Good games for young kids?

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spydermonkey

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I've got a PC I'm putting together for my nephew, who's currently 5 years old. I wanted to load up a few games for him to play, but the PC isn't exactly a powerhouse.

It's got a P4 1.7 and 512MB of ram, with an ATI video card, can't remember the exact model.

I was planning on calling his mom and see what he's into nowadays, assuming he's not into Power Rangers anymore.

Does anyone know of some games a 5 year old could play with not a lot of issues?
 
Lego Indy is excellent. Played it and enjoyed it more that I really should. It would be ideal for a 5 year old and should work on a lowly system
 
How about that Plants vs Zombies game on steam? I never played it but it seems like a casual game for kids and I heard good things about it.
 
Yeah the casual games on steam are a good bet, playing Hammer Heads the other day with my kitten watching and chasing the hammer around the screen :D

Are 5 year olds smart enough for puzzle adventure games? Might be worth giving some of the older puzzle adventure games a shot, monkey island for the win :)
 
man dont you wish math blaster still existed.. i swear that game kept me busy for hours when i was a kid..

theres a few games out there.. the lego indy is a good one.. my little cousins like playing monster trucks 2 and the new monster jam game.. he also plays Cars(the movie game).. hes more into racing games then anything else.. though he was a pro at CS:S when he was 4.. but im not allowed to let him play that game anymore.. dang mothers.. ruin all the fun..

if ya know what kind of stuff your nephew is into.. like cartoon shows or cars, or motorcycles or what not.. then we can probably give you a more detailed idea on what games might work for him..
 
Maybe a bit to young but I really enjoyed age of empires when I was young. I wasnt very good at it but I liked zooming around the maps and the sound effects. I second simple racing games. Especially ones with an open format so you could just drive around and explore. Midtown Madness come to mind. Motocross Madness had a stunt mode that you could drive around in endlessly. Lemmings?
 
The lego series of games would be really good. When my son was 5 we rocked through Star Wars 1 and 2.

Peggle is good. World of warcraft is good :)

When my son was 5 he could handle pretty much any game out there. I had to help him on a few details but he was able to play everything from CS:S to Titan Quest. Oh yea - Titan Quest is a great open ended game! Just run around getting monsters, money, etc. Pretty easy controls too.
 
My brother use to lay starcraft all the time when he was around that age. He also loved to play that lego game where you basically free form build. He built some pretty intense stuff.
 
Diablo 1 and 2, if you don't mind the violence and the dark story, any of the typical adventure style hack and slashers are good, where you run around smishing stuff. Dungeon Runners was a pretty funny MMO-spoof style of diablo 2, with a significantly less serious backstory.

Any of the casual games on steam are good too.

Old fashioned shooters work well, like Raptor call of the shadows, or if there is a more modern game like that.

Single player turn based strat games work well too, if you play as a team with your 5 year old.

There is a review site, Gaming with children, merged with Gamer dad: www.gamingwithchildren.com that should have some good ideas too.

that
 
zetachi said:
obviously someone without kids :) someone else said CS:source LOL not your typical 5 yr old games
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Of coarse not :D

All the worst ideas for age approiate games come from people without kids :D

In reality, i was thinking more of technically being able to do something, less of content itself.

Also thinking back of what games I played on the Apple when i was young. Of coarse a lot of those game types no longer exist.
 
Also, he'll love Super Tux and Tux Racer, in case you're running a Linux box. Both games are ported to Windows, in case you're interested on trying them without having to install a Linux distro =)
 
spicey said:
WoG is a probably a bit difficult for a 5 year old. I stuggle with the puzzles and I'm ancient! :eek:
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Yea lol you're probably right. I was going on the animation style and sounds within the game.
 
tacosareveryyummy said:
My brother use to lay starcraft all the time when he was around that age. He also loved to play that lego game where you basically free form build. He built some pretty intense stuff.
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+1 Starcraft

My brother play it at a young age too. Now I've got my little cousin hooked on it. All he had before was boring casual games on his computer.
 
k1pp3r said:
^^^^^Did you really just suggest Diablo for a 5 year old?

Wow
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There's nothing wrong with M-rated games when proper parenting is available.

So yeah, I recommend any of Blizzard or Popcap games.
 
Pretiacruento said:
Also, he'll love Super Tux and Tux Racer, in case you're running a Linux box. Both games are ported to Windows, in case you're interested on trying them without having to install a Linux distro =)
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I was considering getting him set up on a linux distro with edubuntu installed, but I figured at such a young age, that he should probably get used to Windows, as that's what he'll be dealing with in most circumstances. That, and I know Windows like the back of my hand. Linux,...not so much.

What I'm going to do in order to keep him locked down is use a custom shell with gpedit and replace explorer with Internet Explorer in kiosk mode. It's going to load a web page I'm going to throw together with links to his games.

Easy Peasy.
 
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