Weekend Debate: What Makes A Perfect Kids’ Game?

Aim assist.

A kids game need to be pick up and play. But the game style must not be kiddy.
They will become bored if they dont know what do to, to gain any progress. But more a kind of free roaming enviroment. And the game needs a 2 player or co op mode. To play with the friends, sisters brother or even parants

A perfect kid’s game is that one which can be played and enjoyed by kids and adults. Games like this: Super Mario, Little Big Planet, Crash Bandicoot, MediEvil, etc.

the perfect game for kids, for me, is a platform with some puzzles inside, with a disneymovie-like story: fun plus education.
crash bandicoot’s dynamics+escape plan’s gameplay+epic mickey’s story

It has to be colourful, creative, fun, co-op , and it needs to be not to kiddy but almost like littlebigplanet so that adults and kids can enjoy it+ it can’t be that hard but just challenging enough!

I think CS:GO would be a fantastic game, if any of use in Europe ever get to play it! This is so frustrating, it has been 6 weeks now and not a single word has been said about it (not counting “We have no information” BS).

Kid’s games in the first place have to be imaginative and welcome imput from the kid’s fantasy.

Have you ever seen a kid play with toys? The stories they come up with are just all over the place. They don’t limit themselve like we would and let their mind do the work while they’re being sucked in their game. A game that’s good for kid’s does just that (Lego does it, LBP sure does it, they both open up to goof around)

A great, underestimated game that did this was Toy Story 3. The story mode was weak to say the least, but it had a wonderfull toybox mode which was just a big sandbox where you could play around with Woody, Buzz, or other characters, do little missions, or just make your own adventure. Buzz on a horse? Woody in a sportscar? Catching bank robbers with Rex the dino. You name it, you could do it.

It really touched the ‘I’m still a Kid’-part of my brain, and I can’t imagine what fun I would’ve had if I really was still 8 years old when playing this.

The perfect game for kids should be colourful, with a great range of characters, and collectables. I love collectables, they just give you something to aim for and when finally getting every single Titanium Bolt, Precursor Orb, Lum, or whatever, you feel like you have achieved something. The game needs to be simple but challenging (not to the extent of Dark Souls of course) because if it were to easy, they would get bored and don’t feel the excitement. Characters are SO important in a kids game because when I look back at my childhood, I see Jak, Daxter, Ratchet, Clank, Rayman and the lot, and you really start to attach on to these characters like they are your friends. So this is what I like to see in a kids game.

I get a feeling everyone thinks it should be a 2D platform game.I always say a classic like Zelda OOT is the perfect game.
There’s a challenge for them,it’s funny,has a dark side,and is a great game.Most importantly,they’re reading the text.I used to read it with my younger brothers and help them out.

I dont think there’s enough games that force communication or bonding between the the parent and child.Most are used as distractions,and thats why kids end up getting a COD for christmas.

I think Wii U could be good here,it can simplify tasks for a non gaming adult,and a child because it’s a touchscreen,both can easily sit together and share the controller.
I think wonderbook could work,but I worry it’ll shift a 100k units and be forgotten.

These days, anything with a gun in it.

When I was a kid my favourite games were by far the Spyro and Crash Bandicoot titles. Why? Not only were they a joy to play, but more importantly they transported me to another world. Talking dragons and evil warlords ain’t exactly going to happen in the real world anytime soon, but in the world of gaming? There are no limits.

As a kid I wanted to be taken to a land of mystery and the unknown, of course I knew it wasn’t realistic but I liked that developers were tapping into my imagination. It’s quite funny really as this is one of the main reasons why I still love to game to this day.

One of the main problems with today’s kids games is that developers forget that most kids want to be taken to another world, far from the realities of life. Unfortunately times have changed and most developers have decided to make either patronising games (even for a five year old) or a generic FPS. Thus the 7-13 year old market has almost been forgotten about in my opinion. I think this market most definitely still exists, it’s just that developers don’t realise this and assume that kids have moved on from the likes of Spyro.

