IT happened. Yes, that..."IT". 360 is in the living room - sujjeschuns

[ResO]

Lay down the law. "As long as you're living under my roof you will only play on what consoles I like. When you're 18 I'll change the locks & you can go live in a friend's garage and play whatever Xbox you want!"


But yeah, gotta' let 'em make they're own choices. Still, it never hurts to steer them in a better direction. I always figured if I had kids i'd let them evolve on each year consoles, let them start with nes, trade up to an nes/genny, ps1/saturn, etc etc. give them them a small taste of the gaming evolution we experienced. At the same time, your kids are at the age that they want to make their own choices apparently, and gaming is the same as TV/movies (what they don't get at home they'll inevitably experience at a friend's house). Most kids want what their friends want, and that's normal.

Best of luck with the 360, friend.

 

[FilthyRear]

I'd tell my kids "You go anywhere near my games and the only thing y'all are gonna catch are these hands!"

 

[beigemore]

I really liked Burnout Revenge on 360.

 

[AJtheMishima]

You gotta let them play that next gen stuff, as long as you give them options and show them the systems you grew up with. They may seem bored sometimes, but im sure its going to mean alot to them when they are alittle older. Are you getting them into any fighters? Im not a xbox guy so i cant really recommend anything.

I'd tell my kids "You go anywhere near my games and the only thing y'all are gonna catch are these hands!"

 

[ResO]

You gotta let them play that next gen stuff, as long as you give them options and show them the systems you grew up with. They may seem bored sometimes, but im sure its going to mean alot to them when they are alittle older. Are you getting them into any fighters? Im not a xbox guy so i cant really recommend anything.

...? This should be an easy one.

I'd recommend MOTW & KOF XIII

 

[JoeAwesome]

The Outfit was a fun RTS lite game with mild violence (no blood, IIRC, but has guns and wacky physics). Worms on XBLA was great, too.

I'm thinking of other kid friendly, but not kiddy games... Alien Hominid? Let me take a look at my physical collection to see.

 

[uiengineer]

If you have a Kinect, I have a sealed Kinect Adventures! you can have.

 

[lolifoxgirl]

Mj, I have some rpg recs for you. The trails in the sky series has a female protagonist, and age appropriate themes. No naked lolis or gore. The zelda musou game on wii u might be up their alley if they like 3rd person action. The wii metroid collection is nice for platforming. I found the last story on wii to be excellent as well, not too difficult and visually interesting. Maybe the bioware games for the older kid.

 

[bloodycelt]

The 360 has two decent RPGs.

Blue Dragon and Eternal Sonata. The first is very cutsey (character designs by Toriyama, so it looks very much like DBZ)

Eternal Sonata is all about Chopin.

Both should be fairly cheap to try and buy.

Though I think your oldest daughter isn't into RPGs... more like sim games (at least based on what your description... all of those esp. minecraft are sim/builder games), have you ever tried introducing her to Sim City (not the latest turd), Populous, or Harvest Moon ?

There is Civilization Revolution on the 360 as well. But TBH your eldest daughter at least prob. would get more out of playing Civilization or Endless Legend on the PC.

Edit: Also second Lolifox's rec on Trails in the Sky, and the Bioware games.

 

[100proof]

The 360 has two decent RPGs.

Lost Odyssey and Eternal Sonata.

FTFY.

There's been some good suggestions in here. Take your 360 online and download:

- Castle Crashers (it has cartoon blood and poop jokes but no nudity or anything the wife would disapprove of)
- Terraria (2D Minecraft-ish light RPG),
- Shadow Complex (Metroid with guns and light-stealth)

All of them are offline games that are just risque enough for the kids not to feel like their being parented but not overly violent or terrible. Plus you can download Geometry Wars, Hard Corps Uprising and Super Meat Boy for yourself.

Enjoy this while you can. Eventually your kids are just going to want to play Call of Duty or whatever all the other kids at school are playing (assuming it's not already happening).

 

[Lastblade]

Limit their 360 library to only XBLive non-retail games.

 

[Lastblade]

The 360 has two decent RPGs.

Blue Dragon and Eternal Sonata. The first is very cutsey (character designs by Toriyama, so it looks very much like DBZ)

Eternal Sonata is all about Chopin.

Both should be fairly cheap to try and buy.

Though I think your oldest daughter isn't into RPGs... more like sim games (at least based on what your description... all of those esp. minecraft are sim/builder games), have you ever tried introducing her to Sim City (not the latest turd), Populous, or Harvest Moon ?

