It’s the most wonderful time of the year. The time when friends and family members start to send us frantic texts about games they should and shouldn’t be purchasing for the children on their holiday lists. Taking that into consideration I thought that I might create a kind of kid-safe wish list for folks. For the purpose of this list, links within the paragraph link back to posts that we have previously written about playing these games with children while the title links at the beginning of the paragraphs link to the game sites themselves.
Digital Games
Slime Rancher (Xbox One and Steam): This is a game that I definitely happened upon accidentally. I saw the trial on early access on the Xbox One and decided to give it a try. It was colorful and happy and I was in a bad mood and determined to hate it…but I didn’t. I couldn’t. It had all of the things that I love in a time management type game with some survival elements thrown in. You farm and raise and breed cute, bouncy slime balls, you raise the food that you feed them, and then sell the material that they produce (Pea calls it slime poop, the game calls it plort). There is also a survival and exploration element that makes it appealing to our Minecraft/Terraria fans as well.
Overcooked: (Xbox One, PS4, and Steam) Overcooked is a fast paced, co-op time management game that requires your making and serving meals in some of the most harried situations. While this might sound like a nightmare, playing this game with the child in your life (or your friends) can be amazing fun. There is nothing like running around the screen trying to jump a gap between moving trucks to get from one side of the “kitchen” to the other while preparing soup and burgers. This game brings spastic fits of laughter in my house. One of the best on the list to play with your kiddo.
Stardew Valley: (Steam and coming to Xbox One on 12/14) Stardew Valley is another wildly addictive farming simulator/dungeon crawler/dating sim, but any of those elements can easily be ignored without affecting the gaming experience and without much notice. I currently have close to 100 hours in this game and I have yet to advance the dating sim portion to the point of seriously romancing anyone. My focus has been largely farming and mining and I’ve had a ball. The racially and sexually diverse characters have given me lots of room for meaningful play and identification. The latest update also includes new farm templates that allow you to focus on different tasks closer to home.
The Sims 4: (Origins portal for PC and Mac) I have been a huge fan of The Sims since the first game came out when I was in graduate school. Pea recently asked if she could play The Sims 4 because she was most interested in the character creation portal. Her playthrough of the game has given us some great opportunities to talk about education, employment, household expenses, maintaining healthy balance in life, and a ton of other made up scenarios. Because she is so young we do play the game together and the Woohoo option could be a sensitive subject for some parents and children. If this is the case this might be a better purchase for older children. Currently there are 3 expansion packs, 3 game packs, and 9 stuff packs so it would be extremely simple to customize your game and drop a ton of money on DLC. An upside to the game still being a computer exclusive is the continued ability to customize characters, clothing, and items in ways that really do make the game your own.
Dragon Quest Builders: (PS4 and Vita) I am a huge fan of the Dragon Quest franchise and when I saw that their new game was going to be part world builder and part RPG I was really quite excited. I was less excited when I learned that the game was going to cross play between the PS4 and the Vita, but not cross buy which meant buying two copies of the game because I prefer playing those types of games on the Vita and Pea prefers the full sized console. Despite that little hiccup DQB is a solid little quest driven game that allows you to use your building skills for a purpose in addition to just building for fun. The best part of this game is that all of the characters (even the enemies) are just adorable.
Pokemon Sun/Moon: (Nintendo 3DS) Sun and Moon is the latest iteration of the Pokemon series and one where things have actually gotten changed up a bit. The biggest change in Sun/Moon is that they have gotten rid of gym battles in favor of island trials which is more in line with the theme of the new Alola region (think Hawaii). Another interesting feature in Sun/Moon is that Pokemon have evolved based on the environment that they live in so that we can see physical difference in them. It’s a really cool way to broach the topic of evolution with your kiddo. Also? Major plus is that you can finally ride Pokemon! So grab a copy for your giftee and one for yourself!
Minecraft/Terraria (Everything except the kitchen sink) These are two never fail games. Minecraft is the ultimate blocky world builder and survival game. Terraria merges the world builder with action-adventure game with a little pixelated fun. Terraria is my favorite of the two because there seems to be more of a story there, but because of my kiddo’s love of Minecraft we end up playing that more often. One of the greatest things about these games is the consistent updates that add new biomes and items. Minecraft also regularly releases texture and mash up packs that allow you to build and play in anything from Halloween themed amusement parks to Chinese mythology themed worlds with dragons. Dragons!
Super Mario Maker (Wii U and 3DS) With Super Mario Maker kids can make their own platformer levels using the assets from any of the games in the franchise. With the WiiU version the levels can be shared with people via the internet, but with the new 3DS version they can only be shared locally. It’s a great chance to see how much of a sadist your child really is.
Analog Games
Timeline: Cribbing from my earlier post on the game “Timeline is a history based card game that comes in multiple versions covering categories like inventions, historical events, discoveries, music and cinema, and a lot more.” The goal if the game is to see who can put their cards into chronological order. While younger children may not be able to do this it can be just as much fun to talk through how we might figure out how we can discern where they fit on the timeline. i.e. Electricity was probably discovered before the first manned trip to space because….. This game is a huge hit in my house.
Ticket to Ride: First Journey: This version of Ticket to Ride is a kid friendly version of the adult classic that uses refined rules and manipulatables to make the game easier for children to play and learn. The game is a good chance to talk about geography and to sit back and figure out the best route to get from one state to another. It also makes thinking on the fly (while others are trying to block your path) fun and unthreatening. Currently still a Target exclusive game.
I could go on and on with suggestions for the younger folks on your list who enjoy games. Also check out this week’s podcast for more suggestions for children and adults alike as you try to check names off of your holiday gift list.