Games targeted at kids need to distance them self as far as possible from reality, mainly so it doesn’t influence then negatively and helps them seperate the gaming world from their own.
It should depict a happy setting/environment which cheerful characters, and gameplay that stays simple as well as engaging and entertaining. The core mechanics should be simple and easy to pick up by anyone.
In terms of difficulty, from my personal experience, kids are far less likely to react to failure in gaming then the older gamers do, because we play to complete & compete, kids play for pure fun.
When I was a kid, I remember watching my little cousin play the first Ratchet & Clank demo on the Playstation 2, in it, everytime you die your taken back to the beginning of the demo, and this happend often for a child attempting to learn the controls for a game without a tutorial. Yet everytime she was taken to the start, she played again with the same smile on her face, laughing at the same jokes, and getting excited over the same sequences. I found myself getting more frustrated watching then she should have been playing lol.
Gaming is about having fun, a fact that can’t be more true then it is for kids.

a perfect kids game would be a cross between dark cloud and kingdom heart like disney working with another game company or for instance make a game open world and they can make their own choices and they could go wherever they like and there has to be a bit of fighting involved not like final fantasy way of fighting but free fighting also must have a great STORY thats the most important bit it doesnt matter about color if kids wanted that they could just play flower so thts it

Fun gameplay. That is all that matters considering it’s a video game designed for children to play. Most children won’t care about a game having a good story or having high-end graphics or being top notch quality. They’ll care about the gameplay, it needs to be easy and fun. What is your character? A human? Alien, dragon… or Lombax? I have noticed from my two cousins who are 6 and 8 years old, that they are extremely into games that let you play as non-human characters. For example, Spyro, you play has a dragon, they were addicted to the game! You should have seen the look on their faces when they found out how to breath fire! lol Characters are important though, everyone needs their childhood video game characters when they’re older! lol

A mixture of usability and enabling the child to do exactly what they want. There is nothing more frustrating than watching a child try and play a game who is stuck at a part, or the controlls are to complicated etc.
Its also amazing when playing a game with a child and they say “can we do x?”. X is normally somethong the game wont allow you to do it. The perfect game would allow a child to do as much as their imagination can dream up.

I’m a (very proud!) father of an 8 year old girl and a 4 year old boy.
What games float their boat.

Well for my son, he loves most of the mini’s – as they are fun, wacky and have vibrant colours. His particular favourite is Hamster Ball. He’s actually VERY good at it. He is drawn to games with vibrant colours, so games such as Sonic the Hedgehog and Spyro the Dragon really appeal to him, and hence I’m ALWAYS looking out for Sonic/Spyro deals on the PSN!

My daughter enjoys games that are fun, and thought provoking. LittleBigPlanet (series) is her favourite, as it’s quirky and has quite a few puzzles to solve; and she adores the online community as some people have made truly awesome games, based on things she likes (such as Marios Bros, Burger king cooking, and Alex the Kidd(!).
Although, games she can enjoy on PS Move by emulating the motions (such as tennis) are also a big plus for her.

So that’s about it. If they’re young, go for vibrant colours, quirky noises, and 100% fun.
The older they get, stray between the obscure, and the (not too) mentally challenging.

As a father of a 2,5 year old son, I’ll answer this for his age, as I’ve made a bit of analysis for him already…
What games does he like? There are three main games he loves. Karting (LBP Karting played during the beta), an android app called Lego Duplo, and… The ‘Digit chase’ from the Welcome park on the Vita!
While checking these games, I found they have the following in common:

- Controls: None of these games use the ‘default’ controls. No facebuttons, joysticks or shoulderbuttns, but front- and back touchscreen, and motion-sensor! So, first rule is that a kidsgame needs to have intuitive controls, that fit ‘modern’ thinking of kids (they are all used to touchscreens!)
(1/2)

(2/2)
- Gameplay: lots and lots of things are happening onscreen. Especially things that are NOT part of the main gameplay. Pressing a flower onscreen in Lego Duplo, makes the flower lift up, and reveal a worm attached. Pressing the backpanel at welcome park, makes a ball pop up! Hilarious! Rule two is: let kids experiment.

