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What's a good age to let my daughter try videogames?

D

digitalrelic

Banned
Just curious for any insight that other parents could provide on this.

My daughter turned 3 in August. She's very smart and has taken an interest in watching me while I play, and she has her own "controller" (an old TV remote with no batteries) that she plays with as she watches.

I was thinking that the NES Mini would be a perfect way to let her try out gaming. Simple 2D graphics and a basic controller with 2 buttons that's tailor-made for small hands seems like a good fit for a child. This wouldn't be opened until Christmas so she'd be almost 3 1/2 when she actually gets to try it.

Is this an appropriate age? Or is she too young? I have no recollection of when I first started playing games, and Googling it brings up a bunch of shitty fear mongering sites, so I was hoping GAF would be able to help.
 
N

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
Knowing a lot of people who have raised kids with video games lately, usually tablet/mobile games are easiest for kids below 4 to understand, and then you want to start considering things like maybe LEGO.

2D games aren't necessarily a bad idea though, but you will want to consider difficulty strongly. I'd probably lean more toward Kirby's Epic Yarn than SMB3.
 
G

georly

Member
Whenever she is interested in playing you should let her. Spending time with her is valuable and if you can share a moment together doing ANYTHING it'll be worth it.
Some of my happiest childhood memories are of my dad letting me play with him.


I wouldn't worry about age or difficulty. My first game was zelda. I was happy walking around til I died. If she gets frustrated playing games you like, you can always offer some easier, kid-friendly games. Tons of mobile/tablet games are designed with kids in mind.

If there's any science to forbidding her from playing at a young age for whatever reason, I'm not aware of it. Avoid 3D stuff (3DS/VR) if possible, but other than that, I don't think there's any physical harm that comes from it. No correlations as far as I'm aware.
 
Rubik8

Rubik8

Member
All three of my daughters started playing on the DS at 3 years old, mainly stylus based games. By 4 they were comfortable with buttons and a d-pad. The younger has had an iPad since she was 2 that she played educational games on. Just moderate how long they play and regulate the game content according to your comfort level. No problem.

Edit: Also, the fact you are asking the question shows you are a thoughtful parent that is concerned about your child's well being. Good job.
 
O

OmegaFax

Member
I started playing video games around that age with the NES. It would be a simple, easy to use choice for a young person.

Consider a 2DS and Disney or Pokemon Art Academy. It would allow your daughter to be hands-on, draw, and possibly something you can both sit down and share together. Granted she likes those things. It's an avenue for creativity.
 
G

Goldenroad

Member
I've got a nephew who was "playing" Wii at 18 months, but he had an older brother (3 years older) who kind of would help guide him through an encourage him. I think 3-4 is fine so long as you put parameters on how long they can play and don't let them make it a daily habit.
 
D

Dusk Golem

A 21st Century Rockefeller
If she has an interest to play them, it'd be okay to let her try some which are content appropriate for her I think. Some may feel differently, but it's your call as a parent and all that but playing video games young can have some benefits and disadvantages, as anything. It really helps early problem solving and motor skills has been proven time and time again, but honestly video games can be a bit addicting due to being fun (I say as someone helplessly addicted to them). But as much as any other fun activity I suppose. But if you feel she's ready to play something simple, then it's not a bad decision. And as others say, try to play with her and enjoy it together.
 
C

Corpekata

Banned
3 is pretty young for games in general, both the 3 year olds I've experienced learning games couldn't do much but like move a character and that's about it. My older niece didn't start really getting into them until she was about 6. The one that just turned 4 mainly just likes to watch her or I play and like you I give her a "controller" to mess with at the same time.

I think NES games might be too tough for her.

I'd try some Lego games. The puzzles will probably be too hard, but if it's one of the open world ones she can just run around and explore, and there's bound to be one set in some property she probably likes, and you could always play with her to do the puzzle stuff.
 
F

Fantastapotamus

Wrong about commas, wrong about everything
If she wants to why not? As long as you play with her and don't sit her in front of the TV. The NES games might be way too hard for her at that age though.
 
I

IvanJ

Banned
My daughter started at about 3 on a tablet (Angry Birds, Fruit Ninja), now at 4 she is a wizard for some more complicated games.

At about 3 1/2 we first played Knack on my PS4, that is a good game because it only controls with one (left) stick and a couple of buttons. First she was P2 just running around, in just a month she graduated to P1 with me as support, and very soon she beat the whole campaign on easy by herself.
Then we moved on to Garden Warfare, she is slowly becoming an expert, managing to clear 5-6 Garden Ops stages on her own (on easy of course), and even played online with others and managed to be OK.

