Best (easiest) Mario games?

March 2, 2013 5:08 PM

Young Master Macbeth has become obsessed with Mario Brothers. Problem is, he's 4, and while he's an attentive and fairly well-coordinated 4, he is not the best at actually playing Mario games.

He and his dad are working their way through Super Mario Brothers 2 and doing ok, but he just got Donkey Kong Country Returns and is very frustrated with it. (I like Mario Kart but he's waaaay bad at that and gets mad when he spends the whole race running into a wall.)

So, those of you know the Mario Universe, what would you recommend for story and fun gameplay on the Wii? Mario Galaxy? Paper? One of the various parties?

(Bonus question: Suggestions for Mario game walkthrough videos that are easy on the language?)

posted by MsMacbeth to sports, hobbies, & recreation (16 answers total)

I was actually going to suggest Mario Kart - my daughter plays it pretty often, and while in the beginning she spent a lot of time smashing into things, she can now complete races (although she does often take the "scenic" route to do so, checking out things in the landscape she likes). We set her up to do the time trials, it's a little easier without the other characters zooming past, and she really enjoys choosing who she'll play etc.
posted by thylacinthine at 5:11 PM on March 2

Super Mario Galaxy for Wii has a pretty decent yet low-key 2nd player option-- you can collect "star bits" and shoot enemies, and also use a spotlight to show things to the other player. I never played video games as a kid, and that was the way my husband introduced me to the concept.

I've heard that Super Mario Galaxy 2 has a more involved 2nd player option, though we haven't played it yet.

I babysit a 5 and 7-year old brother-sister pair, and they really enjoy Mario Kart, even though they almost always come in last. Pro tip: they get less upset if you tell them that their friend Wario or whatever won, instead of just saying that they lost. "You came in 12th, but your cousin Baby Peach came in first! How exciting!"
posted by charmcityblues at 5:14 PM on March 2 [1 favorite]

Another Mario Kart tip: you can do team races, so even if they lose their individual race, their team might still win overall, and they might take solace from the fact that their teammates won.

I also second what thylacinthine says about little kids becoming better: when my son was just barely 4 he got Cars 2 Racing (which is great) and he initially sucked at it, but because he was so invested in the characters he stuck it out. Now while I still kick his butt, he's still really good and regularly does things I don't/can't (like finding shortcuts, and other things 5 year olds might obsess about).

So short version: if you do find a game that's easier, then it might tide him over until he has a little more coordination with the Wii. Mario Party is easier too, and there's settings to only play the easy games and to give handicaps. We have Mario Party 3, but I suspect they're all equivalent in fun level if you've never played one.
posted by artifarce at 5:29 PM on March 2

Not really up on developmental video game skills progressions, but I sorta feel like the 3D titles might be less accessible. (Maybe this is why your kid has trouble w/ Mario Kart.) So the 3D games, like Mario 64 and Mario Galaxy, may not be the best choices.

One of the great things about the Mario games, though, is that they can accommodate a wide variety of audiences. All the 2D titles are challenging and technical, but can also be played much more loosely.

New Super Mario Bros. Wii is a great game and I might recommend it here. It's a great 2D Mario game, and it has two specific features that might be good for you:

1) the game notices if you miss a hard bit a few times, and offers to take over for you (I think?? remember reading about this feature but haven't actually used it).

2) it has a multiplayer mode that is extremely accommodating to parties with differing skill levels. If you reach a segment that you can't get through but your teammate can, all you have to do is press 'A' to hop into a bubble that floats around, invulnerable. You can then get out of the bubble when you feel confident again.
posted by grobstein at 5:38 PM on March 2 [1 favorite]

Lots of reading in Paper Mario.
posted by Sassyfras at 5:39 PM on March 2

Lots of reading in Paper Mario.

Indeed. I've only played Super Paper Mario, but the reading-to-playing ratio in that is so out of whack that I, an adult with adequate reading skills, gave up incredibly quickly out of boredom -- angry boredom.

For a 4-year-old, start with Donkey Kong. Not Donkey Kong Country, mind you, just regular old Donkey Kong, where Mario just climbs ladders and jumps over barrels.
posted by Sys Rq at 6:20 PM on March 2

Don't underestimate the importance of losing as a learning experience. Too many parents these days try to insulate their children from failure, and when such a kid eventually confronts a really difficult challenge they often don't have the emotional tools to cope. One reason organized sports (i.e. little league) is important for boys is that they don't win every time, and they need to learn how to handle that.

