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What Kids Really Think About Kids' Games
marcellizot writes "For a hobby that's supposedly childish, real child gamers have quite a hard time of it. When they're not having every avenue of fun scrutinized for nasties and bad influences, they're often being sold game ideas that are boring and old even when the adults of today were young. Pocket Gamer asks, what do kids really make of today's kids games? 'Both Polly and Andrew both agreed that there were more good games for kids than bad overall, but most of the games they showed weren't just for kids at all. This betrays the difference in perception between parents and their children. Most of them aren't looking for the same old killing - instead, they want something that genuinely entertains them.'"
Yeah, and educational games can be fun as well. Its just that game companies don't really seem to care a whole lot about that. Mario teaches typing was probably the best educational game I have ever played. Totally education, but it was manufactured slickly and did a good job at its primary goal.
Otherwise racing games were up until death rally and carmageddon a pretty much guaranteed safe game for parents to give their kids to play. These days not so much, but there are plenty of ways of doing an educational or age appropriate game that isn't boring or lousy.
Not to mention pretty much the entire Nintendo catalog was age appropriate at the time. A number of titles were too difficult or just sucked, but they weren't ever wholly inappropriate for kids to play.
While not new games, my nephews (3, 5 & 6 years old) love the Freddi Fish series. It's the only time I've ever seen the 5 year old sit still & concentrate for longer than 10 minutes at a time.
There is a war going on for your mind.
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
"All you have to do is be fragile and grateful. So stay the underdog." Chuck Palahniuk, Choke
Have you ever checked out a Barbie movie?
I'm a dad of a 6 year old girl, and I have to tell you- I'm surprised.
These Barbie movies are intensely moral, and advocate for girls to develop an interest in science, delight in learning, sacrifice, strive, and struggle courageously for what is right and true. By my read, it's all straight out of Aristotle. Check out the Amazon reviews, especially this one, if you're a guy.
I don't know what bizarre turn of fate made it such that great talent should go to work on Barbie movies, but I can't deny what I've clearly seen: They're good movies, with positive message, and I now have absolutely no qualms buying Barbie toys for my daughter.
I recognize this is an odd bit of news to hear, but there it is; I can't deny what my own two eyes have seen.
Don't know where you've been hiding, but Sam & Max are back!
Belief is the currency of delusion.
Uhh... No. Oddly enough, Sony's the only company that didn't see that title. Conker was developed by Rare, and made fun of their other cutesy platform games, and involved singing poo, drunkenness, movie ripoffs, all manner of death and dismemberment, and was quite a hoot. It was originally on the N64, and then got a less-than-well-received remake (read critical success, but didn't sell boatloads) on XBox after Rare was acquired by Microsoft. I don't think the XBox version was bad, but the feedback I heard was "haven't we played this before?" mostly because I was at the right age group to catch people maturing away from Nintendo via games like CBFD and wanting a more robust multiplayer experience, leaving Nintendo for the XBox. Finding Perfect Dark and Conker after they got there was silly, since they were two of the best games that the N64 had late in its cycle, and there was little reason to play them again once they switched consoles.