Game reccomendations for young gamer

[MediaManXL]

Hi,

This is my first post to the forum. I'm a dad of an 8 yr old aspiring gamer. Back in the day, I was always more of a PC gamer myself, rather than consoles. (The last console I owned was an Atari 2600, which started collecting dust once I bought my first Commodore 64 with paper route money.)

I put together a computer for him to use--while definitely not a gaming rig by any stretch, it's a decent Intel i5 based PC that can probably handle most current games as long as I don't turn the quality settings up too high.
He currently plays a lot of Minecraft on it, but he's been asking for other games.

Does anyone have any suggestions for games that are at least moderately age appropriate? I worry about the appropriateness of games both in terms of the actual game content and any potential online interactions with other people. I’d prefer games that can be played in an offline single-player mode. As far as violence and language and that sort of stuff goes, I’m not quite as strict—but would still rather keep it at least a little in check.

Does anyone have any game suggestions I could look into?

Thanks!

 

[nurturedhate]

Most of the lego series games are available on pc

 

[Ampersand38]

How about Crayon Physics?

 

[darkewaffle]

Costume Quest is age appropriate and a pretty fun lite RPG to boot. Offline single player game.

 

[Pheran]

Suggestions from my daughter's Steam library, she's also 8:

Sonic All-Stars Racing Transformed - fantastic racing game
Amanita Collection - includes Machinarium, Samorost2, Botanicula - cool adventure games - play the first Samorost online for free
Scribblenauts Unlimited
World of Zoo
Toki Tori

You'll probably want to wait for the Steam sale that starts in a few days, a lot of this stuff will go on sale.

PS: Your history sounds a lot like mine, we must be of similar age.

 

[cbrunny]

There's a Sonic racing game that I've heard good things about. Frequently on sale on Steam too: http://store.steampowered.com/app/212480/?snr=1_7_15__13

When I was about that age I started playing one of my all time favourite Sega Genesis games - Phantasy Star IV. It's available now on PC here: http://store.steampowered.com/sub/14445/ or as a separate stand-alone. The violence in it is oldschool, meaning not graphic and really consisting of flashing images and some coloured lights. Great game. I come back to it probably once a year.

 

[akahoovy]

A couple of games you can get on Steam are Rayman Origins and Ys: Oath of Felghana. Rayman is a platform game and Ys is an action/RPG that I think at its worst has some swearing in it.

 

[Savatar]

StarCraft 2 might be a good real-time strategy game (rated teen), and there is a reduced violence option in the gameplay tab (not that there's much to begin with). The expansion, Heart of the Swarm, has a pretty fun campaign for kids/teens as well.

King's Bounty: The Legend is a pretty safe turn-based strategy game.

For FPS games, obviously, there really isn't much that is age-appropriate off the top of my head. That's more for mid-to-late teens. Maybe a mech type of game like Hawken (spiritual successor to MechWarrior), there should be little to no blood in those.

Since he likes MineCraft, he might like Terraria or StarBound (the spiritual successor to Terraria, in beta). Bastion would also be good.

On RPGs, some are relatively kid-friendly, like maybe ArcaniA or Kingdoms of Amalur. Look for ones rated Teen, as they can be pretty fun. Knights of the Old Republic is an old classic that was pretty good for kids if I recall properly.

Basically, just look for games that review pretty well on metacritic and/or ign that are also rated T or under! Then you can check gameplay on youtube (via let's play videos) to make sure it's age-appropriate.

 

[Pheran]

StarCraft 2 might be a good real-time strategy game (rated teen), and there is a reduced violence option in the gameplay tab (not that there's much to begin with). The expansion, Heart of the Swarm, has a pretty fun campaign for kids/teens as well.

King's Bounty: The Legend is a pretty safe turn-based strategy game.

For FPS games, obviously, there really isn't much that is age-appropriate off the top of my head. That's more for mid-to-late teens. Maybe a mech type of game like Hawken (spiritual successor to MechWarrior), there should be little to no blood in those.

Since he likes MineCraft, he might like Terraria or StarBound (the spiritual successor to Terraria, in beta). Bastion would also be good.

On RPGs, some are relatively kid-friendly, like maybe ArcaniA or Kingdoms of Amalur. Look for ones rated Teen, as they can be pretty fun. Knights of the Old Republic is an old classic that was pretty good for kids if I recall properly.

Basically, just look for games that review pretty well on metacritic and/or ign that are also rated T or under!

He's 8. I think you are shooting too high with most of these games.

 

[Savatar]

He's 8. I think you are shooting too high with most of these games.

I tried to shoot for games that would be on the same level of content as good cartoons like Transformers or TMNT. I'm not sure what kids watch today, though.

 

[Patre]

Fez
Trine 2

 

[Revolution 11]

For a 8-year old, educational games are always safe. In this genre, I prefer the classics as they were better designed than the newer programs.

The old Jumpstart games were quite good and even the 3rd-grade edition was challenging enough at times for middle-schoolers. The Zoombinis games were always fun and light enough.

Oregon Trail/Yukon Trail are also good.

 

[KidNiki1]

my 8 year old minion has many games on steam, but the ones he plays the most are:

spore
plants vs zombies
lego star wars
bejeweled
if you arent too strict about violence, orcs must die 2 is a co-op game you can play together. it's mostly catoony violence, but orcs do get squished, crushed, etc.
scribblenauts
brainpipe
audiosurf
datajammers
half life, he really liked this game until he got stuck in a certain part and didnt want help getting past it.
also, portal 2 is another game you two can co-op together.

