"easy" game on the PS2 for children?
December 7, 2009 8:48 AM   Subscribe

Hi Can you recommend an "easy" game on the PS2 for children? (more...)

Hi,

I have an action item, to buy a playstation 2 game for a child in elementary school. The child in question has complained that other games that the family owns, are too hard.

Specifically I think the issue revolves around games with puzzles in them - games like Up, Wall-e etc. are rated "E" but are puzzle-heavy (to proceed you need to figure out what to do, and how to do it...). Lego Star Wars, Katamari Damacy seem to be OK in terms of the level of difficulty and complexity. Need for Speed yes it's a Teen game is fine in terms of complexity, you're just driving around, but parts of it can be challenging for teens and adults to win, and losing more often than not is a source of frustration. There are similar issues for other racing games that the wee gamer has played.

So, can you recommend for me a straightforward game, one possibly aimed at a pre-teen gamers, with a modest level of complexity and difficulty?
posted by thermonuclear.jive.turkey to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (22 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
If he likes Lego Star Wars there's also Lego Batman and Lego Indiana Jones.
posted by Memo at 8:50 AM on December 7, 2009


I came to suggest Katamari Damacy (or the sequel) but I see it's in your question. If you have not yet bought it yet, consider this a second vote.

Kids (and kids at heart) all seem to like the Crash Bandicoot games.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time has a PS2 version, and it's not too difficult on the 'easy' setting. A bit violent (swordplay) but I think you can disable cartoon blood if you like, it's free of foul language, and the 'sexiest' it gets is a sassy, annoying 'princess' character.

These will be too puzzly right now, but within a year or two they will be great choices: Ico and the later Shadow of the Colossus are gorgeous, amazing games that are quite difficult by normal videogame standards, but they're slowly-paced, thoughtful and driven by exploration. I know a 10 year old who was in love with Ico and played it for days and days and days, just wandering around the castles/mountains. Disney-quality animation, cartoon violence (hitting ghosts with sticks!), no language... um, no understandable human language of any kind, actually.
posted by rokusan at 8:58 AM on December 7, 2009


My son (9) currently loves sports games: Madden, NCAA basketball, hockey, FIFA soccer. He does get frustrated but has picked up quite a bit of sports strategy from the games. When he was younger, he played the Simpsons game, Simpsons Hit & Run (similar concept to Grand Theft but without the drugs and prostitutes and dying and stuff), the Lego series, and the Spiderman movie tie-in games.
posted by Sweetie Darling at 9:05 AM on December 7, 2009


You might look into the collections of classic arcade games that have been transported to the PS2. Here is one, but google around and you'll find more. The one we have (I'm not at home and don't know the exact name) contains a paperboy on a bicycle throwing papers at the houses and some other pretty easy games.

You should also look at the Simpson's Road Rage.
posted by CathyG at 9:05 AM on December 7, 2009


The Harry Potter games are also pretty easy. My kids liked those.
posted by CathyG at 9:07 AM on December 7, 2009


Sands of Time is one of the best games of the decade, but it does feature some annoying difficulty spikes early on in the game. A thritysomething friend of mine returned it to the shop after being unable to get past one of the first big obstacles.

Perhaps Crazy Taxi? It's fun whether you're playing to win or just speeding around and crashing into traffic. (Simpsons Hit & Run is basically a rebranded clone of this game.)
posted by permafrost at 9:15 AM on December 7, 2009


Perhaps Super Monkey Ball Deluxe or Kung Fu Panda?
posted by Anephim at 9:23 AM on December 7, 2009


The Ratchet and Clank series is more action than puzzle oriented and there's a good chunk of toilet humor for an 8-10 year old to enjoy. (Or a 24 year old.) The few puzzles in the game are also solvable by dumb luck often and tend to be literal puzzles, a quick mini-game that involves finding a path for electricity to unlock a door. But moving around the level paths is pretty linear. The first game in the series is really short though, so be aware.
posted by edbles at 9:31 AM on December 7, 2009


Simpson's Hit and Run is awesome, but can be a bit challenging, demanding racing perfection near the end. Road Rage is much easier and it's fun for a fan, but there's not really a depth of gameplay.

