Good Wii Games for a Four Year Old?

[Captain Wrong]

Right, so the kid (not mine) fell in love with the commercials for Samba De Amigo and is getting a Wii for Christmas. I'm in charge of finding other games for him. Man, I don't even know where to start. I know he likes Go Go Diego (or whatever it's called) so I'm probably getting him that, but above and beyond, no clue. Honestly, I think mom and dad were looking for an excuse to buy a Wii, but whatever.

So, anyone with young kids and a Wii have any suggestions?

[MachineGex]

My son loves the Xbox, Xbox 360, PS2 and Gamecube. He does not like the Wii all that much because it is just too difficult to play for him. He is also 4 yrs old and is very good at games. He just finished Kungfu Panda(on 360) without any help, but he just can't get the controls on the Wii. So, I bought him GameCube games. He loves Mario Sunshine & Mario Kart. I would pick him up a GameCube wireless controller and some good GameCube titles(like the two I mentioned).

[j_factor]

This may be a ridiculously obvious suggestion, but, Wii Play?

[Flack]

Second for WiiPlay -- my son played that almost exclusively for several months. He also had a great time out of just making Miis for himself, our family and all of his little friends. He also enjoyed Carnival Games which should be pretty cheap these days.

[c0ldb33r]

Carnival Games?

[Captain Wrong]

Good suggestions. Honestly, I'd forgotten about Wii Play. :D

MachineGex, you kind of hit on what I think the problem is going to be. I have a hunch that he's going to get frustrated with a lot of the games because of the controls. I'm trying to tell everyone that, but of course everyone thinks their kid is a supergenius and because he can navigate the Nick Kids website, he'll be fine. Well, maybe, but I also know from my own experience, the Wii controls aren't always the easiest to figure out, even for an adult, let alone a four year old who has four year old patience and motor skills. So I might go the Gamecube route as well.

Basically, I'm trying to avoid fielding a million phone calls trying to explain how to play a bunch of games that I know nothing about. Plus, the whole point is for him to have fun, not be frustrated.

[BHvrd]

The 5 year old in our family loves Hot Wheels: Beat That. He can't get enough of the freakin thing, and it's pretty straight forward and easy.

IGN review:

http://wii.ign.com/articles/825/825841p1.html


He also likes Wii play, Wii fit, Mario Galaxies, and he liked Boom Blox about 2 days, lol.

[unwinddesign]

Maybe download some of the Wii Virtual Console games on to the system? I loved Donkey Kong Country when I was 6 or 7, although it may not hold the same type of pastiche for today's youngsters, given that I played it in 1996. Just a thought, though.

I'd say Mario Kart Wii is a safe bet, and one that the parents can get into as well.

[modest9797]

Manhunt 2.

[SegaAges]

what about wii music.

i thought that game was supposed to be super easy

[demen999]

My 2 yr old likes it all. He loves Mario Kart, any racing game I have pretty much. He also likes MLB Power Pros, Spongebob one (forget the title of it).

[Rob2600]

Here are some games that received decent/good ratings that might be suitable for a four year old child:

Bee Movie Game
Cars
Chicken Little: Ace in Action
Crash: Mind Over Mutant
The Dog Island
Go, Diego, Go! Safari Rescue (not to be confused with Go, Diego, Go! Great Dinosaur Rescue, which has received poor ratings)
Ice Age 2: The Meltdown
Kung Fu Panda
Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games
Meet The Robinsons
Monster Lab
Ratatouille
Rayman Raving Rabbids
Spy Fox in Dry Cereal
Wii Play
Wii Sports (included with the Wii)



Also, check the lists in this thread to see which games not to buy (including many children-themed games):

Top 30 and Bottom 40 Wii games (including WiiWare) (http://www.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?t=109135)

[BHvrd]

Rayman Raving Rabbids
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I would definitely recommend against this unless your family doesn't care about sexual innuendo and the fact that in one scene in particular the Rabbid is making motions to make it look like he is masturbating. There is quite a bit of mature humor in this title.

[j_factor]

Spy Fox in Dry Cereal

Four years old may be a smidge too young for this, but this is indeed a great game for kids. Also the Pajama Sam game and Freddi Fish.

Maybe something like Table Tennis or Top Spin 3 or Sega Superstars Tennis would be good. And I hear the newer Cooking Mama game is good, so that should be appropriate (PETA be damned), since Cooking Mama isn't too complicated. The earlier Cooking Mama game for Wii had messed up controls, but supposedly the new one fixed it.

[Captain Wrong]

Manhunt 2.

Considered this, but I think he'd be lost without having played the first one.

I'm looking at Wii Play and Wii Music, as he's into music and this might be easier on him than Samba de Amigo (he gets frustrated easily.) Never thought I'd be buying Wii Music, but so it goes.

[c0ldb33r]

Manhunt 2.


Considered this, but I think he'd be lost without having played the first one.
Heh, you guys are jackasses.

Seriously though, I'd expect it would be easy to find great wii games for a 4 year old. What about VC games and Warioware?

As you Wii Play,the problem with that game is that it sucks. My wife and I played each of the games once. Maybe kids are easier to entertain though.

[ianoid]

You guys can say you 'expect' it would be easy to find games for 4 year olds, especially if you have no kids.

And some of you have uber-gamer kids who pwn'd me at Halo on their 2nd birthday.

But most kids will find the Wii controls pretty difficult to deal with. The classic controller is a much better way to go. Point at the screen requires a steadier wrist than most 4 year olds can must. I haven't really had a ton of success with my 4 yo daughter and the Wii controller. I would say the best thing you can try is Mario Galaxy, where you play the game and she does the second controller star grabbing. That's a no pressure situation that she can do at her own pace. Aside from that, I have had some success with the horrifying Dora games. Dora mermaids for DS is short, requires no reading and is pathetically easy. Dora for Gamecube seems to be good at this point, but she sometimes gets lost with that.

Finding games that require no reading is very difficult, and that's what you're looking for. I haven't had alot of luck finding a good list.

Everyone's kids are different, but there are some kids that just take to this stuff. Some kids can play the same thing for 10 hours without bugging their parents. Almost any basic game marketed for kids will do for them. That simply is not the case with my kids, who will lose interest if the game has any level of initial frustration or confusion.

I wouldn't exactly recommend buying discs willy nilly if money is tight. You might do well getting a classic controller and downloading some virtual console titles, like the original SMB. Galaga was the first game my boy had any progression at when he was around 4.

[Daria]

Mariokart?

My friends babysit some preschool aged children and they are seriously better at driving with the "wheel" then anyone else in the house. The whole driving the steering wheel thing is pretty intuitive for anyone whose ever ridden in a car.

Also while four year olds can definitely grasp that what they're doing with the controller is affecting what happens on TV. I don't think they always understand the goals of the game. It's not so much important that they're able to beat the game so much as just play it. So I'd steer clear of cakewalk games marketed at children and try more kid friendly games that they can grow on. Like Mariokart.

[intvsama]

Start him off as a proper Nintendo fan, get them some Wii points and download some classic NES titles.

If they're looking for physical games tho', any of the Rayman games, Excite Truck, my buddy's 4 year old loves Ghost Squad (I don't think there's blood in that one), Guitar Hero, Cooking Mama, Chocobo's Dungeon, Metroid might be just a HAIR past their comprehension level. 8*) Just because the gamer is a kid doesn't mean they need to be playing kids games. All these games are just as fun for younger gamers as they are for us. 8*)