7d ago

PC Games to Play with my Five-Year-Old

My daughter (5) loves to play games with me on my PC. Favorites of hers include Spyro Reignited, Untitled Goose Game, House Flipper, and Skyrim (she basically putts around whatever town I throw her in and steals from the locals' homes).

She is really into anything with simple mechanics, non-scary exploration, and minimal reading/menu navigation. Being able to go into various houses is a huge plus. She loves to snoop.

Tonight she was laughing her ass off while watching gameplay from a game called I Am Cat. I told her I'd get it for her, but unfortunately it's VR-only, and you can't strap those things to a little kid. I believe you have to be 12+ to use them safely without adverse effects on development and motor skills.

When asked just now for anything she'd like to add, she said, "Funny, happy, and beautiful!"

With all of that said, any recommendations?

19 comments

Oh I got this. Been gaming with my 7 year old since she was three. Spyro and Untitled Goose Game were hits with us too. Here's some others we've enjoyed:
Chicory
Wandersong
Tchia
Donut County
Wobbledogs
Doronko Wanko (free concept game)
Minecraft (in peaceful mode)
Ultimate Chicken Horse
Abzu
Slime Rancher
Battle Block Theatre
Castle Crashers
Stardew Valley
Beastieball
- +1 to battleblock theater. It's a puzzle/platforming game with a cute aesthetic that I still go back to once every few years. Although now that I think about it, I am a little concerned about how a 5 year old would do with the more difficult bits in the later part of the game
  
  I think it's fine, helps him to learn to deal with frustration, persevere and solve problems.

She might like Little Kitty, Big City. You're a cat, it's an open world, you explore, make friends, and wear hats.

Doom Eternal
- Fuck yea trial by fire.

I think the Lego games would work well due to their relatively simple 3D platforming gameplay and two-player, drop-in-drop-out multiplayer across most of the games. The Skywalker Saga is one of the most recent ones, though the older ones are often available for $5 each and are fun, if a bit repetitive. Lego Star Wars, Lego Indiana Jones, and Lego Harry Potter are the ones I grew up with, and are therefore among my favorites, but there's over a dozen of them in all.
For something a bit more original, Lego City Undercover also has the typical Lego multiplayer gameplay, along with an original plot with lots of humor tossed in.
- +1 for pretty much any Tt Lego game. I've played almost all of them as they've been released since I was a kid.
  
  +2 for Lego games for OP.

My friend's daughter was very into goat simulator on my computer, it's a sandbox and you can't lose. We'd hear her cackling from the other room as she ran into traffic or tried to climb a roller coaster or something. I'd have to start the game and get her into the world, but from there she loved it.

Little Kitty, Big City is a cute and wholesome game where you play a cat exploring a city looking for a way to climb back to their home, while befriending other animals and sowing mischief. Not sure how accessible it would be for a 5 year old to play, but it looks like something she might enjoy.

UFO 50 let your kid experience the evolution of gaming

A hat in time

Alba: A Wildlife Adventure

PC, tablet, phone, ages 1-99 (fuck the century bastards they're on their own) - kids seem to love this webGL fluid sim:
https://paveldogreat.github.io/WebGL-Fluid-Simulation/

I'd highly recommend the old Humongous Entertainment games. They were high quality kids adventure games with fun worlds to explore, characters to talk to, a million different things to click on that give an amusing reaction, and simple puzzles to solve to advance the story. I'd say to start out with Putt-putt and Freddie Fish, then move onto Pajama Sam and eventually Spy Fox.
I had a blast with those growing up, and I think they still hold up well.

Wobbly Life? https://store.steampowered.com/app/1211020/Wobbly_Life/
It's essentially a 3d platformer coop about doing random jobs because your granny doesn't like you laying about her house. There's all kinds of "jobs" to do, like racing, fishing, disposing nuclear waste...

Let them distract Bale for you in Elden Ring. 😏

19 comments