My thought process wasn’t really even so much about the games themselves as much as the approachability of someone who has never held a controller before. As much as I prefer a dual joystick, shoulder button, and 4 face button controller now. It is a lot less daunting for a new player to have a simpler input schema. NES had a d-pad, 2 face buttons and the the start button and that was it. For a 5/6 year old who never played a video game before, that seems like a good place to start. The modern controlled is much more complicated and also not sized well for little hands. The few times my wife has tried to play a game with me, just controlling the camera while moving is too much for her. I have a 2 year old daughter who is just starting to figure out what a video game is. I’m wanting to start having her play with me, but I don’t think she will be able to use the controller correctly anytime soon.
Can you recommend any games? I mine are about the same ages and the oldest one as already learned to play Minecraft on a computer, is learning Switch now. I never played those original classics since my parents didn’t get us a console until PS2.
On the NES, the original Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt, Super Mario Bros 3 (skip 2), Legends of Zelda, and Metroid.
On the SNES, Super Mario World, Legends of Zelda: A Link To The Past, Chrono Trigger, Donkey Kong Country, Mario Paint, Super Mario RPG.
On Genesis, Sonic The Hedgehog 2 (basically the same as 1, but has multi-player) and 3/Sonic & Knuckles (you could combine both cartridges and play as Knuckles, it was awesome), Mega Bomberman, Toe Jam and Earl, Earthworm Jim 2, Aladdin, The Lion King.
On PS1, Spyro The Dragon, Tomb Raider, PaRappa the Rapper, Crash Bandicoot (all of them), Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 and 2, Final Fantasy 7, Metal Gear Solid.
On N64, Super Mario 64, Mario Kart 64, Diddy Kong Racing, Legends of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Legends of Zelda: Majora’s Mask, Super Smash Bros, Starfox 64, Pokémon Snap, Pokémon Stadium, Banjo Kazooie, Bomberman 64, 1080° Snowboarding, Goldeneye 007.
Yeah, that also makes sense. My line of thought was more about how returning to old great games might not seem as great after experiencing all the QoL and gameplay improvements that came since, so starting with those ones means they can enjoy them. My daughter is already handling the dual stick controllers well, so I guess is beyond that stage already (though when she was younger I remember her not even understanding that Mario Kart was something she could control and she thought we were picking characters for a movie, especially since the auto-steer and auto-accelerate still give a fighting chance even if you don’t otherwise touch the controller).
My thought process wasn’t really even so much about the games themselves as much as the approachability of someone who has never held a controller before. As much as I prefer a dual joystick, shoulder button, and 4 face button controller now. It is a lot less daunting for a new player to have a simpler input schema. NES had a d-pad, 2 face buttons and the the start button and that was it. For a 5/6 year old who never played a video game before, that seems like a good place to start. The modern controlled is much more complicated and also not sized well for little hands. The few times my wife has tried to play a game with me, just controlling the camera while moving is too much for her. I have a 2 year old daughter who is just starting to figure out what a video game is. I’m wanting to start having her play with me, but I don’t think she will be able to use the controller correctly anytime soon.
Can you recommend any games? I mine are about the same ages and the oldest one as already learned to play Minecraft on a computer, is learning Switch now. I never played those original classics since my parents didn’t get us a console until PS2.
On the NES, the original Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt, Super Mario Bros 3 (skip 2), Legends of Zelda, and Metroid.
On the SNES, Super Mario World, Legends of Zelda: A Link To The Past, Chrono Trigger, Donkey Kong Country, Mario Paint, Super Mario RPG.
On Genesis, Sonic The Hedgehog 2 (basically the same as 1, but has multi-player) and 3/Sonic & Knuckles (you could combine both cartridges and play as Knuckles, it was awesome), Mega Bomberman, Toe Jam and Earl, Earthworm Jim 2, Aladdin, The Lion King.
On PS1, Spyro The Dragon, Tomb Raider, PaRappa the Rapper, Crash Bandicoot (all of them), Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 and 2, Final Fantasy 7, Metal Gear Solid.
On N64, Super Mario 64, Mario Kart 64, Diddy Kong Racing, Legends of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Legends of Zelda: Majora’s Mask, Super Smash Bros, Starfox 64, Pokémon Snap, Pokémon Stadium, Banjo Kazooie, Bomberman 64, 1080° Snowboarding, Goldeneye 007.
Yeah, that also makes sense. My line of thought was more about how returning to old great games might not seem as great after experiencing all the QoL and gameplay improvements that came since, so starting with those ones means they can enjoy them. My daughter is already handling the dual stick controllers well, so I guess is beyond that stage already (though when she was younger I remember her not even understanding that Mario Kart was something she could control and she thought we were picking characters for a movie, especially since the auto-steer and auto-accelerate still give a fighting chance even if you don’t otherwise touch the controller).