SpawnPoint

My 4 year old nephew is staying for the week, so finding things to keep him entertained is pretty important, otherwise he starts bouncing around the house like a short, hyperactive drunk.  This makes me unhappy.

So he'd been here for a couple of days and I was getting bored with the games that he liked and the books he wanted to read so I thought "why not show him some of the games on my computer?".  He was keen so we get to my computer and then I realise that I haven't thought this out very well.

He's four and hasn't played computer games and he gets scared at children's TV.  So looking though the games that I'd got it wasn't looking promising:

Counter Strike, FEAR, Grand Theft Auto, Silent Hill  are all too violent and complicated.  Oblivion has monsters and is complicated.  S.T.A.L.K.E.R scares me in places so far too scary.  RTS and management games are a bit much for someone who is four.

So this left driving games and I only have Colin McRae Rally 2005, which involves driving in places like mountains and forests at 100mph.  It's fairly hard so I wasn't optimistic. 

Sure enough he just couldn't get the car going in the right direction.  So I suggested that I steer and he does the accelerating and braking, it was a bit of a squeeze having two people on one Playstation one controller.  This was much better, he would just hold down accelerate and I would try my best to get the car round a hairpin corner at 100mph.

He loved it, he felt like he was playing and thought crashing was great, even better if bits of the car fell off.  Before we started a race I'd say "That's a nice looking car" and he'd reply "It won't be when we finish" then giggle all the way through as we bounce from tree to tree.  I found it a challenge too, so I wasn't bored.

Anybody know any good computer games for young children that can also be played by adults?

dwinx @ 2007-06-19 16:19:18
I think I had my little brother playing Red Alert 2 around age 6 so that might be pretty close. You might be able to get his base going and then he could point and click his way to victory. If you can find some old NES games on a site like
http://www.everyvideogame.com/
you can relive some memories and the 2 button/d pad input is pretty simple. Try bubble bobble. That's a personal old school favorite!

Dwinx

weaver @ 2007-06-19 18:10:33
My 5 year old plays ZOMBIE mod on CS all the tiem. He loves it.

Dark-Assassin @ 2007-06-19 18:21:36
A good game could be Maple Story, or Runescape, lot's of adults play those two games, and children love playing those games also.

cpnichol @ 2007-06-19 18:58:29
Lol Weaver, even if it didn't terrify him my sister would kick my ass if she found out. I did think about going for some old school stuff and I loved Bubble Bobble so I'll try that, just make sure he's clean and not sticky like usual before letting him near my keyboard. I'll give Maple Story and Runescape a go too, they look ok. Thanks for the suggestions.

Nikki @ 2007-06-19 19:06:56
Phil - my 4 year old daughter loves to play the games on noggin.com. You probably won't find them interesting at all, but they are completely appropriate for the preschool set. ;)

Streetbum @ 2007-06-19 19:58:46
Pogo.com as well. Let him rot on poppit for a while.

redchicken13 @ 2007-06-19 20:05:48
hey dude, try ffr. its like dance dance revolution on the computer, except u use w-a-s-d or arrow keys. its pretty chill i like it myself and its for all ages
http://www.flashflashrevolution.com/ click resonance and then wait

fallen1 @ 2007-06-20 09:31:19
you could try an emulator like NESTron and do a google search for NES ROMs. I have a ton of the old Nintendo games on my old laptop that I still have fun playing every once in a while, and it keeps my little cousins entertained for hours at family gatherings.

yahoo.com has a ton of flash-based games he might have fun with.

you could also download Ubuntu and burn it to CD. You can boot and run it from the CD without actually installing it, and it has a bunch of built-in games that fit into the "appropriate for all ages" category. I know I've lost countless hours to "Same"....

slayer44 @ 2007-06-22 16:40:16
Some one is makeing a mod for hl2 for kids ages 6 and under
its a theme park with rides ect and games like shoot the bottle ect i cant remember the link though

Alpha23 @ 2007-08-09 12:15:03
Try rayman... its fun :-) it's psx and ps2