I would recommend the first two Sly Cooper games (third one is not so great IMHO). The levels in the games look hard, but are actually pretty easy, which adds a nice thrill of accomplishment.
posted by yellowbinder at 9:40 AM on December 7, 2009 [1 favorite]


Maybe Space Channel 5?
posted by MegoSteve at 10:02 AM on December 7, 2009


How about Parappa the Rappa 2? Rhythm game before they got mainstream and added instruments.
posted by meowzilla at 10:07 AM on December 7, 2009


I'd recommend the Sly Cooper series. There are puzzles he may need help with, but the gameplay is rather straightforward platforming adventure, the bosses are intuitive, and there's a lot of humor. I love these games myself and I've also played them with my cousins, who at the time, ranged in age from 6-14.

As far as Rokusan's Shadow of the Colossus recommendation, I'd wait for a good while there. The game is difficult, (I'm currently playing it and it took me, with 25 years of gaming behind me, over 90 minutes to defeat this one colossus last week) and the imagery might possibly scare a young kid. You also stab these colossi to defeat them and black blood spurts out, and they're visibly hurt when you do that.
posted by cmgonzalez at 10:21 AM on December 7, 2009


Response by poster: Thanks for the oncoming suggestions, I'll be doing some more research.

(Also thanks for those who pointed out that a particular title might not necessarily have kid-friendly content...)

With that in mind, I had a question for permafrost:

Perhaps Crazy Taxi? It's fun whether you're playing to win or just speeding around and crashing into traffic.

Apparently this is rated "T" for strong language (?) Can I get an idea what they're talking about? can you turn this off?

I also had a question for everyone about the 'Spyro the Dragon' titles, another youngster I know mentioned those as being entertaining. Would they fit into the 'straightforward yet fun' category?

thanks again
posted by thermonuclear.jive.turkey at 10:42 AM on December 7, 2009


I've always had a soft spot for Klonoa 2. It's a 2D platformer with brightly colored visuals and a kid-friendly difficulty level. Despite being a kiddie game, I 100-percented it years ago, as it appealed strongly to many of my particular tastes as a graphics developer, game designer, and platformer fan.
posted by rlk at 10:48 AM on December 7, 2009


Best answer: Ty the Tasmanian Tiger is a little bit easier than the Spyro series and it got good reviews. My four-year-old loves to play it. I got our copy for less than $10 on Ebay.

She also enjoys Spyro and beat the first Spyro with a little help from us.
posted by Ostara at 10:48 AM on December 7, 2009


Apparently this is rated "T" for strong language (?) Can I get an idea what they're talking about? can you turn this off?

I think it may refer to the soundtrack, which consists of Bad Religion/NOFX songs? I've played the game extensively and I don't remember anything from the game itself stronger than passengers saying 'You suck!' if you don't make their destination in time. Been a while since I played though.
posted by permafrost at 10:57 AM on December 7, 2009


The Katamari games are definitely kid-friendly as far as content and theme, but they can be a bit difficult to get to the later levels, which are the ones where you're picking up mountains and doing other really fun things.

I know, all you do is roll things up, but to advance in the game, it gets a bit hard.
posted by elder18 at 12:23 PM on December 7, 2009


i have had a larger-than-anticipated amount of fun with Ribbit King. i picked it up because it looked goofy and weird, and my gal and i have played probably 40 hours worth of it at this point. maybe more.

it's kind of like golf. it's more like mini-golf, but that's not really right either. your ball is a frog, and the course is littered with things like mastadons and rocket ships and giant trampoline spider webs and these tiny little houseflies that make your frog-ball hop towards them after they land and...

it's kind of weird. it's a lot of fun. it's not really hard. also, it's entirely kidsafe.
posted by radiosilents at 12:30 PM on December 7, 2009


Seconding Klonoa 2. It's a really charming game, and here's an additional detail that may be important - a second player can optionally control Klonoa's little friend and assist the primary player. It could be a fun way for the child to play with a friend/sibling/parent.
posted by trunk muffins at 2:45 PM on December 7, 2009


Kingdom Hearts has some RPG elements, and some not overly-difficult puzzles, but the core of the game is pressing X over and over again. It's also a Greatest Hits title now, which means it's cheap. Might be worth looking into.
posted by andrewcilento at 4:15 PM on December 7, 2009


Response by poster: thanks for the many suggestions. I noticed on Kijiji a used Spyro game being sold cheap so I opted for that; I'll keep the other ideas as suggestions for future gifts.

thanks again
posted by thermonuclear.jive.turkey at 10:39 AM on December 21, 2009


My 5 year old plays Guitar Hero 2. In practice mode, on "easy", on the "very very slow" setting. He does great, in a few months I bet he'll be playing on full speed. There's no violence, nor any car crashes.
posted by recurve at 3:24 AM on January 1, 2010


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