Wii U game recommendations to play with a four year old?

February 1, 2021 8:33 AM

My son recently turned 4 and I've realized that he's now at an age where he might be able to start playing video games with me. We tried out Kirby Epic Yarn and it went great! On the other hand, he had a hard time with the steering in Mario Kart and Yoshi's Woolly World was a bit hard. I'm wondering if anyone has any recommendations for games for the Wii U that might go over well with someone in kindergarten. Thanks!
posted by NoneOfTheAbove to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (10 answers total)

Zelda worked pretty good with my son when he was small. He would just wander around doing stuff and when he came up to an enemy he would hand the controller over to me. Super Mario 3D World and Mario Party were good too.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 9:17 AM on February 1, 2021 [1 favorite]

What little kid doesn't love knocking stuff down? I'd find a cheap used copy of Wii Sports Resort or Sports Club and go bowling.
posted by JoeZydeco at 9:18 AM on February 1, 2021 [2 favorites]

Mario Kart 8 on the Switch has auto-steer (and auto-accelerate) settings that allowed our 4 year old to have fun without needing much actual ability at the game - is that possible in the Wii U version? You set that in the screen where you're choosing the kart components. There's an icon that looks like kart with a little aerial on the back (steering) and an icon with a kart and an arrow (acceleration) that highlight when that helper function is turned on.

Just Dance is an absolute classic, pick whichever version has music you like, our kid loves that. Word of warning: your kid may discover an annoying EDM track they want to play over and over and over

The Lego games are pretty forgiving for young gamers (it's very hard to "lose", if your character loses all their health they just reappear and there's no Game Over) although some of the versions may not be suitable (eg Jurassic Park may be too scary or the Marvel ones too combat-focussed). My 4yo plays Lego City Undercover albeit with an older sibling in co-op to help out.

My kid got surprisingly good at Minecraft (once they'd mastered the controls I was astounded at the structures they created) BUT we have to make sure they play with the game set to Creative and Peaceful ("Infinite Lego Mode" as I like to call it) - Creative means you can fly and have access to every item in the game, Peaceful means there's no enemies.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 9:19 AM on February 1, 2021

The bit.trip series has very simple controls and game concepts, also good music and graphics. It seems many of them got released for Wii U, but not all.
posted by SaltySalticid at 9:40 AM on February 1, 2021 [1 favorite]

Seconding the Lego Games, 4 is just the right age to start those games, though they might need some help from someone older on some of the puzzles to complete the level, my kids at four years old have been content to just wander around for hours in game. I am pretty sure the Wii U plays Wii games, and I'd definitely recommend Wii Sports. Wii Play is just a collection of mini games but if you get grab it cheap it's a good trainer of fine motor controls needed to get good at using the Wii Remote. Boom Blox for Wii is a fun one, and we're enjoying Toad's Treasure Tracker (newly remastered for the switch but originally released on Wii U) but the 4 year old needs help and mostly plays co-op. Mario Galaxy's co-op (collecting star bits) is pretty entertaining for the kiddo but someone older will probably end up playing some of the harder bits there. If you're cool with co-op, Zack and Wiki is my absolutely favorite Wii game and there's lots of fun bits where you have to use the wii remote like a fishing pole or a saw that the kid will enjoy.
posted by sleeping bear at 9:43 AM on February 1, 2021 [1 favorite]

The regular old Super Mario Brothers U is perfect for beginners because it goes sideways and isn't 3-D. My son started there, basically, when he was about that age.
posted by hought20 at 10:11 AM on February 1, 2021

I loved Lego City Undercover on the Wii U, because the controller serves as a secondary screen where you keep your map and other sub menus like vehicle selection. It just worked so perfectly! Lots of fun little things to do in the game and there are a whole big sections dedicated to classic stuff like trucks and tractors and dinosaurs. You might need to help with some controls and combat to progress the plot but just running around interacting and whacking stuff is fun for hours. I thought the writing was pretty funny and the plot was actually delightfully whimsical so you probably won’t have a bad time helping him play.
posted by Mizu at 10:40 AM on February 1, 2021

I will add that my son had trouble with at least one of the Lego games because you needed both parts of the Wii controller and that was a bit beyond him as a beginner. For the side scrollers, you just need to go forward and press a button to jump.
posted by hought20 at 10:58 AM on February 1, 2021

Super Mario Galaxy 1+2 are really great and might be well suited for this. They both have a 2-player mode where player 1 controls Mario and does the core gameplay while player 2 controls a pointer and does things like collecting star bits and shooting them at enemies to stun them.
posted by bassooner at 11:46 AM on February 1, 2021

We recently got the wii and our 4 yo is doing pretty good with wii sports, super mario party, and the toy story game. The last 2 are mainly mini games. The Mario party game is my favorite - actually entertaining as a family.

Also donkey kong is a 2 player side stroller where the kid can pretend play or figure it out with a parent.
posted by lizbunny at 12:35 PM on February 4, 2021