Games for introducing children to gaming?

[likalaruku]

I was introduced to video games in the early 80s.

I dunno, go oldschool, pick up a bunch of early 90s consoles & secondhand games at a pawn shop/Amazon Martketplace/eBay. Ween her on classic Sonic, Mario, Zelda, & Final Fantasy, etc.

 

[Tim Mazzola]

Mega Man 2?

:3

Or Kirby's Epic Yarn, either one

 

[ZeroMachine]

Legand of Zelda: The Minish Cap. Or really any zelda game.

Even though every single one that isn't on the nes requires ALOT of reading.

Zelda games are always a great choice.

no, they seriously aren't besides the original. They are very twisted, specific and require a fair bit of reading.

I've been playing Zelda since age 6. My first was A Link to the Past, one of the toughest as well as one that is packed with dialogue.

Kids can read. In fact, one of the reasons I learned to read so fast was because I played games that required a lot of reading.

Zelda is perfect. It teaches puzzle solving, complex thought, and it tells a grand story of good vs evil. If "it requires reading" is the best argument you have against it, then you don't have a lot of ground to stand on.

 

[GrimHeaper]

Legand of Zelda: The Minish Cap. Or really any zelda game.

Even though every single one that isn't on the nes requires ALOT of reading.

Zelda games are always a great choice.

no, they seriously aren't besides the original. They are very twisted, specific and require a fair bit of reading.

I've been playing Zelda since age 6. My first was A Link to the Past, one of the toughest as well as one that is packed with dialogue.

Kids can read. In fact, one of the reasons I learned to read so fast was because I played games that required a lot of reading.

Zelda is perfect. It teaches puzzle solving, complex thought, and it tells a grand story of good vs evil. If "it requires reading" is the best argument you have against it, then you don't have a lot of ground to stand on.

She's dyslexic though you were not.
T

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?

Get her Kirby super star ultra for the DS it's the best thing you could get requires no reading and slowly upscales in difficulty. you basically need to learn 3 buttons and the directional pad.Speaking of which I'm going to play that again.

 

[ZeroMachine]

Legand of Zelda: The Minish Cap. Or really any zelda game.

Even though every single one that isn't on the nes requires ALOT of reading.

Zelda games are always a great choice.

no, they seriously aren't besides the original. They are very twisted, specific and require a fair bit of reading.

I've been playing Zelda since age 6. My first was A Link to the Past, one of the toughest as well as one that is packed with dialogue.

Kids can read. In fact, one of the reasons I learned to read so fast was because I played games that required a lot of reading.

Zelda is perfect. It teaches puzzle solving, complex thought, and it tells a grand story of good vs evil. If "it requires reading" is the best argument you have against it, then you don't have a lot of ground to stand on.

She's dyslexic though you were not.
T

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?

Get her Kirby super star ultra for the DS it's the best thing you could get requires no reading and slowly upscales in difficulty. you basically need to learn 3 buttons and the directional pad.Speaking of which I'm going to play that again.

Ah, shit, I missed that. Then Kirby. Definitely Kirby.

 

[Jelly ^.^]

Yoshi's Island. It has a nice storybook kind of aesthetic, an easy-to-understand narrative that teaches lessons and it was my first and favourite game

 

[Scythas]

Duke Nukem Forever.

What? I turned out just fine!

To be serious though, an original Sonic might do it, Directional Keys + One button.

 

[ZeroMachine]

Legand of Zelda: The Minish Cap. Or really any zelda game.

Even though every single one that isn't on the nes requires ALOT of reading.

Zelda games are always a great choice.

no, they seriously aren't besides the original. They are very twisted, specific and require a fair bit of reading.

I've been playing Zelda since age 6. My first was A Link to the Past, one of the toughest as well as one that is packed with dialogue.

Kids can read. In fact, one of the reasons I learned to read so fast was because I played games that required a lot of reading.

Zelda is perfect. It teaches puzzle solving, complex thought, and it tells a grand story of good vs evil. If "it requires reading" is the best argument you have against it, then you don't have a lot of ground to stand on.

Ignoring the blatant opinion stated as fact which shows your level of intelligence, kids can read, but as said in the OP she has dyslexia. Google it. See what it means. I have nothing against Zelda but it requires more than a little ability when it comes to playing games.

Never stated an opinion as fact. Ever.

And also, see my other post. I missed that part.

 

[ZeroMachine]

Legand of Zelda: The Minish Cap. Or really any zelda game.

Even though every single one that isn't on the nes requires ALOT of reading.

Zelda games are always a great choice.

no, they seriously aren't besides the original. They are very twisted, specific and require a fair bit of reading.

I've been playing Zelda since age 6. My first was A Link to the Past, one of the toughest as well as one that is packed with dialogue.

Kids can read. In fact, one of the reasons I learned to read so fast was because I played games that required a lot of reading.

Zelda is perfect. It teaches puzzle solving, complex thought, and it tells a grand story of good vs evil. If "it requires reading" is the best argument you have against it, then you don't have a lot of ground to stand on.

Ignoring the blatant opinion stated as fact which shows your level of intelligence, kids can read, but as said in the OP she has dyslexia. Google it. See what it means. I have nothing against Zelda but it requires more than a little ability when it comes to playing games.

Never stated an opinion as fact. Ever.

And also, see my other post. I missed that part.

Zelda is perfect.

yes you did. And thank you.

That's the sort of thing that doesn't need to have the words "in my opinion" in front of it. Don't argue such silly semantics.

 

[viranimus]

Screw this noise. I taught my 3 year old nephew the right way... With the original Contra for NES. Hes 4 now and he plays games like fat princess, lego games, minecraft, etc with relative ease. (well ease for a 4 year old whos hands can barely hold a 360 gamepad.)

If your going to do it, do it right. Start her off with something Battletoads!

 

[Austin Howe]

I'll be teaching my kids from the beggining to the modern age. Sonic and Mario.

 

[Reaper195]

DooM. The original. Got me into gaming when I was only six.

 

[Cid Silverwing]

JumpStart 1st and 2nd Grade. They taught me quite well.

 

[emeraldrafael]

I started with mario on the NES (I know, old school, but I'm only 19), and then with pokemon. Just a lot of fun trial and error.

 

[Heat149]

If you look at a topic I posted a few days ago, I asked a similar question (what games would be good for someone who's never picked up a controller?) and got tons of answers. One of the games that came up a few times was little big planet. The tutorials require some reading, but if you're with her, Im sure you can just explain the controls. I mean, Move, jump and grab, really doesn't get much simpler.