Games for introducing children to gaming?

[Shadu]

I would recommend Mario games, some of the earlier stuff anyway, Kirby, or Donkey Kong Country (1-3...though the original is the best).

As previously stated, Mario Parties aren't bad either, or Mario Kart. I'm not usually a big advocate of Mario games, but they really are rather textless and good for beginners.

 

[The Abhorrent]

It's arguable over what would be the ideal thing to go for, but it's probably best to avoid anything text heavy due to the circumstances. Other things to look for are child-friendliness (no mature or "mature" content) and very accessible. Well, the answer is actually quite easy.

Super Mario Galaxy

Perhaps a tad overly specific, but it should work out quite well. SMG2 is a bit on the tougher side apparently (though both have a gentle learning curve to start with), but the interface could be a bit easier (level select vs. hub-world) and it is somewhat more light-hearted. Nevertheless, both SMG games are stellar examples of what is a game -- fun gameplay. Donkey Kong Country Returns is yet another fun & kid-friendly platformer (uses the Wii-mote closer to a standard controller... well, you can do that), but it's a bit on the tougher side of things.

The Legend of Zelda series is another great place to start, being generally easy games aimed at testing one's puzzle-solving skills. Unfortunately, they can be somewhat text-heavy (not aided by the absense of voice acting) and Twilight Princess is somewhat on the dark/scary side for the series.

The Wii is also backwards compatible with Gamecube titles, so there's another library you can find great games from. Speaking of which, there's Wind Waker in there for a more kid-friendly LoZ title. The foreseeable only downside is that the Wii is that motion controls are unusual for gaming right now.... but again, we have the GCN library to look at as well.


Yeah, you can't really go wrong with Nintendo's various flagship series.
They're FUN games above all else, and they're designed for all ages to boot.

 

[Hazard12]

Limbo.

Ok, yeah, she'll have nightmares. For teaching her how to game it would work well. It never tries to give instructions, written or otherwise, and works on very basic principles.

Or maybe the new Prince of Persia game (the cell shaded one). It's not a truly great game, but it would teach her how to control an avatar in 3D space quite well and you essentially can't die really.

 

[LostCrusader]

One that hasn't been mentioned yet is peggle if your looking for something casual. Other than that, I would go with a mario.

 

[spacewalker]

some racing games are fairly easy to learn, i once saw a 5-6 year old do well on a need for speed game

 

[Artina89]

A lot of people have probably suggested this already, but my dad introduced me into gaming through Super Mario. When I was 3 or 4 my dad came home from work with a SNES with super Mario and Super Mario Kart. The games were simple enough to get used to the controls and the characters were bright and memorable. I would suggest that you maybe start her with a couple of Super Mario and Kirby games and slowly build up her gaming library from there.

 

[The Breadcrab]

My 5 year old sister likes to watch me play games so I decided to let her try Lego Star Wars and she loves it. The mechanics are very simple and you can't die, so it's great for her. Some of the levels are too hard for her on her own, but when we play co-op we both have a blast. Littlebigplanet is a great one too, and Prince of Persia 2008 is simple but rewarding and has an incredible art style to boot. Also, don't believe its Teen rating, it's more like E10+. Check it out.

 

[Vandenberg1]

TL;DR Want to teach my 8 year old sister video gaming, but she can't read well. Suggestions?
I find myself in a conundrum. My little sister is 8 and I wanted to introduce her to gaming. She watches me play video games very often and enjoys doing so and I would love to teach her how to start gaming, but there's a problem. It's not the state of the industry, exclusively preaching to the choir instead of truly appealing to children as they used to, though that plays part of the problem. No, the big problem is that she can't read. Oh sure, she can-with some direction-sound out words and grasp the meaning of a sentence, but she's dyslexic and can't read fluently. This is a problem. I personally began gaming for myself with Pokemon Blue which I thought I might be able to use to help her get a general idea of controls and a non-action combat system so there would be no reliance on lightning gamer-reflexes, but the text. It dominates everything. If you can't glance at a word on screen and immediately know what it means it quickly becomes overwhelming. Remember, she's only 8 and hasn't played video games before so she doesn't have that button-brain link that surpasses the fingers yet, so leaping into most action-based systems is a no. My question to you all is this: What games could I use to break her into the field? Something that doesn't immediately cry foul at every slip-up and with a minimal reliance on reading such that I can easily tell her what she needs to do in order to build those gamer instincts. Run to the right, talk to everyone, how to go about exploring a standard JRPG town will come with her ability to read more fluently but getting past that "pressing the button labeled 'A'" cure to just "pressing 'A'" is what I would think the first step should be. Any suggestions?

Screw these pussies, metal slug,mortal kombat 1, and Tomb Raider 1. That
ll prepare for her a wide future of games. AT THE age of10 give her MGS, and pokemon, 11 give her zelda 13, silent hill 1

 

[busterkeatonrules]

Super Mario World.

