Advise on easy to play games for young kids

harry66

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Cant decided between a Xbox 360 or PS3...

Whatever I buy I probably won't keep it for long (already have an Xbox and Wii that I don't use - only the kids use occasionally).

Just need to know if there any easy games kids can play on the Xbox 360. I know there are many 3+ rating games but often these are not that easy to play for a 4-5yr old. e.g. I noticed Beautiful Katamari is reported as being quite hard.

My son currently enjoys Mario Kart, Mario Galaxy, Disney Cars and Super Monkey ball.

Can anyone recommend some similar easy to play kids games on the 360?

Thanks!
PS will be posting similar question on PS3 forum to get a balanced view.
 
Whatever I buy I probably won't keep it for long

Why not buy one, not keep it for long them buy the other one? The arcade games are very simple to pick up in most cases, there's no way of me knowing your children's capabilites or the games they like but both consoles have the sega mega collection (a collection of the old Mega Drive and Master System games) which should be pickupable by anyone. A quick google search showed a few lists of games people recommend for children, there are some games like Viva Pinata which are 'childrens games' but are rather complicated. As I say really depends what your kids are capable of, arcade games are probably the way ahead for ease-of-use though.
 
Thanks for the replies!
Buy both? Even if I was made of money, the missus would go nuts! She always reminds me about how little the Wii is used :D

Leaning towards a PS3 for now... but we shall see....

I did a google too but again not many of sites I found mention difficulties of the various games - just how wonderful they are.
 
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Lego games are perfect for kids, but you can get those on the Wii. Other than that I'd say the various kids film tie in games (with a bit of help in tricky parts) but they are also available for the Wii...
 
My daughter is 5 and loves Banjo Kazooie nuts and bolts on the xbox 360. the original ones can be picked up off marketplace too.

Shrek the third and Kung fu Panda are also quite good too.
 
Thanks for the replies...
Currently leaning towards a PS3 - dunno why just seems a bit more interesting.
 
Thanks for the replies!
Buy both? Even if I was made of money, the missus would go nuts! She always reminds me about how little the Wii is used :D

:) I was more thinking if you bought a PS3 used it until it was finished with then traded it in you'd probably still end up with enough to get an arcade xbox or suchlike, win win situation :smashin: and let's be honest, you're more likely to trade a ps3 than an xbox :p - anyone who lost their sense of humour that's called a joke so put your flame caps down and get a life.
 
anyone who lost their sense of humour .... so put your flame caps down and get a life.

flame caps? - a bit confused here. Just in case you missed it I had a big :D at then end of the sentence - so it was meant to a humorous response. I thought these forums were full people moaning about their missus controlling their spending :)
 
My daugher (age 6) loves Uno Rush.

My son (age 4) loves Castle Crashers.

They both love Sorry Sliders! and Viva Pinata: Party Animals.

There's others they both like (anything with singing and the Lego series of games), but those above a the definite favourites.
 
Thanks
Castle Crashers looks fun - any idea why it is a cert 16? Much violence?
 
So you decided whether your getting a PS3 or a 360 yet then mate, you can get little big planet for the PS3 which i think is aimed at kids :smashin:
 
Was leaning towards PS3 - but had a long chat with a Xbox 360 owning mate and he made some convincing arguments for a 360...gonna mull it over for a few more days. I can only buy a new one rather than 2nd hand so just need to be sure...

I actually seem to the prefer the Xbox Live site facilities - more free demos etc than the PSN. Plus the games (esp pre-owned) definitely seem cheaper on the Xbox. And, I currently have an old Xbox with steering wheel etc

The only advantage of the PS3 I can see is the BluRay but am thinking of a getting a BluRay Freesat HD recorder later in the year anyway.

Cheers!
 
I'd advise 360, but then I'm a 360 owner, so I would!

Keep in mind, that the 360 has Project Natal on the horizon too.. Although i'm not too sold on the product, I think they'll make some kid-friendly options with it to win over the young motion sensitive loving audience.

Also keep in mind, with this gen of consoles, your 360 or PS3 will be your console for another couple of years, where your kids will start to branch out onto some more complicated games, and imo, the 360 has a much better library than the PS3.