- Tasks: While many games have some target, like a time-limit, this of course doesn’t apply to when my kid is playing. He doesn’t play with a time limit, he plays as long as he enjoys himself. So, Rule three: allow sandboxing, without any (time)constraint! There is no ‘you lose’ for kids!

Of course there is more, but I found these to be the most important rules. Games like LBP and Puppeteer, and the upcoming Wonderbook look to be right up his alley, so we are keeping a keen eye on those!

A good kids game should be fun,colourful, imaginative etc etc, what everyone else already said. But it shouldn’t be demeaning for kids, As in it shouldn’t be like your only playing this because you can’t play anything else. There’s nothing worse for kids to hear that kind of thing.

What was it I said about some Sony Japan junk?

I think Dyad is a great kids game. Fast moving, colourful and fun. It’s on the Store…… oh wait it isn’t.

It’s been great getting older (I would have said growing up but…) with the evolution of the video games industry. Always something new to discover as you evolved as a gamer and your tastes in genre and game type changed.

Dizzy, Alex Kidd, Sonic, Ecco, Mario – all staples at a younger age and great examples of how to create a great game for children. The main protagonist is always cute, adventurous, and yet fragile… just like children. Fantasy settings that kids can imagine themselves in and characters they can empathise with. Almost all games aimed at the younger audience were (and still are) platform games with easy to learn repetition and almost instant rewards (collecting items).

Nowadays, my youngest son (7) likes to spend his allocated game time on titles like Monkey Quest, Club Penguin, Moshi Monsters, and Angry Birds – all of which follow the same game staples listed above, set some 25 – 30 years beforehand.

A fantasy setting, a noble quest, a flawed hero, an over the top villan, simple learning curve, and rewarding yet repetitious gameplay… the perfect child friendly game for over 30 years.

I would say any game makes a great game for kids, except maybe puzzle games like Portal! I grew up on Metal Gear Solid and Resident evil. (played MGS when I was 4).

Even though these are adult oriented games and I didn’t understand stories at the time they were still fun as hell. Plus I don’t think it’s made me into some sort of violent killer.. or has it

A kids game should be fun. Prime examples are the Lego series, Skylanders, Toy Story 3 and Cars 2. One thing they all have in common is the co-op. A parent or older sibling can play without being bored and the child gets more enjoyment when they are spending quality time with other family members.
Childrens games do need more than just this though -
1) Fun to play – If its not fun, kids won’t play it
2) Simple controls – No good if a child can’t get to grips with it
3) Engaging story – A childs attention needs to be held
4) Bright and colourful – No dark and unduly sinister/scary sections
5) Characters – It helps to keep focus if characters aren’t too complex
6) Easy without being patronising – Balancing anticipated ability without being frustrating or hand-holding throughout the game
Having an Autistic son has made me realise how important those few things are. He doesn’t have the dexterity for complex games and he gets distressed very easily by scary/upsetting sections of games.
At the moment he’s playing Angry Birds. Simple controls, bright and colourful graphics, fun characters, providing a challenge without being nigh on impossible and highly enjoyable for all the family. What more could I ask for

It all depends on the age of the child I think. Kids learn and change so much in short spaces of time and so do their interests and capabilities. So a game that a 6-7 year old can play with just the right amount of difficulty to keep them interested, may be too easy for a 8yr old and much too hard for a 5 yr old.
The ideal game for kids in my opinion would have a tiered approach to the entire game. A very simple free roaming game with very basic gameplay would be good for younger children. However, the game world would need to react to their actions to keep it interesting.
For older children, the game would introduce challenges and have a more focused approach to gameplay.
If they could make a kids mode for some of the best FPS, like shooting with eggs or paintballs and obviously no gory deaths (or any deaths at all for that matter!) us Dads could get away with playing more!

