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Ask Slashdot: Best Console For the Kids This Holiday?
First time accepted submitter undulato writes "I've got an aging, fat PS3 with only a couple of games that I still play on it but three kids under 9 who love Skylanders, iPet, Lego whatever etc. We all watch movies on it and it has been pretty much the centre of our entertainment world for a few years now. I've already got a spare HDMI monitor we could use for a screen so my question is — should we go for a new console this Christmas? Just buy another controller or two and a new game or two for PS3 and be done? Or get the still pretty viable Xbox 360, or even plump for a cheap Wii or even a Wii U if we're feeling flush. What do you think?"
My kid already donates from her allowance weekly and volunteers her time. Kindly keep your moralizing out of the discussion. It wasn't asked for, I doubt it will be appreciated, and it's completely off topic.
So I have a 12 and 8 year old. They got a paper route and saved bday money and bought themselves a used WII, for which I paid to get a dance pad and extra controller for them, and got rock band 2 for and XMas present for the Mrs. The WII offers them great non-bloody violent games to play (they love zelda and mario) however they use the WII for Netflix just as much as game time. The WII offers Netflix with out having to pay for "Xbox gold". We also have the XBox 360 and Kinect. With the Xbox they love the Lego starwars and the kinect games. However I have to keep them out of the other games that I have had donated to me like Gears, Halo and Dead Space (luckily I can leave them on the shelves and they know not to touch them). We do limit their screen time, and sometimes we tell them that they have to play an active game (dance dance, kinect adventures, Dance Revolutions, or even fruit ninja). Kids really get into the games and they can work up a sweat. OK I can work up a sweat with them too... The difficult part is when your kids feel left out and not understanding when their 11 years old buddies are all talking about playing the latest Grand Theft Auto and Call of duty game. My kids know why they are not allowed to play them, and they completely understand it, but it does make them a bit of an outsider and harder to fit in. The WII I find is more intuitive, especially with Netflix, and has less chance of having inappropriate games. The Xbox's kinect is a blast, but again I have to pay the XBox gold tax to do certain things...
I have 3 kids under 9 and one over 9. We have both a Wii and a 360. Two Wiis in fact. Both the Wiis are gathering dust, probably not turned on in over a year. The 360 on the other hand gets TONS of use from the kids. While the Wii has lots of shitty games DIRECTED at kids, the 360 has tons of GOOD child friendly games.