They'll be on a Grand Theft Auto rampage in no time :rotfl:
(Joke!)
 
flame caps? - a bit confused here. Just in case you missed it I had a big :D at then end of the sentence - so it was meant to a humorous response. I thought these forums were full people moaning about their missus controlling their spending :)

Sorry mate, wasn't directed at you! :) was directed at anyone who would want to start a ps3 vs xbox argument, sorry for any confusion! :)

Hope you make the right choice insofar as fulfilling your kids needs :) Cheers, Fett
 
Thanks for all the replies.
Moneywise the Xbox 360 makes sense - an arcade bundle with 2 controllers for £130 plus a 2nd hand HD on here for under £20 = total £150 compared to near £300 for a PS3.

I already have a NAS drive with DNLA and a Hisense media player so don't need the larger HD of the PS3.
 
FWIW I have an xbox and a 4 year old and they play well together. Lego Batman / Starwars is played to death and other games like Peggle and Burnout Paradise are big favorites as well. I don't really think either the xbox or the PS3 are particularly child friendly however... you are probably better off with a wii. Get an xbox if it's not really for the kids but you want them to justify it as a family purchase :rolleyes: it's also quite handy for streaming media (don't let the kids use it as a DVD player though!).
 
Thanks, already have a Wii - which does not get used that much by me but does occasionally by the kids.

The Xbox 360 / Ps3 purchase is definitely for me to revel in the HD graphics etc and the odd bit of casual car racing. But I know the kids are going to want to use it more than me - hence the this post about kids games.
 
Oh yeah :facepalm: sorry. Well I hope the games mentioned will help your decision, most of them are pretty cheap and are playable by under 5's without help for the most part. I had the same decision to make a year or so back obviously went for the xbox and have no regrets.
 
Lego games are perfect for kids, but you can get those on the Wii. Other than that I'd say the various kids film tie in games (with a bit of help in tricky parts) but they are also available for the Wii...

I'd agree with the Lego games. I haven't play Lego Star Wars or Lego Indy 2 but I have played Lego Batman and Lego Indy and they are great fun to play plus they have couch co-op which is fun.

There are a few Disney Pixar games that might be worth a look too.
 
Thanks
Castle Crashers looks fun - any idea why it is a cert 16? Much violence?

There is a "gore-off" option, which I use for the kids and which cuts down on the excesses. There's still some slightly gory bits even with the gore set to off, but nothing that is going to traumatise even a four year old. It's violent, but in a cartoony way. Tom & Jerry style, rather than graphic.

As an aside, both my kids vastly prefer the Xbox to the Wii. I don't know why that is, but there's something about the Xbox that engages with them in a way the Wii doesn't, even though the Wii seems on paper to be more suitable.
 
We're obviously all biased in here mostly but I'd also say go for a 360. I had a wii and played it for a couple of months but then lost interest and it sat there for 6 months. It held its value well so I sold it with a few games for £250 and bought a 360 Elite about 16 months ago. I've never looked back, fantastic console and there are plenty of games the kids would enjoy plus you get to enjoy quality racing titles like Forza 3. As you say, there are loads of free demos to download, games can be picked up stupidly cheap (the classified here are good too) and you can also stream media to it easily.

I personally think it has a much better catalogue of games than the PS3, the pads are more comfortable and it's much cheaper than a PS3 - you can pick up a quality bluray player for £80-£100 new if you wanted and still save on the PS3 RRP.
 
Just ordered my Xbox 360 a short while ago from Amazon.
Yeahh!

Thanks for all the advice.
 
nice to hear you've ordered one, the 360 is probably the better of the two for the kids, I've both and they both have good games for the little ones, but I'd say there are more *exclusive* games that kids can play on the 360 than the PS3 - many of which talked about above, such as Banjo and Uno, not to mention simple games like Feeding Frenzy (bit too simple but my kids love it) or classics like pac-man, plus every game on LIVE Arcade has a 'trial' version - and as Kids generally don't mind replaying the same few minutes over and over you have a huge source of free games!

Plus plenty of Demos of most of the disney or lego games should keep you going, and give you an idea which games the kids like.

If you were talking about a console for yourself; that would be a harder choice... but you really can't go wrong with either, 360 has great games (Gears, Halo, Banjo, Dead Rising) and a fantastic online service with LIVE, the PS3 has some good exclusives (Uncharted, Rachet&Clank), blu-ray and iplayer built in.

Enjoy the 360, it's a fantastic machine
 

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