Viva Pinata is the perfect kids game. Not only that, it’s great for both parants and kids to play together. The PS3 nesds a Viva Pinata

I think the golden rule for all kids games should be: Intuitiveness

Everything has to be intuitive, everything from the controls, to the level design, to the game progression. I think that’s why touchscreen and motion-sensor games are so popular with young children, you click the screen, you interact – it doesn’t get much more intuitive than that.

If made for a console and a standard controller, however, a childrens game should have simple controls, like moving the left analog stick to move and pressing the X-button to jump. It shouldn’t have controls like: “Press L3 to crouch”. Another good thing would be fixed cameras, so that they don’t have to worry about controlling the camera with the right analog stick, while moving the character. More likely than not, they’ll probably just stand still while fixing the camera, and then they’ll move the character, and that’s no fun.

A game like LittleBigPlanet does all of this extremely well, and I think it’s the closest we’ve come to the perfect kids game. I don’t exactly consider myself a kid, but to be honest, I enjoyed that game probably as much as any 7-year-old kid did.

“… Adults are only kids grown up, anyway” – Walt Disney

I think the main problems with games at kids are:

1) Filling them with things that are stereotypicaly loved by kids. An average game aimed at them is flooded with teddy bears, ponies, hearts etc. The problem is, kids also want to feel like on an adventure- a coherent story, basic character progression and a villan that is actually threatening would all be an improvement.

2) Assuming that all kids are dumb. Not only they are put off by the constant, blatant hand-holding(again, they want and adventure, to be the hero- not the helpless child they are in reality), but they sooner or later notice that developers dump products of very low quality on them. That can result in losing interest in games altogether.

Because of both of these reasons, my young sisters and her friends favourite games are sports games and good old Mario. LBP2 is also among their favourites(and mine, too), but no title aimed specifically at children made it.

Well Fred i (again) think your question is just too general.. ie kids meaning ?.. exactly, it’s been a loonng time since my ‘kids’ played kids games, and as such can’t comment as well as some younger parents.. what i will say though is that what mine loved playing way back is Still imo The best games series.. am talking about some italian plumber guy, am sure he also had a brother, if memory serves.. But most definately mario either alone, (for the kid/s) or on some occassions i got roped into a karting version of this game/s.. am kinda sure he (mario) also had some Emu like bird/friend helping him out… they would sit for hours at a time clearing stage after stage on that/them games.. also, tbh, i am not sure if it was a ps1 they had, But apart from that i will say mario worked then and i haven’t a doubt it Would work today, am pretty certain many of todays kids games have a bit in common with them.. Now if only i can remember the name of the karting game that i used to get trashed at most nights, ..lol. good memories.

I don’t have any kids but i have a little brother thats 5 years old. I think what make a perfect kids game is a game that i can play with him. That way he doesn’t come into my room every 5 minutes asking “how do i kill this big monster.. come help me!!!”. I keep telling him its more satisfying if you figure out how to kill the monsters by yourself in demon souls… but he still keeps pestering me.

I don’t envy any developer who decides to make a game aimed at kids, creating an FPS seems to be a lot easier. Simply because an FPS only has to be balanced for the one age group, if the mechanics and maps are good, it’s likely to be well received.

Kids games seem tougher, especially tricky if you’re pushing for all ages, the team would have to create a game that’s easy and intuitive enough for the youngest children but include enough challenge for older kids to keep the attention span.

There aren’t a great deal of games that get it right, there are only 2 franchises that spring to mind, the 1st being the Lego series and the 2nd, the Little Big Planet games.

Of those 2 series, LBP comes out on top purely for the added challenge aspect mentioned above, why? While the Lego games are fun, they offer little replay value once complete, a child will most likely play it over and over, but the teens will quickly tire and move on.

But LBP not only has the extra challenges for the teens, but it has new content added daily by those that play it. The game ages with the player, but is always still accessible to all.

Short Answer? Just go look at one of the best selling family games on the PS3 and there you have it.