Yeah. I played this game on my SNES for about 10 years, and got the hang of it LONG before I ever got the hang of English. (I'm Norwegian. The tiny snippets of English in-game text were incomprehensible to me on my first few hundred playthroughs. In those pre-Internet days, the backstory of the game was something we'd pick up from the rumor mill along with the usual dodgy cheat codes and tales of hidden levels.)

The game is available for the Game Boy Advance, under the title "Super Mario Advance 2", and will work on any DS except the new 3DS. Buy your sister a copy, tell her the backstory (shouldn't take long), and mission accomplished!

EDIT: Alternatively, you could buy her a somewhat more text-heavy game and read the text to her as she plays. That way, you get to introduce her to gaming AND spend some quality time! Something from the Professor Layton series (also DS) should serve you well here, I think.

 

[Vykrel]

i recommend Peggle. very simple game, you can start it up for her and she only needs to use the joystick and the A button. and its fun

 

[Gaderael]

If you have an old SNES lying around, or have the Wii, I would suggest Super Mario All Stars. Someone also suggested Donkey Kong Country, which is another great choice, but a litle more punishing than SMB. You could also get Wii Sports resort. It's very easy to pick up and play.

 

[koeniginator]

Super Smash Bros Brawl.
Portal and Portal 2.

 

[coldfrog]

Can't believe this hasn't been said yet, but pretty much any of the Katamari games should be perfect. While I've only played the first two, here's what I can say gives them a huge advantage for kids in my book.
1: Lots of bright colors, fun noises, silly stuff, and just generally a lot of different things to look at. Every level is full of bizarre things like dancing flowers, batteries rolling around, toys that bounce at you, just any kind of crazy thing that is bound to make kids grin. Additionally, the Royal Rainbow is enough for any kid.

2: Very simple gameplay with very easy to understand tutorials. While she may have to read slightly, the intro usually shows exactly how to move the sticks to make your character roll the Katamari. The only thing she might not get is the charge move where you jiggle both sticks back and forth, but it's not really ESSENTIAL to gameplay, just helpful sometimes.

3: Usually the goals are very lax, it's fairly easy to reach the required size (or whatever the goal is) in time, and if you really want to make it easy, finish the game first and let her play with time limits off. (I can't remember exactly how that works or if it's available all the time though, I just remember I could do it in the first game).

I think the game can be very engaging and simple to learn. The only real concern is, if she can read well, sometimes the king's response MIGHT be a little discouraging on occasion. Unless you're in the top tier of scores he can be a little mean at the size of the Katamari, but it's usually fairly lighthearted and no doubt kids would be able to shrug it off fairly easily. Otherwise there's Katamari Forever for PS3 and Beautiful Katamari for XBox 360.

If you have a PS2 (or backwards compatible PS3) I'd recommend We Love Katamari, as it has the best levels, as well as most variety of levels, and a really good tutorial. Also, it's my personal favorite. Otherwise, there's Katamari Forever for PS3 and Beautiful Katamari for XBox 360.

Additionally, Pokemon is a great starter as well if you think she might get into RPG type games. The cute style, inability to die and ability to rename pokemon, as well as having a large variety to capture should keep any kid engaged, and when they get better there's a pretty good RPG system behind it as well. Of course, if they start off not being that great AND they get bored of grinding easily, it might not keep their interest all that long.

EDIT: it cut off a bunch of what I wrote. Weird. Edited to finish it off.

 

[Pingieking]

Can't believe this hasn't been said yet, but pretty much any of the Katamari games should be perfect.

This.

Also, wait for the Sesame Street game from Tim Schaefer to come out on the X360. Perhaps this is the perfect game for you since it's a kinect game, so no buttons.

 

[UlytimateDestruction]

I would say mario because its simple to grasp and there is no reading involved. Also, sega genesis collection if you have a PS3 or 360 since those games don't require reading (atleast I think) they do require scrolling through some menus though.

 

[The-Bad-Blooded]

one word: Nintendo

let her play the classics, get a feel for it, and older nintendo games are great for introduction because they're so simple, and don't ever lose replay value.
they also get increasingly complicated, which will draw her in more >
and also, she'll gain respect for the single greatest gaming company ever.

so yeah, the one way = Nintendo

 

[mocruz1200]

pokemon red. it will TEACH her to read.

 

[Doomcat]

You say you used pokemon, really she doesn't need to read so much as understand "when this pops up, this has happened" that how i got through those games...i started out reading them, sure, but after a while my brain simply went "hey, this means i did really good damage, YAY!"

Anyway, less texty...

Spyro was mentioned already, but since those games aren't the easiest to find in the world, not that.

Minecraft might be a good one, its really surreal (you can start her on Peaceful so she doesn't get murdered, or just go with the building to start) the only problem i have with this one is that it would require you to teach alot of crafting recipes, until she got them.

One game i played was final fantasy X, non action combat system, and a decent JRPG feel on top of it, you might want to warn her about the scene in the water (i HATED that scene as a kid XD) but really, it might be a good game for her, at the cost of REALLY long cutscenes at times. those are my suggestions...

 

[Gammaj4]

Lego games, Kirby's epic yarn.

That is all.