Now she has moved on to Minecraft, both on Vita and PS4. She can play alright, our next step is for her to develop more knowledge of the crafting concept.

And she learned a lot of English as an added bonus.
 
C

Chairhome

Member
There's never a too early, in my opinion. My kids grew up watching me play and started playing their own games around 3 or 4. I attribute their advanced reading skills to comics and games. Currently they're the most advanced readers in their classes. (stealth brag)
But as someone above has said, as long as you're not forcing them to do it, let it happen
 
B

Black Mantis

Member
My daughter got to grips with New Super Mario Bros U & Super Mario 3D World at 4 years old, and has got decent at MK8 over the past few months.
 
G

Gai Murakumo

Member
I would say around 3 or 4 years old and probably something Nintendo related. The first game I ever started with when I was either 3 or 4 years old was the original Super Mario Bros with Duck Hunt.
 
T

Thac0

Neo Member
My daughter started playing games with me around the age of 4. She'd been playing games on tablets/phones before that, though. The touch screen interface is so intuitive that kids pick it up extremely quickly when compared to a controller.

One of her favorite games to play with me is Nintendoland, there are some good coop minigames there for younger kids. The Pikmin game is especially good because the 1st player can literally pick up and carry the other players which lets you both do your thing but you can still advance through the levels.
 
VectorVictor

VectorVictor

Member
Age 6--it's when she first became interested in Minecraft and gaming in general. Lego Games, Animal Crossing, Minecraft, Mario Games (particularly the 2D classics) are all good games to start them on.

Frankly, I'll be getting her one of the mini-Nintendo consoles Friday (provided they don't sell out) so we can get her some exposure to bigger games and concepts.
 
D

Dark_3nergy

Member
I was 6 when I watched my Mother play FF4 for the first time. I even told her to use the Crystal on Zeromus to transform him since she got confused about how to beat the final boss. I then was able to play Super Mario World that Christmas and beat it. NES mini sounds like a great idea. Minecraft sounds like a good suggestion too. I'm no parent OP, but it's your call whatever you want to do for your kid.

At least get her a SNES for Christmas one year and let her re-live a true 1990's childhood. Man, those where some excellent years of my childhood life.
 
L

Lathentar

Looking for Pants
georly said:
If there's any science to forbidding her from playing at a young age for whatever reason, I'm not aware of it. Avoid 3D stuff (3DS/VR) if possible, but other than that, I don't think there's any physical harm that comes from it. No correlations as far as I'm aware.
Click to expand...

The American Academy of Pediatrics strongly recommends no screen time (other than video chatting) until 18 months. Then very limited screen time from 18-24 months and never by themselves.
 
D

DomsPlaying

Member
It's awesome that she's interested in a hobby you enjoy, I'll echo the sentiment here that the fact you are asking means you care for her and are trying to be an informed parent!

I'm not a parent, so I can only speak from my experience as a youngster. I began on NES playing SMB3 at age 4, but got scared during certain parts (mainly King Koopa lol) and had to hand the controller to my dad so he could finish those parts.

Which actually turned out to be great because we were spending time together doing something we enjoyed, bonding all the while. Not saying it's perfect for every kid to play a tricky 2D platformer like SMB3 as their first game, but that its challenge didn't deter me back then!

These days, kid-friendly DS titles from Nintendo seem like a fun introduction to gaming. Mobile is easy to play, but I can't speak to the quality of most games as I honestly don't play them and curation is an issue there. Good luck!
 
M

muu

Member
My daughter is nearing 3 and I need to start thinking about this too. We don't do much TV watching when she's up, occasional dinosaur train when it's really shitty outside.

I do fully plan on getting the mini NES for us, and for a few of her cousins.
 
O

Ostinatto

Member
Buy her a NES with Ninja Gaiden, and don't buy any other game till she beat the game.

I will be a nice father one day.
 
D

dstruiks

Neo Member
I started my daughter at 3 with Mario Bros. I would control the d-pad, and she would hit the jump button. It worked surprisingly pretty well. She eventually learned to use the d-pad on her own, and after that I kept finding old school games, mainly platformers for her. She also loved Hohokum and Flower, since you can just wander around.