I am 16 years old so wasn’t a kid too long ago. Games I really enjoyed ranged from the superb Ratchet & Clank series (easy controls with highly rewarding gameplay, colourful aesthetically and excellent character design), The Simpsons: Hit and Run (I loved the open world because my imagination was free; I enjoyed both roleplaying and exploring), the PS1 Tomb Raider games (this is a funny one because I don’t know what would appeal to a child in say, TR2 apart from the nice environmental variation) and more.

When I was about 8 I played Grand theft auto: San Andreas at a friend’s house and loved the freedom – it seemed like my perfect game, albeit if I wasn’t allowed to actually own a Grand theft auto until I was 13 years old. One thing that I really did like as a child was open-world games, games of which are generally aimed at a more mature audience nowadays. S:H&R in my eyes was a classic!

A game that they can easily play without getting stuck or frustrated, simple as that. Every future gamer needs to play some game to start with. Example kids who play kart games may take a keen interest in racing games.

Unfortuntaly for me I was thrown in the deep end with my first game I ever played, Sonic the Hedgehog 2. Explains my love for platformers……and the days and months I spend trying to complete that game :/

Anything with “Call of Duty” in the title.

The perfect kids game?
A game that a child and their parents can enjoy together without the parent having to guide the child too much. I have fond memories of playing the first Crash Bandicoot (and 2 and 3) with my dad sat beside me, enjoying the fact that I was having fun (while eagerly awaiting his turn…)

To be honest, anything based on a kids franchise or something that can mimic the innovation that Skylanders gave, my 5 year old brother got obsessed with the skylanders and now owns all of them.

Also with my brother I’ve found that he likes a franchise with a bit of history to it, for example he absolutely adores the sonic the hedgehog franchise which I introduced him to with Sonic Generations and because of him I had to dig out my old MegaDrive to give to him so he could play the original games

To be honest the perfect games for kids are the ones that have had any effort put into them. You can’t monitor them 24/7 and you can’t always expect them to be interested in media that puts forward ‘good morals’.

What I’ve discovered is that kids are perceptive, they know if a movie licensed game has no depth because they get bored. They know if a game like Littlebigplanet has been a work of the heart because they become enthralled by it. The ironic thing is that children rarely have bias, they see things for what they are regardless of context; they know what they like.

That might be a wash of an argument but I guess the point is this: don’t try and find games that are ‘dumbed’ down or heavily simplified because that’s the approach of working from yourself as a basis then working downwards. Kids are just as complex as adults, they just don’t know it yet. Grand Theft Auto might be off limits but the level of care, attention and depth the developers of that game provide isn’t.

My conclusion: Simple, cheap, focused on advertising = pointless. The word ‘kid’ is not another word for stupid.

I have no kids so i would say the perfect game for kids is a nice horror. That would teach the little brats to be good and eat their green vegetables or they will be seeing some more of them monsters at night. lol. Perhaps Dead Space is a good game for them i joke i joke

Seriously now a good game would be something like toy story or even crash bandicoot. that was my favorite game as a kid aswell as dragon ball z. Anything like Pokemon would really get their attention. It must be cartooney and something they like on tv. The simpsons video games is also a good example.

Speaking of DragonBall Z, i want to ask you have you any news on dragon ball z budokai hd collection? I’m looking forward to this game for old times sake but would also like to know, is it possible the rumor about dragon ball z budokai tenkaichi hd collection could be released someday?

I think there shouldn’t be any games aimed specifically for kids. Seems harsh I know but if I’d grown up with pathetically easy and boring movie tie-in games and the likes then I’d never have become the hardcore gamer I am today.

There are plenty of amazing games aimed at older generations around that kids could play without being exposed to violence/bad language etc, and the challenge will only help them to become better gamers in the process.

For me that started with the game Landstalker on the megadrive. Amazing game, simple concept/controls, yet hard as nails to master. Combine that with no internet access to tempt me into spoiling the games puzzles and quite frankly, I wouldn’t have rather spent my childhood any other way.

