Topic: Best games for 4 year old to adults?

I’m trying to find games that’ll work for a 4 year old whose new to game controls, understanding gaming tasks/modules; but is fun for adults.

Mario odyssey vs Mario 3D world vs Kirby forgotten land? Which is realistically the easiest, but also enjoyable to free range play; play assist mode/easy modes, and not so difficult to control?

Kirby star allies vs Mario Wonder vs yoshi crafted world, which would you pick? Also, what’s best for kids?

We have tried some demos but no sure which direction to do. I want to buy a 3D game but it seems like the 4 year old enjoys the 2d games.

Hi, so I have a 4 year old and have had some definite hits and misses.

Kirby and the Forgotten land has gone down quite well, she likes it for the most part but I'm going to be honest, I find it frustrating to play sometimes as she constantly wants to switch character. She also falls off edges a lot and finds the large bosses scary. Still, she does like it overall.

Untitled Goose Game has been her absolute favourite. The lack of a fail state works wonders and the freedom to express yourself and be a bit naughty is good too. She often just sets a goal for us then we casually mess around on the way whether its towards actual completion goals or not. We've actually made decent progress. I also think it's a great game in for teaching teamwork as one person can distract while the other causes mischief.

2D platformers has been really surprising. She bounced right off Mario Wonder, too difficult and refused to pick anyone but Peach, which means she won't play on easy mode. Sonic Superstars on the other hand she really likes, it's chaotic with 2 players but you can quickly return from death or getting left behind. We often just skip bosses as she (and anyone who's ever played it) finds them boring.

She hasn't got to grips with the controls for Mario Kart yet but we keep trying as she wants to like it. I know there's kid friendly modes but once again she doesn't want to use them.

@Glitchling78 Do you know Mario Kart 8 has control assists for young kids? On the kart/wheel/glider selection page, press (+) to see the performance stats for the kart parts. You'll see the assist menu at the bottom of the performance stats graph. There you can toggle assists on/off): steering assist and acceleration assist. It will keep them on the track and moving so they can participate in races.

In case the assist are left on by mistake, you can also toggle the assists on/off from the pause menu during a race.

The various LEGO games are pretty good for younger players.

Something with basic controls, such as cardinal direction input only with no button presses.

Ms. Pac-Man was the first game I really loved when I was four.

@Highproteinpasta Super Mario 3D World is the best option of those you've mentioned. Pretty sure my daughter was 4 when she started playing that with me on the Wii U. Plus it's great if there's anybody else besides the two of you that might want to play.

@WoomyNNYes thank you but yeah, I've tried with the control assists on and she can tell it's controlling things for her and gets annoyed at it. She's very confident and likes to do things herself which is probably no bad thing in the long run!

How about Minecraft? Or SnipperClips?

I think SnipperClips has a demo you can download.

I put a mouse on those two games to make it user friendly or wait for Switch 2 with mouse features Joy-Cons.

This is something I've been trying to figure out as well (my oldest is 6 now). With Mario he likes Wonder but all but the earliest levels are a bit tricky even if he's Yoshi or Nabbit. Odyssey is good for him but you do have to contend with the camera a bit. Mario 3D World has actually clicked the most for him despite adding 3D movement - the geometry is pretty big/wide and there's no camera to worry about. Mario Kart with assists he's gone for a bit although he can't seem to not oversteer all the time.

General thing I've seen watching him the last couple years is that the idea of doing 2 inputs at the same time is probably the single biggest thing to have to learn. And by that I don't just mean learning to be basically always dashing in Mario - I mean moving to the right while/and then jumping to get over obstacles.

I thought it would be too much but Mario Party has actually gone over quite well (Superstars to be specific). I've also wanted to have him try a Kirby game but he's not interested in Kirby so can't speak to those.

Not really 2P but Pokemon Snap has gone over pretty well too, although there's a lot of menus/etc to deal with. Also not 2P but he's always liked just wandering around my Animal Crossing island (that was the first thing he started with).

Goose Game is a great idea, we'll have to try that.

Mario series is the best choice