A video game curriculum for my fetus.

S

speedracer

Banned
So my wife is pregnant. I refuse to bring a child into this world without a formal video game education. So you're a dad. You've got a clean slate. What games are must plays? What I've got so far:

Pong (Atari style with paddles)
Pac-man (Atari)
Pitfall! (Atari)
Combat (Atari)
Donkey Kong Jr. (Coleco)
SMB
Duck Hunt
SMB 3
Final Fantasy
Golf
Tetris
Battle Toads
Baseball Stars
Maniac Mansion
Tecmo Super Bowl
Sonic the Hedgehog
NHL 97
Super Mario World
Mario Kart
MK: Double Dash
Final Fantasy VII and/or VIII
Chrono Cross and/or Trigger
Unreal Tournament and/or Counter Strike and/or Battlefield 2 and/or Team Fortress 2
Portal
Bioshock
Animal Crossing
Plants vs. Zombies
Civilization II
Simcity 3000


I'm weak on PS 1 and 2 games because I didn't play them often. I know I'm missing a bunch of other stuff too. Help a brutha out.

Oh, and it's a girl. Poor thing.
 
You need to bust out/get an original GameBoy (or GB Pocket). My son is 2 and he goes to town on that thing (he usually "plays" Super Mario Bros. or Darkwing Duck). Most of the time he just hits the pause button over and over or turns the contrast all the way up - but he does have a good time (BTW, he pays my crappy 2nd one). I have a daughter due in 2 months and I have NO CLUE how to approach that one. We are in the same boat my friend...

On a side note, you better throw in Star Tropics and Rock 'N Roll Racing (SNES).

AND DON'T FORGET TO TAKE HER TO THE ARCADE!
 
My advice: Don't cherry pick games because she is a girl, I am having my first child in August (also a girl) and I'm going to make sure she has an introduction to these games:

Sierra "Quest" series games - Space Quest, King's Quest, Quest for Glory
Lucasarts Adventure Games - Sam & Max, Maniac Mansion, Day of the Tentacle, Monkey Island
Any from the Legend of Zelda series
Any from the Metroid series
Any from the Mario series
Any from the Castlevania series

I plan on starting her off on the older consoles that I still have boxed up in my basement, and have her work up from there in a natural progression. Move from NES -> SNES ->N64 -> Gamecube ->Wii. She may not get to experience everything that each console has to offer, but maybe she'll have an appreciation of the games the way i do. My 8 year old nephew started out on a Gamecube and now he can't get into the original NES Zelda and that really bothers me.

My wife was into NES when she was gowing up, but never stuck with it after that. So I know there is enough excellent content for that system that appeals to girls, regardless of the games.
 
Ooooo. Startropics, LoZ, and Metroid. How could I forget?

I want to start her on old consoles for that exact reason bastards. I'm afraid if I drop her in front of a Xbox 1080, she won't dig the old stuff. My wife gamed on an SNES, so I know it's possible.

Thanks dudes.
 
I'm in a very similar boat as you op. My wife and I are expecting a girl in July. While it's not a topic of concern I have considered what video games (if any) I should expose her to once she gets older. I wont force her to play anything but if she shows an interest I'd like to see if she can play old school games like Mario, Mega Man & Zelda. I was naturally good at games from the moment I picked up a ColecoVision controller. It'd be intresting to she if she inherited a little of that skill from me.

With that said I'd be completely okay if she doesn't like video games. I've never tried to get my wife into it. It's my hobby and I like it like that.
 
Capcom made bunch of great Disney games on the NES and SNES. The best starting point with those series is probably DuckTales on the NES.
 
I think the NES games should be fine for the young child. Here is a couple of other games you can add to the list.

Ms.PacMan
Galaga
Puzzle Bobble
Excitebike
Mike Tyson's Punch-Out
RBI Baseball
Elevator Action
 
Note: Though Battletoads-hard at times, I stand by X-Com 1 as a great choice for any 10-year-old. I lost my squad to a mind controlled guy with an RPG; they should, too.

But in addition to that!

Breath of Fire 3/4 (PS1)
Final Fantasy Tactics (PS1, sine wave difficulty curve, awful translation, still great)
Skies of Arcadia (DC/GC, advise you go for the GC version)
Shining Force 1/2 (Genesis)
Uncharted Waters 2 (SNES/Genesis, but get the SNES version. And UW2 > UW1 a thousand times over, so skip the first one. It's kinda like a Japanese version of Sid Meier's Pirates!, except not boring as shit.)
Ultima Underworld (DOS)
Baldur's Gate 1 & 2 (PC; advise you do a fair bit of mod stuff for number 1)
Fallout 1 (PC)
Normally I'd recommend Planescape Torment here, but that's something the kid deserves to be a fair bit older for. It's for her sake.
Mutant League Football (Genesis)
Castle of Illusion (Genesis)
Golden Axe 1/3 (Genesis)
Starcraft Battlechest (PC)
Assorted Half-Lifes (PC, maybe Episode 3 will be out by the time she gets through 2)
Deus Ex (PC, I recommend installing the "Shifter" mod first, and forgetting the second one ever existed)
 
It was a clever ploy to get you to post so I would know when you're online, Mr. Appear Offline.

And then I'd tell you to get on SC.

So get on SC, 'cause Chicken's getting on now, too.
 
Congrats to all the fathers to be!

If my first child dosen't have every item drop memorized in Symphony of the Night by their 5th birthday I'll put them up for adoption!
 
LoZ: Link to the Past. It was the first game I ever played and I loved it. I continuously played the opening scene where you save Zelda over and over again, but it didn't matter.