She just turned 5 and plays all sorts of stuff: Battlefront, Super Meat Boy (she's scarily good), Minecraft, and still loves Hohokum. Her new favorite is Catllateral Damage. That game is ridiculous, and she loves it. Simply put, 3 is the perfect age, the NES Mini should be perfect. Go for it, and enjoy the ride. She'll get frustrated, just do your best to help. And when you see her crushing a level on Super Meat Boy, you'll never be more proud.
 
F

FirLocke

Member
Just popped into my head but, maybe Hohokum? Just moving around, seeing stuff react. I didn't play it much, but I can imagine just seeing all of the colours animate and react being a wonderful little experience at such an early age.
 
SilverArrow20XX

SilverArrow20XX

Walks in the Light of the Crystal
Simple 2D games are probably the best to start with going by what I remember getting into and loving at that age. Platformers with simple jump/shoot controls that also aren't too difficult are good. Mario games are always a great start. Games where you can get lost like Zelda or Metroid might be better for after the simpler games click.

On the other hand, picking a specific game or genre at all might not be the best way. An NES Mini is probably actually a really good way to introduce a child to games. It gives her the opportunity to browse a list and pick whatever catches her fancy. I first got into games at around her age, and it was by pouring over a pile of NES carts and picking whatever cover art looked coolest and trying a bit of everything. Just had my brother there to help me actually boot the game and show me how it worked. I did gravitate more to the easier games I could actually beat, like TMNT II, but I have lots of fond memories of other games that I couldn't beat at the time (like SMB 3).
 
F

Famassu

Member
I'm not sure if there's an age that is "too young" (so long as she has at least some level of skills/understanding to play games, it's ok to introduce them to her life), I just feel you need to be extra-careful with setting boundaries with smaller children as to how much & when they can play. Don't let them play 10 hours per day or before they've done their chores or what you've told them to do (once they reach the age when you'll start introducing chores to her life).
 
G

Grimsen

Member
My daughter is 3 1/2. She started light gaming on phones and tablets before she was 3.

Now she's playing a bit of 3DS, especially 2D Mario, and plays Disney Infinity with her older brother. She doesn't go for objectives, but she can navigate well enough on foot and by car.

As far as limiting gaming time, I fully agree with that, but in my case, I haven't had to police my kids at all. Their attention span for gaming is still short. They'll play for a bit, then stop and go do something else.

Good luck! Gaming with your kids is really fun!
 
LordKasual

LordKasual

Banned
Nirolak said:
2D games aren't necessarily a bad idea though, but you will want to consider difficulty strongly. I'd probably lean more toward Kirby's Epic Yarn than SMB3.
Click to expand...

I was playing SMB1 around 3-4 years old and that game was significantly harder than SMB3. I was also playing Sonic the Hedgehog and Ninja Turtles NES, AKA one of the hardest games ever.

I dont understand how I was playing those games that young. I couldn't have been very good? I dont know.

But unless you're dealing with mature content, you cant go wrong with overestimating the child's capabilities. Worse that can happen is that she sucks at the game, at best, develop some early motor skills. Trial and Error can also be great for learning. I don't think difficulty is that big a deal.
 
F

FaytesEnd

Neo Member
I have a 4 and 2 year old daughters. Wii u is great, tablet is good, and easy ps4 games are good. The 2 year old doesn't care much, I usually play blocks or dolls with her. My 4 year old (almost 5) has been playing games with me since she was 3, we just play easy games and I help her, just keep it fun and teach them.

Her favorite games:

wii u
mario 3d
mario 2d
yoshi yarn
mario world

tablet
silly games..... all free, like picking bugs outa people teeth... don't ask....
baby games, literally taking care of babies....

ps4
journey - she just runs around and has fun jumping for 30 minutes
dragon quest builders, she plays my end chapter saves.... wrecking my base or items :)

I also let her play peggle on my pc, but she's not good with the mouse yet. We limit her game time and tv time per day, no more than 4 hours total.
 
Z

zoodoo

Member
I have 10 nepews and nieces(big family). As I am the go to guy for games in my family, I introduced 6 of them to games. They were usually around 4 or 5.

They all started with a gba sp. Mainly because it's a toughly built and it has all you need to introduce kids to gaming. First game is usually Kirby or Crash Bandicoot. Then when they have a hang of it, I upgrade them to donkey kong, mario and sonic.

From there they are on their own.
 
