GBA games for young children

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yourlefthand

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Having been completely disappointed by our v.smile pocket that we purchased for our 4-year-old daughter, I am thinking about getting her a GBA SP. does anyone have any suggestions about games that she might like for this system? I see E-rated Disney princess, hello kitty, and dora type games all the time, but wondered if they are any good (considering the target audience).

Thanks!
 
Super Mario Advance (the first one) is probably best for a little girl because it is easier that Super Mario Advance 2 (suggested above). Plus, she can control Princess Peach in the original Super Mario Advance. Dogz and Catz would probably be good for a 4-year old. Most of the licensed games aren't very good, but a 4-year old probably won't know the difference. You have to decide if you want games to play for a short time, or if you are looking for games to hold the child's interest for extended periods of time.
 
I thought about your post for a bit today. I have a 7 year old son.

My son got his gameboy when he was 5. There are Matchbox, Rescue Heroes, and other games that are right on for that age group of boys. The Gameboy SP is a great thing for that age -- it's very durable, compact, and the rechargable battery lasts longer than most trips.

Now 7, he's old enough to appreciate games like Mario and Yoshi's Island. But these will probably be too hard for a four-year old.

At 4, your daughter will be able to play some games, but a lot of others will be too hard. Or bad. Or won't have save capacity. This means you will be writing down passwords and holding on to them, or your daughter will have to start over every time she plays.

Another problem you will have is that most adults haven't played the games that you'll be wanting to get for your daughter, so reviews and opinions are going to be hard to come by. You're probably safe with Dora, but the rest? Even I have no idea.

The irony of the Gameboy is that it has a lot of titles aimed right at kids...and many of them aren't very good. What this means for your child is that she will get frustrated or give up. Or you'll have to help. Of course, most kids will play even a bad game for a long time.

You might want to consider a Leapster. They're rugged and have learning games (even Disney Princess) that go from Preschool to 3rd grade level. Cartridges can be found reasonably -- $20 on sale. You can find the Leapsters themselves on clearance at Target after the holidays, though that doesn't really help you now.

A Nintendo DS is probably a better investment in the long run than a Gameboy -- it plays DS and Gameboy games and will be around for years...but I don't think it's appropriate for a 4 year old. I didn't feel comfortable with my son using my DS until he was 6. YMMV and kids are different, but I wouldn't. Or get a liberal extended warranty.
 
Yeah most of those types of games you mentioned are not very good. They think because it's based on a popular franchise or somethin they could make a crappy product and make some good money off of it. I'd recommend going with any of the Super Mario Advance titles.

Even the Wario games are great fun like Wario Land 4 (1-2 were on the original GB, colorized version of 2 and 3 were for GBC) and Wario Ware: Mega Microgame$. The Sonic Advance titles are very good too .
 
Here's one idea. A Nickelodeon 4-in-1 game was just released:
Nickelodeon Volume 1 Four Pack Dev. THQ Pub. THQ Systems: GBA MSRP: $29.99
In case you missed Rocket Power: Zero Gravity Zone, Nicktoons: Freeze Frame Frenzy, SpongeBob SquarePants: SuperSponge, and The Fairly Odd Parents! Shadow Showdown the first time around, well now you can have this compilation of ridiculously long-named games on one cartridge. - ship

Cheapest Price:
There don’t appear to be any specific deals for Nickelodeon Volume 1 Four Pack.

:gba: Purchase At EB Games
 $29.99
 
I would recommend WarioWare Twisted. I have a son who just turned 4 last Dec and has been playing the GBA SP extensively since he was 3 1/2. The nice thing about WarioWare Twisted is it has very intuitive control - multiple button presses for 4 year-olds can be tough. My son also likes playing SMB 3 (whichever "Mario Advance" that is) but it is on the difficult side and he can't get through more than a level or two. Fortunately he likes playing them over and over.

We had a Dora game for a while but he kind of outgrew it before he was able to play it, if you know what I mean. It had a password save, which is just horrendous. Worst of all, it required lots of reading, which is asinine in a game aimed at preschoolers. All in all, I couldn't figure out who the hell was supposed to play it. Any kid old enough to read and deal with password saves is going to be bored to tears with it.

There is a Land Before Time game that is a simple platformer. He enjoyed that for a while. Let's see... He also played Lego Star Wars, the original WarioWare (though I much prefer Twisted - it was also deemed the single best GBA game in IGN's top 25 list last week). Oh, and Donkey Kong Country 2.

But by far the best is WarioWare Twisted. And best of all, you can play and enjoy that as well. Just the tons of unlockable gadgets can entertain a kid for hours on a car trip ;). And like I said, very little reading required and intuitive controls make it ideal for young kids.
 