I also recommend a Pokemon game when she gets older to introduce her to RPGs. But make sure it's either Red, Blue, Yellow or Fire Red, Leaf Green. Those were when the 150 Pokemon actually mattered. Don't fill her head with that 500 different Pokemon crap.
 
I started out with Duck Hunt, Gyromite, and Super Mario Bros.

I was always an RPG gamer, so I stand by Earthbound, the Final Fantasy series, the Adventure of Zeda's, Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana, yadda, yadda.

Excitebike (I second that)
RBI Baseball (I second that too)
Gauntlet
Old School Madden
NBA Jam (Boom shacka lacka!!!)
Contra
NFL Sportstalk Football
Any old Gretzky hockey games, lol.

Crap, I'm drawing a blank.
 
You guys are YEARS away from having to worry about this stuff. Even my 5 year old daughter needs help playing most games and my 2 year old son still doesn't understand that moving a joystick controls the character on the screen. Anyone that says "I beat SMB when I was 3" is just lying.

My daughter has been getting a steady diet of the classics - her favorite games right now are Galaga 3, Dig Dug and Donkey Kong. She also likes Circus Charlie and Ms. Pac-man but she just started playing those. We play all the time. She uses my DS but so far has only shown an interest in Super Princess Peach, New SMB and The Princess and the Frog (which is unbelievably complicated - I hate when she plays it because it basically means I have to play it). Kids don't care about graphics - they just want to have fun but be careful because some of the older games (arcade especially) are VERY difficult (by default because the goal was to take your money) so your kid might get frustrated and NOT want to play. It is a fine line.

Forget about any games from PS1 era up - their hands aren't big enough to even hold the controller. My daughter tries but loses interest quickly because she can't even get her hands on the analog sticks and use her other fingers to pull the triggers (for Burnout, for example).

Congrats to all the fathers-to-be. It's the best thing ever.
 
You have baseball stars listed which is win, but after that, I'd suggest the Griffey series of games.

One game I LOVED as a kid was Stinger on the NES. It's an incredibly Japanese scrolling shooter and lots of fun with visuals a child is likely to get a big kick out of.
 
No Street Fighter? D:

Well, I guess I probably wouldn't. But I think my list would be something like this assuming I had to pick one game per system.

NES: Mega Man 2
SNES: Final Fantasy 3/6
Genesis: Gunstar Heroes
PSone: Brave Fencer Musashi
N64: Mischief Makers
Dreamcast: Shenmue
PS2: Shadow of the Colossus

Mega Man 2/Gunstar/Mischief Makers is gonna develop them into a pretty strong gamer. FF3/6 introduces the finer parts of gaming. Brave Fencer Musashi is often a game not a lot of people talk about so I would love to spread the love. Shenmue is... Shenmue. Shadow of the Colossus is just beautiful.

I would pick more Final Fantasy games but I think 3/6 covers the important parts of what makes it great pretty well.
 
[quote name='javeryh']You guys are YEARS away from having to worry about this stuff. Even my 5 year old daughter needs help playing most games and my 2 year old son still doesn't understand that moving a joystick controls the character on the screen. Anyone that says "I beat SMB when I was 3" is just lying.

My daughter has been getting a steady diet of the classics - her favorite games right now are Galaga 3, Dig Dug and Donkey Kong. She also likes Circus Charlie and Ms. Pac-man but she just started playing those. We play all the time. She uses my DS but so far has only shown an interest in Super Princess Peach, New SMB and The Princess and the Frog (which is unbelievably complicated - I hate when she plays it because it basically means I have to play it). Kids don't care about graphics - they just want to have fun but be careful because some of the older games (arcade especially) are VERY difficult (by default because the goal was to take your money) so your kid might get frustrated and NOT want to play. It is a fine line.

Forget about any games from PS1 era up - their hands aren't big enough to even hold the controller. My daughter tries but loses interest quickly because she can't even get her hands on the analog sticks and use her other fingers to pull the triggers (for Burnout, for example).

Congrats to all the fathers-to-be. It's the best thing ever.[/QUOTE]

I second this. The only thing that my (almost) 4-year-old daughter can play right now are the DS stylus games (she loves the mini-games in New Super Mario Bros.) and the six-axis controlled games on the PSN (Super Rub a Dub).
 
[quote name='javeryh']You guys are YEARS away from having to worry about this stuff. Even my 5 year old daughter needs help playing most games and my 2 year old son still doesn't understand that moving a joystick controls the character on the screen. Anyone that says "I beat SMB when I was 3" is just lying.

My daughter has been getting a steady diet of the classics - her favorite games right now are Galaga 3, Dig Dug and Donkey Kong. She also likes Circus Charlie and Ms. Pac-man but she just started playing those. We play all the time. She uses my DS but so far has only shown an interest in Super Princess Peach, New SMB and The Princess and the Frog (which is unbelievably complicated - I hate when she plays it because it basically means I have to play it). Kids don't care about graphics - they just want to have fun but be careful because some of the older games (arcade especially) are VERY difficult (by default because the goal was to take your money) so your kid might get frustrated and NOT want to play. It is a fine line.

Forget about any games from PS1 era up - their hands aren't big enough to even hold the controller. My daughter tries but loses interest quickly because she can't even get her hands on the analog sticks and use her other fingers to pull the triggers (for Burnout, for example).

Congrats to all the fathers-to-be. It's the best thing ever.[/QUOTE]
I third this (I have a 4yo daughter and a 9mo son). The comment about the older arcade games being difficult is especially true. Don't forget that most of their friends will be playing the newer stuff. They may have little interest in the older games.

I don't know that I would go back too far in time with the games. Those older games were great in their time, but they were cutting edge then. One does not need to learn to an abacus to have an appreciation for the calculator.
 
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