D

Dee Dee

Member
My nephew turned 3 this spring, and just recently developed an interest in gaming. His father bought him a tablet game from the company that also sells the wooden trains he loves to play with. Now he builds nonsensical tracks and rides his toy trains around both in the apartment and on the tablet every where else.
I tried to get him into Mario Kart, but he is a bit slow in developing hand-eye coordination (not all kids learn the same things at the same time after all) and he wasn't interested in it at all.
He really just likes trains and public transport means a lot.

I think if your daughter is interested in it, just let her try some stuff. Limit the time she spends staring at a screen, and play with her, so it becomes a social experience.
My nephew made me realize that you can't predict what kids will like in a toy or how they will enjoy it. Age 3 is a bit young, but yeah, kids develop differently.

A mini NES seems like a cheap and safe enough investment!
 
M

meerak

Member
Dude 3 is totally fine for her to sit with you and play games. Buy the nes-mini and play away. Consider iPad stuff too: real young kids respond really well to being able to touch things directly. It's why they walk up to TVs a lot.

Your concern is fair but at this stage in her life (and all the rest to come, one would hope) she is getting lots of quality (non-digital) time with you and the rest of your family unit, whatever that may be, interacting with other kids her age, and etc so on.

Sorry if that sounds too obvious but really I feel the obvious stuff is what you need to worry about. I mean, are you going to let your 3 year old play games 10 hours a day? No, I don't think so.

IMO Early Marios are just such perfect games for kids... You can only move and jump and you can only move to the right. The sounds and colour are fun and they are just easy enough for dad to help out with the tough spots. All kids progress differently but usually at that age arcadey games will be less frustrating than any puzzle-style or adventure style game.
 
DJ_Lae

DJ_Lae

Member
3 is fine, my daughter started around then, although she didn't have a full grasp of how to use the controller until she was 4 or so.

Now, at 6, she's better with dual stick shooters (PvZ2 mainly) than my wife is.

For early games, the Lego ones are low in difficulty provided you're playing with her to solve the often obtuse 'puzzles.' We had a lot of run with Rayman Origins/Legends co-op as she'll just bubble on death and you can pop her back into the game immediately. Mario 3D World isn't bad either, or the Skylanders games.

I would initially avoid anything that requires camera control as it's one extra thing to manage.
 
suikodan

suikodan

Member
I have a 18 months daughter (young sister of 7 and 5 yo brothers), a SNES wireless controller and Sonic 2 on Android.

Each time I play, she wants a controller so I gave her the same broken 360 controller that her brothers had at the same age, hehe.

Then she grew interested on the SNES gamepad so I fired up Sonic 2 and let her jump to her heart's content.

Sonic 2 has been a staple game for beginner kids. My 14yo niece started with this and my two sons played Sonic before Mario.

My oldest likes games a lot and his brother is 50/50. Can't wait to see what type of gamer my daughter will be :)
 
AudioEppa

AudioEppa

Member
Let her start right away and don't let her grow up soft. Buy her a Nintendo Coleco Donkey Kong Tabletop Arcade Game. Put her on that for 8 hours a day until she becomes a grand master.



Or buy her one of those cheap colorful tablets for kids games.
 
N

Nheco

Member
I'm 34 and starting playing 30 years ago (fuck, I'm getting old) at age of 4. But was the Atari/NES era, and the games are far more simpler.

So, I think maybe 5 or 6 it's a good age for kids games.
 
B

Brashnir

Member
Get Rayman Origins and play with her. It's a challenging game, but the way the co-op is set up allows you to basically be a free respawn point for her as she figures things out, and you can get past trickier spots for her.

Anecdotally, I gave the game to my sister's kids when they were 4 and 6, and the 4 year old loved playing with his parents so much he eventually started a new save by himself and 100%ed the game before his 7th birthday.

Challenging games may be a bit much at 3 years old, but don't underestimate kids' ability to figure things out once they find a game they really enjoy.
 
NoPiece

NoPiece

Member
Just play games yourself with her around, and as soon as she shows any interest, hand over the controller/tablet.
 
K

KevMan1815

Member
My 5 year old son loves playing Mario Kart 8 and Nintendoland on our Wii U. When my 2 year old daughter sees him playing Mario Kart she always asks me if she can watch Mario Kart like it's a cartoon.

My son and I also play Lego Star Wars sometimes, but it can get frustrating in some levels. Especially with vehicles where one person can make both players flip the vehicle directions. I sometimes can't believe those games are meant for young kids, sometimes they get pretty tough.
 
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