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Game recommendations for a bright 7 year old?


Chimpazilla
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everything said about the paper mario series has not been said enough

those games are AWESOME and would be perfect for a young child who still has an un-jaded imagination. plus the aforementioned reading practice, as it is silly but quite intelligent text. SMRPG is on virtual console by the way so pick it up for sure

someone else said rayman origins and if he likes platforming games it's one of the few lately that has really been in high form outside Donkey Kong Country Returns, which might be a little tricky for a younger kid its tough.

it's probably too advanced but i still want to recommend the world ends with you for the DS for it's text and story, and for being the most fun stylus based game.

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Oh, I forgot Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales. It's quite possibly my favourite DS game. It's based on the Final Fantasy series and a great art style. The main game world is a nice 3D style, and you control a chocobo and walk around, advancing the story. The meat of the game takes place in minigames, all tied to storybooks (so there's some great reading practice for Tom), a few microgames that aren't book-related, and a fairly simple trading card game battle system. Completing objectives in the books will either reward you with cards for battling or will change parts of the world to advance the story. The storybooks and TCG battles all appear in a great popup-book style.

Basically, I'd highly recommend it for reading comprehension, strategy (figuring out which cards you should use in your TCG deck), and because you're not doing the same thing the whole way through.

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I've found it a bit hard on *my* eyes, and I'm 30. I generally don't play with it on, other than for Mario Land 3D, and even then it still isn't necessary. I wouldn't let a 7-year-old play with the 3D turned on. You can lock the 3D via Parental Controls though, so I wouldn't worry about buying the system for him.

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While you're at the other core Nintendo titles, consider the F-Zero series as well. Sure, it's a racer, but if you're raising him on Nintendo... :D

F-Zero GX is allegedly hard, so he might find some "worthy adversaries" among its characters. Then again, he'll probably lose a race or two. It's mostly a memorization game really, remembering all the speed arrows and where the gaps in the courses are.

And then there's Cave Story. Platformer. Awesomeness. :D

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He's quite cool. He's got an ear for music already, I let him play our upright piano or my keyboard fairly often. He loves percussion too: at church, he'll stare at the drummer the whole time. I took him to a music store a couple weeks ago while my wife was shopping, and he had the greatest afternoon ever playing with all the instruments. He's even smart enough to hit congas with one hand on each. He's making up for being born in the car on the half-mile drive to the hospital :)

That's great, he will definitely be a "cool kid!" :) And wow that's crazy about being born in the car on such a short trip to the hospital, sounds like a real go-getter! Great story!

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May I recommend Golden Sun for GBA? There is a lot of reading but if you're there to facilitate, it should be good. The story is fairly epic and spans two games and they're full of magic ability- focused puzzle solving and rpg battling with nothing too violent for the kid. There are two games which are both parts of one big story: Golden Sun and Golden Sun The Lost Age. The Lost Age is tighter and more full of content over the first game but I recommend starting with the first one since the sequel picks up LITERALLY right after the first game ends.

Another great game would be advance wars dual strike for the ds. Light hearted war played out with colorful commanding officers and turn based strategy are the order of the day. Players have to use units that have advantages over other units toward capturing enemy bases.

Another good idea for a 7 year old might be Pokemon Black/White. There may not be much in the way of puzzles but the team building and variety of characters should be pretty fun for a kid. Pretty ok story too.

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We have Super Paper Mario, that was great! Will check out the Thousand Year Door, thanks! Will have to check out SMRPG. We played through Bowser's Inside Story and that was another terrific reading practice.

Just want to clarify something in case you misunderstood (not sure if you did or not):

Paper Mario and Super Paper Mario are different games. The former is the original in the series and is a lot like Bowser's Inside story (it's a turn based RPG). Super Paper Mario is the newest game and more of a platformer. You can buy Paper Mario for the Wii in the Wii Shop Channel; it's in the N64 section.

Just want to make sure you and your son don't miss out in case you think you already played it.

Another question: What about the 3DS? Someone mentioned to me that 3D can be hard on the eyes, especially kids eyes... do you guys agree? I'm toying with the idea of a 3DS for Christmas for Tom, with Mario Kart 7 and OoT 3D.

