Hi Dark, Well, I agree for the most part, but you seem to be forgetting about Sarah and the Castle of Witchcraft and Wizardry. That is one FPS game that a parent could give to their child with limited violence and because of the Harry Potter connection might be well suited for say a 7 or 8 year old.
Another FPS game that comes to mind is Monkey Business. Aside for the crazy navigation aids its actually a game well suited for say a 9 or 10 year old maybe even younger since it does not have a great deal of violence. You mainly go around catching monkeys, and get into a scrape with Dr. Wobble and hi robots at the end, but its kids violence. No more violent than Megaman or Castlevania. So well suited for kids too. However, I agree arcade games are great for children. Sheesh, I grew up playing Pac-Man, Space Invaders, Missile Command, Defender, Centipede, Donkey Kong, Time Pilot, Montezuma's Revenge, Pitfall, Mouse Trap, and a bunch of other games too numerous to mention all when I was no more than four or five years old. Back in the 80's when those games were popular there were no games like Grand Theft Auto with questionable violence and language you would not want to give to your young child. So retro remakes of classic arcade games is a great way to build up a library of games for all ages. Cheers! On 4/16/13, dark <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi Tom. > > one thing I will also add, is that kids and arcade games go together very > well. At the age of three or four I remember distinctly playing games like > berserk, joust, space invaders and ms packman on our old atari 2600. the > very simplicity of the games made them quite enjoyable, and their mechanics > > were more than addictive enough. > > later, we got an amstrad cpc computer, when I was about 5-7, and again I > played games like double dragon, golden axe, roland on the ropes (a great > random maze platformer), and in fact ghouls n ghosts. > > While for me computer games weren't an overriding interest until we got an > amigar when i was eight with the game turrican 2, which pretty much changed > > both my interest in games and indeed in music (since the scores for T2 are > famous), I can say that I found games quite playable, even ones such as > double dragon. > > Many of the games we have now wouldn't need to be changed too much for kids > > to play. The only thing I would recommend if we were talking about a > specific game, is that there is currently not a complex first person game > that I would give a child, sinse shades of doom and swamp obviously wouldn't > > fit the bill for gore and scare factor at least for fairly young children, > ditto with the two best examples of first person games on the iPhone, the > nightjar and papasangre, (I was playing mortal kombat at age 10, but > admittedly i was quite an old child). > > First person audio games have a lot to teach. I am pretty sure my own > ability to understand landmarks and navigate wouldn't be where it is now if > > it weren't for games like Turrican and metroid. With blind kids, teaching > them to hear sound sources, turn towards them, walk accurately, remember > routes etc would be great skills, therefore a first person game, but one > without the gorey deaths of say swamp or shades would be a really nice > addition. > > My suggestion personally would be a game similar to a 2D version of > castlevania or ghouls n ghosts. The player could have a magic weapon, or > indeed a number of them that could remove various monsters and ghosts rather > > like the ghost busters and their proton packs, and could wander around > locations like dark forests, caves and spooky castles. By keeping the > enemies to be spectral ghosts, nightmare monsters and the like and giving > the player laser weapons to zap them rather than guns to shoot, the violence > > and death level could be kept out of too horrifiying a range. > > Equally, if it was established the enemies were ghosts and unreal monsters, > > the player could say instead of losing energy have a terror meeter, which, > if it got too high caused them to lose a life in a sequence where they > yelled "aaagh! a ghost!" and ran off terrified, but essentially unhurt. > > robot smight also be a good way to go, indeed terraformers might be a good > first person game though I suspect kids would find the gameplay a bit too > slow. > > Beware the grue! > > Dark. > > > --- > Gamers mailing list __ [email protected] > If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to > [email protected]. > You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at > http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. > All messages are archived and can be searched and read at > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]. > If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, > please send E-mail to [email protected]. > --- Gamers mailing list __ [email protected] If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to [email protected]. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to [email protected].