It's kind of ironic that Nickjr and Disney games, while aimed at young children, can't even hold their attention for more than one sitting because the gameplay is just terrible.

My 3 year old son loves Little Einsteins. But when I let him play the GBA Little Einsteins game, he played it for about half an hour and never touched it again. The characters didn't talk with voices, you had to read word bubbles. And the minigames were just dull as heck. So I'm not surprised.

On the other hand, just last night he played Mario Kart DS for 20+ minutes and laughed the entire time. Of course, he never finished a race and was on the same track for that entire 20 minutes. But just driving around in circles and in reverse and falling in the water was more fun than his favorite TV show in a game.

I guess my point is that even if a game seems a bit too complex, as long as the kid's having fun playing it, it's all good.
 
Thanks for the heads up on the Little Einsteins game. I had thought that that looked like an interesting one for her also.

I am thinking about MarioKart and WarioWare Twisted now. At least the reading level isn't too high. We are going to give the GBA a try. I think that it will be a good fit for her.

Someone had mentioned leapsters, and my niece has one of those. In my opinion, it has the same problems as the v.smile pocket. Poor controls, bad display, and boring game design. I think that all these companies know about kids games is that they are a money magnet.

Thanks!
 
All of those cartoon and cg movie license games will be fine for small children content wise. I dunno if the gameplay is there tho.

One series of games that have gotten great reviews are the Kim Possible games. Theres at least 2 for the GBA, and they are supposedly great for any age.

My best friends little girl is 6 now I think, but when she was 4, she loved to play Medal of Honor Infiltrator on the GBA. Theres no blood in the game, and she thought the little men were shooting 'bubbles' at each other, lol. Then again this girl also loves to sit in your lap while you play first person shooters. I had to limit it to Unreal Tournament games tho, cos they arent bloody and she liked all the cool brightly colored shots from the weapons.
 
Hey I did a quick search online and I think this site can help you in purchasing games for children. http://www.gamerdad.com/index.cfm
I ran into the problem that when you tell it to show you only the GBA games, it still shows you the games for every system anyways.

Another game suggestion would be the GBA version of Bubble Bobble if you can find it. There is little to no reading involved, simple gameplay and colorful levels and enemies. It contains the origional NES version of the game as well as an updated version. It also has game saves so you dont have to mess with passwords. It may be difficult to find though because it was released a few years ago.

EDIT: Its odd but my link doesnt work quite right for me, if my link doesnt work quite right for you either than just click on the video game button.
 
[quote name='yourlefthand']Thanks for the heads up on the Little Einsteins game. I had thought that that looked like an interesting one for her also.

I am thinking about MarioKart and WarioWare Twisted now. At least the reading level isn't too high. We are going to give the GBA a try. I think that it will be a good fit for her.[/quote]

I think MarioKart will be too hard for a 4 year old. WarioWare Twisted is a great choice.

I guess it depends on what you want your daughter to get out of it. At 4, my son had only a vague concept of the importance of driving forwards. Driving around the tracks was too challenging.

I hope you mean GBA SP or Micro. A regular GBA will be cheaper, but there will be many places where you or your child will not be able to see anything.

[quote name='yourlefthand']
Someone had mentioned leapsters, and my niece has one of those. In my opinion, it has the same problems as the v.smile pocket. Poor controls, bad display, and boring game design. I think that all these companies know about kids games is that they are a money magnet.
Thanks![/quote]

I disagree. The controls are on par with a gameboy, plus a touch screen and a stylus that you can't lose. It's backlit, and the sound is clear. The display is not as good as a gameboy, but it's bigger and good enough. Even at age 7, my son does not really care about graphics.

The games are on par with computer educational games. No, they're not thrilling. But they are age appropriate. Directions are spoken (instead of written) and there are multiple difficulty levels for everything. The games are made so that kids can do them and not get frustrated, which is more than I can say for a lot of gameboy games.

Most four and five year olds don't really appreciate good game design. That doesn't mean they should be given bad games, but most games that older kids and adults will find appealing are too hard or they just don't see the point. Mario Kart is a perfect example. When my son was 4, he wanted me to drive the cars. He liked driving, but was unhappy at always coming in last. He liked going the wrong way because Lakitu would come down and make noise. Older kids and adults aren't amused by that, but younger kids would rather watch Lakitu than try to make it through the course. It's more fun and it's instant gratification.

When he hit 6, things were different. He had the dexterity to drive the cars around the turns, and he understood the point of the game. The challenge of coming in first, or good enough to place mattered to him.
 
invest on a ds and get cooking mama, & wario ware twisted (hard to find though). my 5 yr daughter and 3 yr son loves them.
 
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