 

[frozentundra123456]

For a 8-year old, educational games are always safe. In this genre, I prefer the classics as they were better designed than the newer programs.

The old Jumpstart games were quite good and even the 3rd-grade edition was challenging enough at times for middle-schoolers. The Zoombinis games were always fun and light enough.

Oregon Trail/Yukon Trail are also good.

I would second the Jump Start games, Oregon trail, and the lego games. If you want you can even play split screen co-op with him on the lego games, or at least it was possible with the star wars ones that I played with my grandson a few years ago. That way you could help him if he got stuck.

I would also suggest some of the city building/tycoon games. I had a lot of
fun with my grandson with Zoo Tycoon and similar games.

Edit-- there are a lot of kid only games like Pajama Sam, curious George, and Freddy fish. A little more advanced would be some of the telltale games adventure games. The Sam and Max series was great. There is some innuendo and a lot of implied violence, but it is all done in a cartoonish way with a lot of humor.

 

[CU]

My 5 and 7 year old boys play Transfomers: War for Cybertron and Fall of Cybertron. They love it. I also played through both first with them to make sure it was OK and because I grew up with G1 Transformers. Which by the way, there are lots of references to G1 Transformers including the animate movie from the 80's (which my kids also like).

They also play Supreme Commander FA, Those and minecraft are the main games on the PC they play right now.

It is amazing watching my 5 year old play these games. I didn't really think he would be able to play them, but boy was I wrong.

 

[Martimus]

My daughter (also 8) and I play Terraria together a lot. She also loves the Stanley Parable (but then, who doesn't?). The Lego games get played a lot (Lego Lord of the Rings) and all of the Telltale Adventure games other than The Walking Dead (for obvious reasons). She also plays Minecraft and Roblox often. She liked Wizard 101 and also likes the Batman Arkham series.

Really the games you can play together are the ones they like to play. At least with my daughter anyway. She likes Lego and Terraria because she is playing with me. Same with Minecraft.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Torchlight 1 on low difficulty as a melee character. Fun cartoon violence.

He might need some coaching on telling good loot from bad, and with using shops, but it's a learning experience.

 

[irishScott]

Logical Journey of the Zoombinis.
http://www.amazon.com/Zoombinis-Logi.../dp/B00005LBVU

Best educational software money can buy IMO. I started playing this when I was 7 (don't be too skeptical, it still holds up and runs on modern Windows-based systems) At the very least he should be able to figure out the first two levels of puzzles, and over the next couple of years he'll "grow into" the third and fourth. The game automatically adjusts to the kid's capabilities. It'll continuously scale up the difficulty level as he solves puzzles, and knock it back if he fails a harder difficulty level twice in a row.

It's edutainment, but I found it surprisingly engaging and addicting as a kid. One of the cornerstones of my childhood really, my older sister and I used to play it together for hours and take turns solving the puzzles.

 

[MediaManXL]

Wow! I am overwhelmed by the response to this--what a great community! Thanks a ton for all the suggestions. I definitely have a lot to go through. I'm going to do some research into some of games mentioned.

 

[sweenish]

Came in to second most anything from Popcap. Plants vs. Zombies and Bejeweled rising to the top of that list.

Sonic All-Star Racing Transformed is a fun one. Nancy Drew games make for good foray into adventure gaming. Civilization on easy would perhaps be a fun one.

 

[Jeffg010]

https://www.wizard101.com/

Best kid friendly online game. You can try it free.

 

[akahoovy]

Wow! I am overwhelmed by the response to this--what a great community! Thanks a ton for all the suggestions. I definitely have a lot to go through. I'm going to do some research into some of games mentioned.

Yea man, we be gamin'.

 

[rivethead]

I'm repeating some of the above but....

I just created a Steam account for my 8 year old son a few months ago. He's finished Trine and Trine 2 already (he's giving me crap about not finishing Trine 2 yet!). That was the best $3.00 I've spent on a Steam sale. Those games are fun, beautiful and make a kid THINK.

He tried Costume Quest but gave up after an hour....he got stuck.

He loves Torchlight I (he's not playing this through Steam....got it as part of a giveaway).

He finished Bastion on Xbox 360 and loved that as well.

He's a big Wizard 101 fan too (again not on Steam).

He watched me play a bit of Orcs Must Die and liked the cartoony action, but in the end I felt it was still too violent for him (even with gore turned off).....so he's gonna have to wait a few years on that one.

Terreria is on his wishlist.

I think he'd like some sims too....thinking about City Builder 2 (have a copy to give him) but need to research if it would be too hard for him.

 

[CuriousMike]

Lego Star Wars
Driver San Francisco ( just get it to the open world part. )
[strikeout]Minecraft[/strikeout] Cubeworld
Castle of Illusion
Dungeon Defenders
FlatOut
Nail'd
PvZ
Maybe Scribblenauts Unlimited ( depending on aptitude )
Star Wars Battlefront II

Tenatively Maple Story - it has some online interactions.

 

[queequeg99]

My daughter is 9 and I've been playing Trine 2 and Portal 2 for the last year. In Trine 2, you do shoot arrows and swing swords, but there's no gore as I recall and it's pretty cartoonish violence.

Portal 2 has armed automated sentries that you have to avoid or shoot to disable. But no shooting of other players or living NPCs.