Every time I pop in a game into the PlayStation, my daughter Ivy scrambles to sit beside me and demands a turn at bat too. Unfortunately, many of the games these days aren’t really suitable for a child to play or watch, and trying to play a game with a 5 year old team-mate can be an exercise in frustration anyway. Still, on the few occasions I let her play I noticed she was surprisingly adept at following story lines and controlling the characters on the screen. So one day I set out try to find at least one game that she and I could play together.
Turns out, there are a few good games out there that both a parent and a 5 year old (or thereabouts) can play together at the same time and both be engaged and have a good time. In fact, there are several games that girls actually find engaging because they are more social, inclusive, and collaborative. Some games can have up to 4 players on the screen at the same time, so while she’s enjoying chit-chatting with you and playing with the digital dolls on the screen, you can be instilling some team work and communications skills. Oh, sure, my daughter still has her moments where she wanders off and gets distracted by a shiny object, but for the most part I can say, “Okay, Ivy, I need you to pull that lever over there so I can open this door over here.” She gets it and usually gets right on to the task. Along the way we laugh and bicker and cheer and boo until we finally reach our goal.
Overall, this has been a great way to spend some father-daughter time. Here’s a few video games that I’ve found which are clean, creative, and that a parent and child can play together at the same time.
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LEGOS!
Anything LEGOs is good. All the Lego games are multi-player, clean, non-violent (well, cartoony type violence I should say) and have hours of puzzles, problem solving, treasure finding, and multi-player action. Many of the puzzles require one player to perform one task, while the other player perform a different task at the same time. All the LEGO games are good… and there are a bunch to choose from! I liked Pirates of the Caribbean the best. We’ve also played Indiana Jones, as well as the Star Wars Lego games. All were fun and provided hours of playtime. There are plenty more that we’ve not tried yet including Harry Potter, Batman, Lord of the Rings, and Marvel Super Heroes.
LEGO: Pirates of the Caribbean
LEGO: Indiana Jones
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Little Big Planet
Probably the best game I’ve ever seen that both a parent and child can play together is Little Big Planet. It’s like playing with dolls and stickers – two awesome essentials for a kindergarten girl. But I like it too because it is creative and imaginative that I found myself eager to get to the next level just to see what cool stuff the creators had come up with next. Little Big Planet is loaded with puzzles and pitfalls and amazing gears and gadgets. There are lots of jumping and popping bubbles, as well as pushing blocks and pulling levers. There’s very little violence, and if your doll (called a Sackboy/girl) does happen to get electrocuted or squashed beneath a tumbling block then her death is cartoony and short lived. Pop! She’s back again at the next portal. I loved LBP 1 & 2! They can keep making these games forever, as far as I’m concerned. These get a big thumbs up from me! Ivy too! 🙂
Little Big Planet 2
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SSX
SSX is a snowboarding game with some amazing scenery and action, although it isn’t multi-player in the sense that you can sit beside your child and play at the same time. However, Ivy and I would take turns doing a ski run and that worked out just fine for both of us. SSX doesn’t contain any violence at all, which is great, plus zipping down the mountain as fast as you can go is kind of thrilling. Controlling the character might be a bit much for a 5 year old, though; getting the super speeds and 1st place finish of a race (which allow you to advance) you must do some quick combinations of squares, triangles, circles and squares. Ivy could only master a few moves on the controller, and beyond that she mostly just tumbled and sauntered down the slopes to the finish line.
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Diablo
Diablo is a multiplayer game that literally the whole family can play at the same time. 4 people can play at once and go on missions together to do various things like release prisoners from a dungeon or kill an evil Warlock. This is similar to old-school Dungeons & Dragons games with it’s hit points and combinations of weaponry, so some of it is over the head of 5 year old. It also contains spells and wizardly, and LOTS of typical video game violence as you wield your sword and chop away at ogres and zombies and all kinds of vile beasts. But if those things are not troublesome to you, then you’ll enjoy going on missions with your kid and working together to defeat the devils that have taken over this evil world.
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Here’s some great articles on playing video games with your kids:
- Why Parents and Kids Should Play Video Games Together
- Why Playing Video Games Makes You A Better Dad
- 7 Reasons Why Your Kids Should Play Video Games (and you should join them)
- Why Parents Should Play Video Games With Daughters
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