Likewise, a game that's maybe a bit too tough while still being fun is a good thing. I'm not suggesting that your boy should play games that frustrate him and that he hates, but trying to steer him only to games that he can win easily doesn't serve him well. It teaches him the wrong things.

(I have a personal history like this. Once I got out of the house on my own, it took me most of my 20's to learn how to fail without falling apart.)
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 7:12 PM on March 2

I was playing Super Mario World, as well as Super Mario Bros 1-3 at that age. They're challenging, but rich enough that you can just, say, replay the first island of SMW over and over again and still find it fun.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 7:52 PM on March 2

New Super Mario Bros. Wii is a great game and I might recommend it here. It's a great 2D Mario game, and it has two specific features that might be good for you:

New Super Mario Bros. Wii was hard enough that I gave up on it as a 28 year old, for what it's worth.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 7:53 PM on March 2 [1 favorite]

My young-5 year old plays New Super Mario Bros Wii and Wii U over and over again (starting when he was about 4.75). It's frustrating for an adult to watch but he doesn't seem to perceive failures the same way and just does the same levels over repeatedly. Also it gives you an invincible suit or something after a couple of failures. He prefers the Wii one slightly over Wii U because it has the shake-controller-to-spin suit. He gets mad at Super Mario Galaxy and starts asking for adult help very quickly, whereas he plays the NSMB games without intervention. Paper Mario is definitely too much reading.

In 3d platformers, Skylanders is the easiest by quite a bit, especially when compared to Mario games or Donkey Kong. Toy buying sinkhole, however. Also all the dialogue is spoken as well as text on screen.
posted by pekala at 8:02 PM on March 2

I like the first three Mario Parties, the ones for N64. After that, it sort of gets into diminishing returns/dead-horse-beating, although I wouldn't say any of them are actually bad—just not as magical as I found the first ones to be. (YMMV, of course: having been a kid when I played the first three probably had a lot to do with it.)
posted by honey wheat at 8:33 PM on March 2

My Nintendo-savvy brother suggests getting a handheld DS (older, cheaper) or 3DS and playing a game called "New Super Mario Brothers," which is several years old now and shouldn't be expensive. He says that's the easiest/best for a four-year-old.
posted by jef at 9:19 PM on March 2

Not exactly Mario but close enough for me (a 30 year-old-woman with 4-year-old skillz), Kirby's Epic Yarn is easy and fun!
posted by masquesoporfavor at 6:56 AM on March 3

Thanks, all. We haven't done time trials in Mario Kart, so we'll try that out. The "bubble" option in SMB is very popular with the young one, but doesn't really help when he and his dad are trying to clear the level. Good to know that Mario Paper has a lot of reading--we'll hold off on that one for now.

I suspect the grandparents, who indulge every new obsession, will eventually get around to getting him a DS, but I'm trying to resist adding new hardware to our household. That's also why I'm avoiding letting him know that Skylanders is a thing that exists in the world.

Looks like Galaxy or original Donkey Kong will be our next game. Which, yay? Because, man, do I suck at platformers.

(And, Chocolate Pickle, your point about the frustration as a necessary development phase is a great one. I, too, only did things that were easy as a kid and have spent a good chunk of my adult life learning how to do things that are hard at first. I've actually been really impressed by how my kid has persisted on hard levels and has used YouTube to research ways of getting through them. We've talked a lot about practice and patience and trying, but I also don't want to set him up with a game that offers no rewards.)
posted by MsMacbeth at 7:55 AM on March 3

I have about the same level of video game ability as your four year old (oh who am I kidding, I'm sure he could kick my butt at anything (except Wii bowling, I rock at Wii bowling)) and get extremely frustrated with any games my friends coerce me into playing. Except the few times we've played Mario Party (some googling suggests it might be Mario Party 8?)--I actually did pretty ok. The controls were straightforward, the objectives were straightforward, and I didn't have to drive anything (into a goddamned wall).
posted by phunniemee at 9:35 AM on March 3

I played Super Mario Land, for the original gameboy, starting when I was 5 and I flipping loved it. Actually, I still love it, which is a testament to how remarkable video games can be - I certainly don't enjoy rolling around that firetruck anymore.
posted by Buckt at 12:21 AM on March 4