OT - Best game system for kids
I did a quick search and it looked like the last time this was discussed was a few years ago, but apologies if this is a repeat of a recent topic.
I am planning to get my 8-year old son his first game system and wanted to see if there was a consensus on the board as to which of the current options is best. The last system I owned was ColecoVision in the 80's, so I have no relevant first-hand experience on the topic.
In addition to games played while sitting, he says he also likes playing the games where you're more active (Wii, Kinnect, I believe).
I understand there is an online component to gaming, but at his current age, we're going to try to keep that under wraps for a while and keep all interaction inside our home.
My hope is this is a system that will last him a few years.
Any new systems on the horizon that are worth waiting for?
Thanks for the help.
camping.
He can do that. Just play Call of Duty.
Hand a kid an SNES, Super Mario World, Super Mario All-Stars, Zelda, and a whole bunch of food and drinks, then go do other stuff for a few days. They'll still be there when you get back.
SNES returns in September.
In such limited quantities that none of us will be able to find one. Just like the mini NES.
True. But there's always eBay! That's where I got my SNES.
then you overpaid for a handful of playable games
EDIT: Thought you were talking about the mini NES
get a rasberry pi 3.. I made one with every nes, snes, and genesis game.. cost me about 80 bucks to make
Been meaning to do that myself for a while, although it is very geeky, not PnP as the OP seems to be looking for.
While those things are neat, they also suck. I cannot stand how games cannot be added to them. It's what they choose and that's it. The SNES version doesn't have nearly the good selection the NES one does. Even then, there are some glaring ommissions from the NES version.
If you can follow a youtube video you can turn a WII into an emulator of every NES SNES N64 etc, for the cost of an SD card.
OK fine.....minus the hackers, the thing is not expandable. What I meant was Nintendo's intention was to not make it expandable. I thought that was obvious in my post.
EDIT: The ridiculously short cable is another failure by Nintendo. It should have come standard with at least one wireless controller. Oh, but no, they want people to purchase one of those.
Hell, I am 40 - hand ME all those things for a few days and I'll still be exactly in that spot when you return.
We have a WiiU, which the kids seem to enjoy quite a bit, although now they are slowly migrating to the other systems that we have. They do enjoy the retro gaming though - my son and I can race on Excitebike for quite some time, I've discovered, and that's just for starters.
If you go for an older system make sure your tv will work with it. Recently dug out my N64 and am having a hell of a time getting it to work on new/smart tvs.
because I was telling him that Intellivsion baseball is without a doubt (graphics aside) the best sports video game ever made. Full control over every individual player. Couldn't get it to work... He took it to a repair shop & they told him to just get an old TV.
Yeah. Thinking I'm just gonna poach my old tv from my room growing up when I visit the folks next week.
This is the main reason (or excuse?) for holding onto my old 27" Trinitron from back in the day. Still has a good picture, all things considered. Not HD, but truer colors than a lot of modern tv's.
Did you try using a AV to HDMI converter?
The great outdoors nerd!
*refreshes twitter 3000 times in the next 45 minutes*
I think the Nintendo Switch will be a good system in 6 months or so, the limited amount of games would be a holdback for me. I'd say the PS4 would be great for amount of games, but if he likes the active games then the Wii is probably still the best option available for that game style. I think Playstation dropped the PS Move and I don't know that Xbox even uses the Kinect anymore either.
Plus, the Wii should be cheap too.
For the Switch was horrible. Yes, Zelda sold like wildfire, but that is literally like 1 of three or four viable options currently.
That's what I mean. They are working on a new Mario game and a new Smash Bros. game which would then make the Switch worth buying, but right now I can't see spending $300+ for a system to play 2 games now.
Is a Wii U port with updated graphics.
I think there's potential for it to be a great system over the long haul, but the software right now is just void. The launch titles outside of Zelda were non-existent.
I wish kids would go outside and play. Mine would rather sit around all day glued to their electronics. For those of us my age, remember during summer vacations when you'd leave the house first thing in the morning and stay outside until it got dark? I barely see anyone outside these days.
But if they go out to play, get off my lawn.....
I remember loving a good game of bloody murder played across 7 or 8 backyards when I was a kid. But, I also remember loving my neighbors Intellivision, handheld soccer and basketball games, and Jordan vs. Bird and Home Run on my Apple IIe. I also remember listening to a walkman on our road trips.
I hate seeing my kid whine for the iPad (and I think I'm pretty good about moderating its use), but I also have a feeling I did the same with my parents 35 years ago.
away from my 5 year old completely. He was like a crack addict with that thing. Lost interest in going outside or doing anything else. It was a rough couple of weeks, but I think he's better without it. We actually do stuff again now.
And I have a Wii that's probably close to 10 years old and the kids love it. Plenty of cheap games and controllers that are fun to use. I've never been much of a gamer though. I do still have my Atari 2600 with the woodgrain finish.
It's all about finding a balance. Kids should get themselves outdoors, play sports, find an instrument to learn, or some other way to get out of the house. But if they want to play videogames too, ehh, why not? If you refuse to let them play videogames, you might as well refuse to let them watch TV too.
Granted, I'm a millenial, so I've grown up around videogames my whole life. When I have kids, I won't mind if videogames are part of my kid's lives too. I just don't want videogames to BECOME their life.
I'd suggest getting something relevant (PS4??) if only because no gaming system will survive if a friend of your kid says "XBOX?! Nobody plays that anymore."
I had no idea there was a negative view of it.
It has a tiny amount of exclusives, the PS4 is running away with those. There's no incentive to buy an XBOX unless you are a massive Halo fan.
And Microsoft thinks the solution is to roll out some super system with better specs, but they will still run into the same damn problem: they do not have exclusives.
I'm just one person, but don't care about exclusives. The ONLY exclusive I'd sort of want to play is Spider-Man on PS4. Other than that, the "PS4 has more exclusives" argument never gets me.
Only from the PS4 freaks. They can't accept the fact that Xbox is better.