Games to Play with young kids

So my older son is 4 going on 5. We enjoy playing some of my old PC games together every now and then. I'm a little picky in what he is allowed to play, so anyone have suggestions?

At his age, I'm really not interested in him playing hyper violent games like FPS games. But at the same time I'd like something with a little intelligence to it.

So far, he's playing kerbal space program, all the Homeworld games, car mechanic simulator, some old school adventure games (think myst), untitled goose game. Probably a couple others in there that I'm not remembering.

He's played some old NES and SNES games but I find that they just require too fast a reaction time for him right now. There's a couple he likes but I think most of them will be more appealing as he gets older.

Any ideas? Kind of hard for me since I do enjoy FPS games and especially horror games. I figure games like alien isolation aren't really appropriate for a 4 year old lol

My kids liked Into the Breach, I think they were more like 6 and 8, and could play it themselves with my help. Turned based giant robots vs aliens if you're not familiar with it.

Mine love Jurassic World Evolution 2 (not 1), but it gets hard quickly so you'd have to play it with him obviously. I'd suggest Roblox but don't start the crack habit if you can delay it.
 
My brothers kids were laying Subnautica but they are around 12.

Subnautica is great but I'd say 7 and up. My 8 year old played both games a lot but was too scared to do some of the parts so I would do those for him.
 
My son is eight...his favorites are minecraft, farming simulator and he has been obsessed lately with feed and grow fish.

Feed and Grow fish is a great suggestion - my kids loved that, and it's ok for younger kids as long as he's ok with cool fish being turned into bloody chunks.
 
Scribblenauts
Hidden Folks
Night of the Rabbit
Lego City Undercover
 
Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime - four player co-op space combat game. I've been playing this with my daughters for years. They loved it when they were younger, and we all still play it now that they're older too. It starts off easy enough, and gets tricky after a while. Highly recommended!

Thank you for this recommendation, I bought it today and played with my two sons, what a great coop game! My kids love it, we need to get my wife to play the 4th spot.
 
Thank you for this recommendation, I bought it today and played with my two sons, what a great coop game! My kids love it, we need to get my wife to play the 4th spot.

When my brother comes over, we'll usually have a couple of drinks, start playing this, and then my daughters will fill in the last two slots. It's so much fun! My youngest daughter and I fight over the shield generator spot though. I love using the shield as weird as that sounds.
 
When my brother comes over, we'll usually have a couple of drinks, start playing this, and then my daughters will fill in the last two slots. It's so much fun! My youngest daughter and I fight over the shield generator spot though. I love using the shield as weird as that sounds.
What game is that guys? Sorry I missed the conversation.
 
What game is that guys? Sorry I missed the conversation.

Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime

It's a really cool co-op 2D space shooter, where each player mans one station at a time in the same ship. So you have to work together to navigate, operate shields, guns, etc. You can move between the stations, and you can pick a fight with someone if they won't let you on their console. :D It's a bit cartoony, but the play itself is amazing, and even the cartoony feel is more on the humorous side, so it doesn't really put you off the game. I wish there were more games like this.
 
When my brother comes over, we'll usually have a couple of drinks, start playing this, and then my daughters will fill in the last two slots. It's so much fun! My youngest daughter and I fight over the shield generator spot though. I love using the shield as weird as that sounds.

I didn't think it was possible to fight in this game but my two sons proved me wrong as usual. They were fighting over the stations, booting each other off the stations. But we still play it so that's a good sign. Minecraft dungeons the other one we play together. My wife likes Overcooked 1 and 2, but she tends to stress the kids out yelling at them.
 
My children will be 8 and 5 this year. No way I'll let them near PC gaming yet. So we let them play Minecraft and Roblox on their tablets.
 
My children will be 8 and 5 this year. No way I'll let them near PC gaming yet. So we let them play Minecraft and Roblox on their tablets.

My kids (8 and 10) loved this Roblox game where you start in a school classroom and then zombies attack the school and they have to escape. Or a game where one of you is a murderer with a knife and one has a gun, and you don’t know who til he starts murdering people. Yeah there’s no blood and it’s not gory but the themes can be disconcerting.
 
My kids (8 and 10) loved this Roblox game where you start in a school classroom and then zombies attack the school and they have to escape. Or a game where one of you is a murderer with a knife and one has a gun, and you don’t know who til he starts murdering people. Yeah there’s no blood and it’s not gory but the themes can be disconcerting.
Yeah, roblox is bad news for kids. Tons of inappropriate things and pedos on there.
 
Nintendo has got your back.

1. Pikmin 3 Deluxe
2. Mario Kart Deluxe
3. Super Mario 3D World
4. Super Mario Odyssey
5. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Might be a bit to challenging)
6. Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze

For PC, I would stick with driving games and maybe Flight Simulator type games. A force feedback wheel or flight stick could be fun.

Have fun! :)
 
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You can try fortnite since it won't bore you too, plus there are many games like Forza Horizon 4 - a car game, Stardew Valley, Minecraft Dungeons. I play with my nephews these games, it's fun.
I'd like to support the mention of Minecraft Dungeons. It's a great place to start playing with your kids, and is easy to learn, and grow with.
 
I'd like to support the mention of Minecraft Dungeons. It's a great place to start playing with your kids, and is easy to learn, and grow with.

Yes, think I mentioned that one - my kids still enjoy that one with me. We tried adding mom but that didn't go well lol.
 
Yeah, roblox is bad news for kids. Tons of inappropriate things and pedos on there.

Yeah, I let my kids play PC games pretty early. (not crazy violent ones, but moderate anyway) I had all my daughters playing Borderlands 1-3 with me when my youngest was still 6-7 or so.

That said, I do not let ANY of them play Roblox to this day. The oldest is 18, so she can if she wants, but I just told them how many nasty excuses for humans are hiding behind that.

They play Minecraft and Terraria for that sort of thing. I host servers for them and their friends too, in order to minimize the internet impact.

My girls are little toughies though, and smart, so they do ok anyway. I just help where I can, and Roblox had to get bloxed. :p
 
I have a 6-year-old daughter and a 4-year-old son. I have been gaming since I got my GameBoy when I was 10ish. I don't think I want to see my kids getting into gaming just yet, and this comes from someone who used to be a hardcore gamer in my 20s. I don't know...
 
My son (2 1/2 years) flipped open my 3DS on my nightstand and got an eyeful of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds in full 3D for about 10 seconds before I snatched it away. "Woooow! Look at this gaaaame! I have to plaaay it! I have to plaaay it!" lol
 
+1 for Overcooked games. The whole family has had a lot of fun with those. Available for nearly all the relevant systems (no C64, yet).
 
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