Parent era: what's the best gaming devices for young children

[beebop]

My kids (9 and 7) have gamed on console for a few years now, but never had a Nintendo console. Recently I bought a Switch because we've got some long travel journeys this year and I wanted them to have something to entertain them beyond just the iPad. I showed it to them expecting them to get all hyped about it because they really enjoyed the Mario movie, but they looked at me and said with almost a pitying tone "oh wow, that's cool" and went straight back to FH5 and Party Animals, so I have no idea.

 

[Shokunin]

I don't want my 5 year old near any gaming device to be honest. Not that I fear he would break something but for me it feels way too young for that. I'll consider it around 7-8 yo.

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Everyone's different, but we allowed our (then 4-year old) daughter to play Animal Crossing on the Switch. It helped to teach her how to read and now she's reading at a 3rd grade level in Pre-k.

For my wife and I, we don't just let her play mindless games. We want them to be supplements to inspire her creativity and improve her problem solving.

 

[TYRANITARR]

This is EZ

Switch Lite + Nintendo parental controls app

You're welcome, enjoy! It's perfect, I honestly couldn't ask anything more as a parent to 6, 12, and 16 year olds

 

[xir]

y 3 year old has started to ask me to try my anbernic rg35xx h, but I only let her try it a bit when I'm sitting right next to her. It has some non child friendly games on it too 😅

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lmao please tell me they ask for it by it's exact name

 

[SoneaB]

Toughen them up. Get them a C64 and make sure to use a tape deck and not a disk drive so they never complain about load times again.

That or a Switch.

 

[The GOAT]

I gave my 5yo my Switch. Glad to see it get use. Very limited time allowed and curated game lists.

 

[antispin]

Switch. But they burn through the joycons. Drifting at light speeds. Switch + Pro controller seems to fare better; no issues so far.

 

[Derbel McDillet]

This made me chuckle, thank you.

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10 seconds of mistakes vs the other 4 years of a caring relationship. Only other time I was careless was with it I was playing it and fell asleep on my mom's bed (lost access to my room since we were hosting a wedding party) and didn't realize it fell between the mattress and headboard. Took three days for me to find it. This was how I learned that Pokemon Gold still played on the Gameboy Pocket since I went back to that during the interim.

 

[Traxus]

others have suggested an old 2ds instead, since the hinge might break with ease. Also, maybe you have one of those retro handhelds that you could curate with 2d platformers?

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I set these up for my kids to use a while back, but they're still young and I'm not crazy so I still do the gatekeeping and monitor pretty closely.

I'd recommend the 2DS. My 5yo loves Kirby Planet Robobot. Otherwise he mostly games on the Switch and they have their Fire tablets they can toss around and take anywhere.

 

[HeRinger]

"Children" is pretty vague. What age?

 

[Tailzo]

lmao please tell me they ask for it by it's exact name

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"Dad, can I please use your Anbernic RG35XX H with Batocera beta v11 operating system installed, retro handheld to play Sonic the Hedgehog for the Sega Mega Drive 16-bit console or Sega Genesis as it was called in the US?"

Yes, offcourse. 😅

I gave my 5yo my Switch. Glad to see it get use. Very limited time allowed and curated game lists.

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Time limits works really well, and a lot of systemsallow this. Xbox works really well, imo.

I set these up for my kids to use a while back, but they're still young and I'm not crazy so I still do the gatekeeping and monitor pretty closely.

I'd recommend the 2DS.

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Built like bricks. Good advice 🙂

"Children" is pretty vague. What age?

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I have 3 daughters. 10, 5 and 3 years old. (Although my 3 year old only tries to copy her big sisters, she doesn't really play much. And that's good.)

 

[RagingAvatar]

Honestly, for parental control, the Nintendo Switch devices are a joke. They're so difficult to manage and get worse if you have more than one kid who are sharing a Switch.

The best parental controls, surprisingly, are found on Xbox.
You get the Xbox Family app on your phone which allows you to manage time per kid, permit/deny titles per kid, set communication settings per title per kid, allow/deny purchasing per kid etc. It's really impressive and I can't recommend it enough.

 

[furfoot]

My kids have been on Switch since launch (at time age 4 and 2) and we're still on the original Switch and controllers (2 sets of joycons). We also have Apple Arcade and use screentime limitations built into iPhones/iPads so they don't play predatory stuff.

Yes, you won't be able to keep the Switch screen scratch free and the joycons are trash really. I have had to replace the joysticks in the joycons 3 times, but that's not really the kids fault. We have recently moved over to 2x 8Bitdo Ultimate controllers as we also now play PC games in our LAN party room.

I love the easy parental controls on Switch and an actual physical game makes for a better present than a google/apple store card imo. Windows/Xbox is way more granular for parental controls but the flip side is you get incredibly vague error messages and then you have to find out which of the 30 parental settings fixes the issue.

Definitely don't go down the Steamdeck or any of those Android cheap retro things, I had to return all those as they just kept breaking with every update or needing constant attention (proton bs) to keep working.

Big tip! Start managing accounts early on. Make seperate accounts for stuff like Epic, Steam, EA, Xbox. This will help later on especially when you want to do family sharing and multiplayer.

 

[Tailzo]

Big tip! Start managing accounts early on. Make seperate accounts for stuff like Epic, Steam, EA, Xbox. This will help later on especially when you want to do family sharing and multiplayer.

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This also helps a lot for restrictions and savegames. I even created an account on xbox for my 3 year old. With one app I can manage content, time limits and get reports on what they have been playing. (I mostly know, except for my 10 year old that keeps a bit more to herself).

 

[Windu]

Depends how young.

Youngest it's a iOS device or 3DS I'd say. And a little older the Switch.

Xbox is a decent choice for the older ones. They have good Parental control options. Can block just about everything via the Xbox Family App and the Microsoft Family Safety app.

 

[balohna]

My son is 4 and he wants to play with a real controller with assists off. He wants to feel in full control, even if it means he falls down and dies over and over. He obsesses over the same stuff until he gets decent at it.

Really I think it's that every kid is different. I try showing him things I think he'll like or is age appropriate and often it doesn't stick. His favourite is Astro's Playroom and he likes Minecraft as well but finds some of the unpredictability to be scary. He likes Sackboy's Big Adventure a bit but has interestingly not really been connecting with anything Mario other than Mario Kart, and as I alluded to he hates when the assists are on and he can't drive backwards or drive on the grass.

On that note, I think some kids really want to poke around and treat a game as a canvas to play instead of a set of rules to master. I think the reason Astro works so well for him is that you can freely explore and engage with the levels in whatever way you want, even if they are still basically linear. Plus the amount of content is limited, so he's focused on like "how can I master this one particular part?" and he's slowly learning to play the full game without help. Games with lives or timers just frustrate him, so most Mario games are out.

 

[brinstar]

My 6 year old nephew is all in on Switch. I watched him beat Breath of the Wild, I was shocked lol.

I hooked him up with a NSO Expansion and he loves the N64 games too.