Being a father of 3 boys (who are 2, 4 and 12 respectively) I have to say that first and foremost the perfect kids game has to have a mechanic that can hold the attention of a child for longer than 5 minutes, a lot of kids now seem to start out playing games on their parents smartphones and while these games usually have controls that are easy for all ages to grasp they are also usually only suited for short bursts of play.
This unfortunately results in kids failing to appreciate full console games as they are used to bite sized titles.
It is however possible to create a game with a mechanic/characters/controls that is a full length title and will draw kids in. I think that in the current market Skylanders manages this task perfectly, granted its not the cheapest setup but the gameplay is easy to pick up, the controls are simple to master, the characters are cute and it presents just the right level of challenge without getting frustrating (my 4 year old can do some pretty impressive speedruns on skylanders)

Making a kids game isn’t too hard if you know the target audience (the kids) and their parents (us). It needs to have some fun humour to make it like a cartoon. That’s why Ratchet is so good. They’re funny, kid friendly and have some jokes that’ll go over kids heads and give us adults a good chuckle
Another important aspect is multiplayer. As a father of 2 boys it’s great when they have to work with each other to get past a level or unlock a secret. LittleBigPlanet is one of their favourites! (Honourable mention to All 4 One)
Additionally I think an interactive element is also great. Like Wonderbook. I know a lot of people don’t like it but cmon! We’re adults! It’s for the kids and I know if I was 10 I’d love to have my own spellbook and magic wand
Creativity, colour and most of all fun! I also want something that’ll last my kids. We can’t afford to buy games often so we must choose wisely.
I showed them the trailer for Puppeteer and they thought it looked awesome so I’d really appreciate a shirt Also anyone else addicted to Borderlands 2 right now!? So much loot!
Sorry for the long comment. LONG LIVE PLAY!

I will take a different approach, I think there are a lot of valid points about the graphics and the content, but rather than all that.

I think the most important is who are the kids playing with. And I’m not thinking about their friends. I’m talking about the parents and other relatives.

When I was six years old, my uncle had a computer where I could play Pac-man and Prince of Persia and a few others. But none of those games were as fascinating as Super Mario.

My uncle went away for a couple of months and when he returned, he brought a NES and he had a lot of free time so I played with him and it was amazing, whether I was playing while he was helping a bit or I was watching how challenging it would be later on.

So I think a perfect game for kids must have what the other members of the community mentioned but also cativate the parents even if only a little so that, together with their kids, can discover together the wonderful adventures those games have.

PS: On the slim chance that I win something, please be a shirt

Going back to a previous debate with my answer: Easy mode.

You can say a game needs to be big and colourful, needs to be simple and so on. But really, does that make a perfect kids game, or does it make a perfect simple and casual game?

What a kid needs, is a game that they can play and it can be really fun and easy. Complete it, and then increase the difficulty. Now it’s harder, but they’ve learned, and they’re rewarded for the extra difficulty with more unlocks and extra elements. It rewards them for repeating the game, and kids love to repeat things once they have been able to do them once if they get something extra, and it helps them increase their skills at that sort of game.

It may also slowly turn them into a gaming addict, but come on, is that really such a bad thing?

I have 5 kids, one is only 1 year old so not quite playing games yet (although he loves to steal my control while I’m trying to play) and the others are from 7 to 12, the games they like to play are usually the games I like, I don’t mean all the scary blood filled games but ones that are not dumbed down for kids, they like to play real games that are fun
but I would have to say the one thing kids games need is speech, when there is a lot of text that kids can’t read or struggle to read it makes them not enjoy the game, so there needs to be a lot of voices so the younger kids know what they need to do
Ps the iPhone app still didn’t let me post this on it

No blood & guts.
No swearing.
Bright, cheerful and you still need a good main character.

