HELP! DS games for little kids

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uricmu

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Hi everyone.

I'm considering buying a Nintendo DS (or a GBA) with a bunch of games as a present for my cousins who live abroad. One is a third grader and the other is only four years old, both are female.

From what I understand, the DS has more games for younger kids and for girls than other mobile platforms (i.e., PSP). Would it be good fit for the older girl?

Part of the problem is that neither girls speak any English, though they may be starting it in school in a couple of years. I'm therefore looking for games that are fairly obvious to use without mom and dad having to translate for them all the time; hope that makes sense.

Any recommendations (especially of cheap games and where to get them) would be appreciated. Used offers as well.

Thanks !
 
The DS has a large variety of games, definitely more than enough to accommodate children (though, watch how you word that - the dreaded "kiddie" argument tends to not go well within our camps). I guess really the point is that it has many games with more adult themes/tastes, but that's not really the discussion here.

Get a DS, not a GBA. If you can manage a DS Lite, so much the better. Since a DS can play GBA games, it's got a good edge.

I'd like to think there's plenty to choose from:

Nintendogs - no real English needed, though it would help on some of the finer points. But otherwise you're petty cute dogs.

New Super Mario Bros/Princess Peach - platformers, so there's no real story to speak of. Get to the end of the level, collect coins, don't die.

Picross DS - A fun puzzle game, and once you learn the basic rules, there's nothing else really needed in terms of translation. Will keep someone busy for a long, long time if they keep at it. And it's only $20.

Mario Kart - Fun kart racing, very little story needed.

I'll let others give more suggestions.
 
Can't go wrong with Yoshi's Island DS. My 4 year old loves it. Also, Mario Kart, Diddy Kong Racing, Nintendogs and Mario Hoops 3 on 3.
 
My 4 year old loves Warioware Touched and both of the Tamagotchi games. There is little text in Wario and she just skips all the text in the Tamagotchi games. I think these games are out of print, so they may be hard to find new. Good luck.
 
Oh lord, don't subject them to the horror that is Mario Hoops 1-on-3.

I suggest Electroplankton. It's a fun toy.
 
I don't know about Cooking Mama. I had to read some of the instructions for the steps before I did the recipe. That might be a bit of a stretch.
 
So, my 5 year old son got a DS Lite last evening for the last night of Hanukkah. Of course, he was super excited. I purchased Crayola Treasures which he loves by the way. I couldn't find this game for less than $30 which was frusturating, but as long as he's enjoying it that's all that matters.

Here's my question. We're returning a Scooby Doo board game which is just bad bad bad, and with the $20 I was going to pick him up another DS game. I was thinking about Mario Kart, but I don't know if he'd get too frusturated. At least I know that I would love to play it.

The other game that's less expensive and has gotten rave reviews is Picross. Is this a game that a soon to be six year old boy would enjoy? Let me preface by saying that he loves putting together 75 and 100 piece puzzles. I realize this isn't a jig saw puzzle game, but it is a puzzle game nonetheless.

Beyond these two games, I don't know what else to consider. I already bought and sold the new Super Mario game for myself. I loved it, but I know there's no way he'd be able to play it just yet. He has enough trouble playing Sonic.

Any advice and suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks everyone. I love this site.
 
Sportdan:

Picross is wonderful, and he'd probably have fun in assist mode, but in free mode I think it'd be over his head. I have friends that are around my age (19-25) that still get confused by it. Eventually it just clicks and all makes sense, but it might be a bit much for a 5 year old.

Tetris might be good, and you could easily find a version of it for him to play 1st to see if he likes it.

Cheap games that he might like:

-Mr Driller Drill Spirts can be had for about $10 used and is a cute, fun game with a pretty simple premise.

-Metroid Pinball can be frustrating (like any pinball game), but it's one of my most played games and is usually less than $20 (only $10 at TRU if it's in stock!), and you can pick up and play it so easily that even if you aren't very good, you can always try to beat your own score. Damn I love that game.

That's all I can think of without browsing online, as I'm just looking at my DS shelf for inspiration. Hope it helps!
 
Johnnypark,

Thanks for the recommendations! I do think Picross will definitely be over his head at his age. Maybe another few years. That is a game I could see myself getting into though.

Never heard of the Mr. Driller Drill Spirits game, but I'll be sure to read up on some reviews.

I'm definitely going to check out Metroid Pinball, if not for him but also myself. I love pinball games, and after playing the 360 arcade pinball game, I need my fix!

Thanks again.
 
What's everyone's opinion on Mario Kart? Take into account that my son will not be playing this game online. Now, I do know that kids don't mind the repetitiveness like us adults do, so perhaps I needn't worry about him getting bored? I think he'll have enough trouble pushing the gas button and steering. I look at this game as one he'll grow into as his eye hand coordination gets stronger.
 
Mario Kart is one of the best games on the system, for kids or adults. It's definitely worth picking up. I've had it since I bought my DS and I've never gotten tired of it. It might be too frustrating for him at this age, though. Depends on his skill level.
 
[quote name='sportdan30']What's everyone's opinion on Mario Kart? Take into account that my son will not be playing this game online. Now, I do know that kids don't mind the repetitiveness like us adults do, so perhaps I needn't worry about him getting bored? I think he'll have enough trouble pushing the gas button and steering. I look at this game as one he'll grow into as his eye hand coordination gets stronger.[/quote]

I enjoyed the hell out of it, and loved Mario Kart on SNES when I was about 9 or 10. On the DS, the CPU tends to exploit the power slides a lot on anything but the lowest difficulty, so it can be frustrating before you get good at them.

Still, racing on the lower difficulties is still fun, and he'll only get better. The way I see it, if he can't play in the big leagues til he gets older, then that just means he'd be able to enjoy it for awhile as he grows up. A little pricey, though, being a 1st party title, but they all are.
 
[quote name='Dragon_Master']Get them Polarium its a real fun game with not that much text to read.[/quote]

Polarium may be a little boring for a five year old. The game has no color except for black and white.

Looney Tunes: Duck Amuck is definitely a lot of fun. There is some text in the game, but I never really had any problems with text when I was five years old (I was playing games on MS-DOS using commands to start games up). Also, Daffy talks a lot.

Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga would also be a lot of fun for a five year old. Make sure you pick up this version, because the other one is unplayable.

For cheaper games, Over the Hedge (just this one, not the Hammy one) and Open Season also got fairly positive reviews.

One more thing is to always question yourself before buying games on the DS. There is a lot of junk out there. Anything published by DSI Games is bad, bad, bad!
 
[quote name='4tygames']Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga would also be a lot of fun for a five year old. Make sure you pick up this version, because the other one is unplayable.[/quote]

I have to agree with this.
I was sort of scared how it would turn out, but it's actually good fun. Not too hard. And has a lot of hours if you go through everything.

The Kirby series of games are great as well.
 
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