurrence.

You know lj, my son (now 5) is kinda like that with TV. Oddly enough he has no problem watching no TV at all. But once he gets started, it's like WWIII to drag him away. ("The first one's always free.....")

That's exactly the kind of thing I was looking for - games where you and the kids play against each other. Thanks.

Hmm, something where you cooperate against computer baddies would also be good. Anyone have any ideas there?

LJ - sounds like you're giving up a very fine carrot. Something along the lines of "if your room is clean and the bed made, you may play the computer games for up to one hour a day". Then set the timer and stick to it. If you warn him ahead of time that whining means losing the priviledge for the rest of the week, I'd bet you wouldn't see whining the next week.

Just a thought. As always, you know your kids better then anyone else does.

Hmm, something where you cooperate against computer baddies would also be good. Anyone have any ideas there?

You can do this in Super Smash Brothers--up to four players/CPU characters, set up teams any way you like, and the CPU players can be assigned a skill level 1 through 9. I think you can also do this in any of the Mario Kart games, but I'm not sure.

And if they're hurting for exercise, there's always the home version of Dance Dance Revolution. They'll *have* to stop playing when they pass out. :)

That's exactly the kind of thing I was looking for - games where you and the kids play against each other. Thanks.

Oh yeah! How could I forget? Super Monkey Ball, and the sequel, are both fabulous kids-vs-parents games. It's timing based, you roll the ball holding your monkey down the ramp and try to land on the points platforms, or you play "golf" with your monkey balls, etc.