Obvious really I know. Just like the best kids films and cartoons, a good game is a good game, for both adults and children. You have already mentioned some of my most enjoyable games, LBP, R&C and the Lego series. Also Spyro and Crash and a multitude of other ‘pick-up’ puzzlers and arcade style games. These are also the best way to prove to our non-gaming friends and family that it isn’t all about head-shots and body-counts.

The important factor is that it can be easy enough for the younger and less experienced players (my gf included) to progress the main story but with a scale of additional challenges such as non-critical side missions and collection all of the tricky-to-reach flags, crystals, bolts, etc…

And one day you come to you realise that a 6-year-old is actually more skilled at something than you are!!!

What i think makes a perfect KIDS game would be a colourful,easy game to control,with gameplay thats easy to grasp the fundamentals.

It would have to have a learning curve that wouldn’t punish mistakes but make the Children want to learn how to master the game and have as much fun doing so.

My daughter is 7 and loves games like toy story 3 and skylanders, I think the key points should be, characters they can relate to and a difficulty level that is a little dynamic so as not to frustrate them too much, if she keeps dying over and over in the same place then the interest level drops radically, she also enjoys playing the games with a second player to assist her.

I did automatically assume that she would also enjoy the Lego games but not so far, maybe we could do with a more girl friendly character set though

As she gets older I’m sure the tastes will change, and she’ll probably end up stealing my games!

I think that a good RPG is the good way to go kingdom hearts was a game which allowed you to free roam but follow an intresting disney entangled story and if that does not statisfy enough a good racing game like gran turismo that you can just pick up and play without worrying about saving you game as it has an autosave function a bad example would be a fighting game for a younger audience eg tekken
It is a great game but can be ridiculously hard when fighting the stage 10 boss’s yes azazel we are looking at you but in all truth fighting games are too frustrating for the younger people to play and thats that ps hope i win

@chrisboers. I utterly agree with you.

My son will play Tekken, Fifa, God of War and the more adult based games in my collection but he also gets the same enjoyment out of LBP, Sports Champions, Rocket Knight, Starwars Lego, Ben10 and many of my psn titles.

I’d extend your line of thought and add that the gameplay must be something he can identify with. Whether its the theme or a single character.

Its weird how he liked “The Shoot” and not “Time Crisis” “Sports Champions” is always getting played but “Medevil Moves” gathers dust. Kids like to be challenged. I have found that some games specifically designed for the kids can be partonising. Kids are astute little ankle biters and will surprise you with their gaming abilities.

Also add FUN and HUMOR. The most played game in my house (other than his obsession with Guitar Hero) is Start the Party. Its superb fun and make my kids laugh and smile every time. The natural controls and delightfully challenging gameplay provides everything they need. Including a little competition between each other.

I’m not entirely sure how you make one, but the best games for kids are those that inform other aspects of their play. Not because that’s good for the merchandising department (though perhaps it is), but because they feed imagination rather than smothering it. As a primary school kid, 75% of “playing game x” meant running around after each other in the playgrounds and playing fields.

Such games do not need to be explicitly kid focused, just not kid-prohibitive. We would build bases in the woods and our play there was often modelled on things we learnt in god games that we’d play when the night crept in.

Probably the biggest single problem with games for children is the general lack of voice overs for in-game instructions. More often than not it’s text, which can be difficult for children to read because firstly they may still be learning to read, and secondly the text is often small, which they may not be used to dealing with. Even better if you can ditch text altogether and have a voice over with pictorial instructions.

Best games on the PS3 for my 5-year-old are:

Rayman Origins, because it’s easy to play, has co-op to play with me (and it’s enjoyable by adults too), and is visually interesting – my son loves the animations.

Machinarium, although it’s better on PC because some of the puzzles rely on details which are quite small at TV viewing distance, because the controls are simple and the story is told without using words – those little thought bubbles are brilliant.

Not on the PS3, it’s Mario Kart DD on the Gamecube, because again it’s easy to learn and can be play co-op or competitively.

Anything in common between those games? They’re good games for any age, but without anything unsuitable for children in them. Simple controls, interesting characters, and a bit of humour.