There is Civilization Revolution on the 360 as well. But TBH your eldest daughter at least prob. would get more out of playing Civilization or Endless Legend on the PC.

Edit: Also second Lolifox's rec on Trails in the Sky, and the Bioware games.

You missed Lost Odyssey, which is way better than the two mentioned.

 

[Ip Man]

i guess it depends on what kind of retro game you give to kids. give them golden eye or perfect dark, and there's a good chance that todays kids will find them boring and unplayable. but i used to play metal slug with my cousins when they were around six or seven, and they loved it.

 

[Kid Panda]

You missed Lost Odyssey, which is way better than the two mentioned.

+1
One of the best.

 

[mjmjr25]

Thanks for all the recommendations. There are a handful mentioned i'll def. start looking for.

I do have a ton of Wii games, but that is downstairs - and downstairs play is pretty specific since it's generally w/o supervision - all of those games are def. SFK. Upstairs play will have supervision so the boundaries can be raised a little since we can intervene and cut play if it's too much. So...specifically looking for 360 stuff that can't be found on Wii. As for the Xbox live; i'm not opposed to digital stuff, but isn't it still a subscription service? I've always been turned off by that and we've never taken the system online.

 

[nug]

Thanks for all the recommendations. There are a handful mentioned i'll def. start looking for.

I do have a ton of Wii games, but that is downstairs - and downstairs play is pretty specific since it's generally w/o supervision - all of those games are def. SFK. Upstairs play will have supervision so the boundaries can be raised a little since we can intervene and cut play if it's too much. So...specifically looking for 360 stuff that can't be found on Wii. As for the Xbox live; i'm not opposed to digital stuff, but isn't it still a subscription service? I've always been turned off by that and we've never taken the system online.

You don't need the gold membership. You just need to make an xbox live account (free) and that's it. I didn't want my bank account or cc connected, so I just get giftcards from the grocery store to just add money to the account for purchases

 

[100proof]

^ What he said. All you need is an XBL account (which is free) and money on your account (which you can buy prepaid cards for at Gamestop/BB/Target/etc so MS doesn't have your CC information).

Soooo many good digital-only games on 360.

 

[Mugicha]

something I don't think was mentioned that is very kid safe and really damn pretty is Child of Eden, it's basically Hi-def first person REZ. I've never played it with the kinect, I've only used the controller, and I've still never beaten it. But I am also a sucker for Rail shooters/and light gun games.

 

[NeuroticMoose]

Seeing as you let them play Deadly Alliance, what about Deadrising? It's pretty gory but from what I recall its about as over the top as I remember the ps2 era MK games being, just a thought.

The 360 was my console for quite awhile and I've amassed a pretty large collection, most of the stuff I was interested in was M rated though so I can't really help on that front and off the top of my head I can't think of anything kid friendly that hasn't already been suggested, I have no idea where you're at for money but based on what sounds like you're kids interests a PS3 would probably be a better fit because of all the platformer rereleases. The 360 really was a frat boy system with lots of violent shooters and online only games, there was the occasional all ages gem like Banjo nuts and bolts and a bunch of great stuff on xbla. Happy hunting!

 

[oldschool]

I would throw another +1 for the XBLA suggestion. My nephews are about 5 and 8 years old and go apeshit for multiplayer Trials Evolution, Castle Crashers, and I Made A Game With Zombies In It (decent Robotron clone). If you want to keep them busy for a long time, the LEGO games are great, but avoid the really early Star Wars / Indiana Jones entries as the 2P/split screen mechanic is garbage.

 

[bloodycelt]

You missed Lost Odyssey, which is way better than the two mentioned.

+1
One of the best.

Its not a game I would recommend for a 13 year old girl (she's the one into RPGs right?). Maybe if she was 16... and a twilight fan... the whole mopey immortals thing might be a draw.

Its a gambit for a turn based game to include an QTE-like mechanic, and since I hated Shadow Hearts for having something like this, despised Legend of Dragoon for the same thing, it got old quickly in Lost Odyssey.

(When its done right, it can be brilliant... like Stick of Truth, which is an amazing game for the 360, but NOT FOR KIDS)

 

[GregN]

Mike - I can mail you Cubed, which includes Rez, Every Extend Extra and Lumines.

Your girl could get into it.

PM me if you are interested.