I cannot recommend Super Mario 3D Land enough. I'm playing right now and it's amazing. If your son likes Mario games, he'll go ballistic over it.

Don't worry about the 3D. You can adjust it and turn it off and even lock it out using parental controls, but even then, everyone has a different reaction to the 3D. I personally have never had a problem with it; I play Mario with the 3D turned all the way up.

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@Ecto: Yes he is a video game wizard, amazingly advanced for his age, navigates all the confusing dungeons with ease and fights the gnarliest enemies and makes it look easy. *so proud of him*

Tom is the only first grader (only kid in his entire school I think) who has a backpack covered with triforces. No one else he knows has even ever heard of LoZ.

That music from Alundra is awesome. I forgot to mention Tom is a music afficionado as well... he remembers every song from every stage of every game we have ever played, and can hum every bar perfectly, even four years later. I can't wait to get him started with FL Studio, he's going to be my favorite music buddy too. He needs to be reading more reliably first... we are getting there.

Can you tell I love my kid? Thanks again for these suggestions, keep 'em coming if you've got more.

Hah, that's awesome :D he reminds me of me when I was a kid, insofar as the gaming goes. I remember selling lemonade so I could buy Super Mario RPG at launch. Success. Hustling NES games to friends for outlandish prices so I could go to Funcoland and buy them back at 20% of my selling price? Check.

Really, if you put that kid in front of Alundra and he beats the game within a reasonable amount of time, he's the champ. Of everything.

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It's always great to see kids doing their best. I have ~15 nieces and nephews, but I can't imagine the joy of seeing my own kids like that. :)

I myself grew up playing whatever my brothers had, including Perfect Dark and Goldeneye,so I'm not really sure what would be in the acceptable category. Maybe you can try giving him a good action puzzler? I myself still enjoy the whole Puzzle League thing and Bust-a-move/Puzzle Bobble. I'll also second the Mega Man Zero series; They're hard, but it's really rewarding when you beat a level with an A rank (I still need to beat the final areas that way...). I also liked Castlevania, but that might be a bit of a stretch.

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Not all PS3's have the ability to play PS2 games, and the ones that ARE backwards compatible can be hard to track down, and are generally more expensive. However, ALL PS2's are backwards compatible with PS1 games, so if there aren't many PS3 games you/he are interested in, the PS2 would probably be the best choice.

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Not all PS3's have the ability to play PS2 games, and the ones that ARE backwards compatible can be hard to track down, and are generally more expensive. However, ALL PS2's are backwards compatible with PS1 games, so if there aren't many PS3 games you/he are interested in, the PS2 would probably be the best choice.
Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but all PS3s are backwards compatible with PS1 games.

I'm about 90% sure that ALL PS3 editions are capable of playing PS1/PSX games like Alundra, but Alundra can be downloaded on the PS3 for like $5 or $10 on Sony' Playstation Network or whatever it's called.

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I'm about 90% sure that ALL PS3 editions are capable of playing PS1/PSX games like Alundra, but Alundra can be downloaded on the PS3 for like $5 or $10 on Sony' Playstation Network or whatever it's called.

Damn you Sony. See what you've done to us?

So basically it's going to boil down to which libraries hold the most appeal to you and your son. If you don't care about PS3 games, the PS2 will give you access to the PS2 and PS1 libraries. If you don't care about PS2 games, the PS3 will cover PS3 and PS1.

Or you could try to find a fully backwards compatible PS3 and have access to everything.

My apologies to Chimpazilla if we've made you go cross-eyed.

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Damn you Sony. See what you've done to us?

So basically it's going to boil down to which libraries hold the most appeal to you and your son. If you don't care about PS3 games, the PS2 will give you access to the PS2 and PS1 libraries. If you don't care about PS2 games, the PS3 will cover PS3 and PS1.

Or you could try to find a fully backwards compatible PS3 and have access to everything.

My apologies to Chimpazilla if we've made you go cross-eyed.

Geez... 8O

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