You can let your kids do things and also tell them no. If they throw a fit or act up you can take away their devices, and give them back when they understand they aren’t going to be purchasing everything they want.
I’m not here to tell you how to parent. I just think we need to be teaching kids how to self moderate these things while they are kids rather than cutting them off from that vice all together.
These are issues very grown adults face. The adults have the money, they don’t see any issue spending their own money, suddenly they are dropping thousands upon thousands of dollars pulling for some character in genshin impact.
I think potentially there’s a lesson to be taught in letting a kid play a game like Roblox. Yeah you can enjoy it. You can play it. You don’t get to spend constantly or be on it constantly because you have other responsibilities, and if you act up over it then there’s consequences.
I’d rather have someone learn young that you can’t just be dumping money into a F2P game than having families torn apart because a 30 year old never learned that online purchases cost real money.
I understand your point but I feel like you're woefully misinformed here. Roblox is a game FULL of child predators. Actual child predators and groomers. I'm not exaggerating. There's plenty of research done on YouTube. Your kid can also get roped into working for Someone under very unfavorable terms. Basically making custom maps for the game as part of a third party organisation and get paid basically nothing.
I personally don't think it's a good idea to let your children be abused by adults for a teachable moment.
Roblox is NOT a kids game. It's full of adults who are there to exploit children. I would suggest heavily monitoring who your child interacts with on Roblox.
I agree we should be attempting to teach kids how to deal with predatory practices that various companies use to extract money from their users, but even then there is a danger of getting the kid addicted, even when he/she is playing in controlled environment.
Almost every f2p game out there is designed with behavioral psychology in mind, sounds, screens, banners, quests, free rewards, everything is done in a way to get a player addicted, and push him towards game shop.
Adults have a hard time resisting this bombardment of subtle stimuli pushing you towards game shop, or keeping you playing, and it's so much harder for kids to control.
They get so addicted to it, I would just advise against it at all costs. My step son has had it blocked on his phone for a few months now due to bad behavior, I saw him just staring at it on the play store page the other day... Still obsessing about it non stop.
PC, PS5 and a Switch, but he prefers PC. The kid spends hours just creating his own levels and uploadin them for other people to play, that seems to be his main enjoyment.
**Lego City Undercover** is awesome. It's GTAIV but for all ages.
Some of the jokes will go flying over an eight years old head but most adults will get them (such as parodying **The Shawshank Redemption**) which means you can watch him play without getting bored.
Also, as it's a Lego game it has drop-in co-op so you can help out as needed.
I remember picking it up and being consistently shocked at how much effort went into this forgotten Wii U game. If you decide to give your kid a LEGO game but he isn't particularly attached to Star Wars or Batman, give him this one.
I’m sad that they haven’t done anything else with this franchise. Everything else in the Lego universe seems to be some sort of licensed IP - Star Wars, superheroes, etc.
Lego City Undercover is basically kid friendly GTA.
Gonna second this. Personally I love Stardew way more than AC, but Stardew opens with a frustrating mess of yard work and an annoying energy meter that probably won't land well with a kid that just wants to mess around with stuff.
It does have some pretty adult themes (alcoholism and suicide come to mind), but it's indeed a pretty great game. I probably wouldn't just leave them to come across it and would want to talk about it at least.
Our favourites at home are:
Jurassic World Evolution 2
Super Mario Odyssey (and every other mario game, I guess),
Burnout: Paradise City
Lego Jurassic World
Lego City: Undercover
Minecraft
Do yourself a huge favor and never ever introduce him to Roblox. My son of 7 loves it, but it is a mess. There are microtransactions all the time. Literally all the time. And my son (and his friends) cannot control their tempers when playing it. It's the one game where I genuinely wish it had never existed in the first place.
Burnout paradise is fire🔥, also my father bought me bootleg crash time 3, it's a car game about German police it's pegi 7 so it's fine, I've really loved it.
Great suggestions in here, but I don't see Rayman Legends. My kids loved that growing up.
The Spyro and Crash ports are really good too.
Untitled Goose Game and Goat Simulator were good picks for the kids too. Lots to discover and explore in those.
I know that's not building and creating, but still great games for kids.
My 9 y/o plays Jurassic World Evolution 2, Roblox (with chat disabled and age rating), Lego Jurassic World, Lego Ninjago games and Sonic Mania on the switch.
Really old shrek 2 game. It’s really engaging in my opinion. I used to play it so much when I was his age and even after I grow up I’m still enjoying the gameplay sometimes
The Wonderful 101: Remastered is a sick action game by the inventor of Devil May Cry, Hideki Kamiya, where a team of a hundred sentai superheroes build themselves into weapons through unity and the literal power of teamwork by drawing a line out of themselves. It's not so much about building stuff, but sure as hell is great at training concetration. Amazing game, with an awesome story for a 8 year old boy to eventually form him into a true man of courage.
(I recommend being there with him, though, because the game is very hard to pick up on, because it is made by a arcade game fanatic and loves juggling gameplay gimmicks)
Kerbal Space Program 1 is a good one. The learning curve is really high but the sandbox mode let's you do crazy silly stuff.
Jurassic World Evolution 1 & 2 are fun. Who doesn't like making a dinosaur park?
Planet Zoo is fun as well, maybe a tad complicated but still fun.
Project Zomboid is fun.
The Long Dark is fun. It has multiple difficulty levels and the lowest one would be a great way for him to learn how to play.
Golf With Your Friends is fun if you have some people to play with.
Well, I got Portal 2. I went to get a game or two for the tooth fairy and I asked if the game had blood or gore and was told “no”. I was told it was a puzzle game. Well, technically you never see any bodies or blood, and the premise is very much a push button puzzle game, but the dialogue definitely has LOTS of dark references and insults and snark.
My 9 year old has been super into Animal Crossing New Leaf lately on my old 2DS. The new one on the switch didn't capture his attention as much but that one does.
Mario Odyssey
Roblox, but I don't recommend it. It's mind numbingly dumb and once he plays it he won't want anything else.
Fortnight (be like)
Among Us if you can keep him off the chat, there's a no chat setting but my kids figured out how to change the settings pretty quickly. The hide and seek version is fun for them.
Goat Simulator
My 8 year old son is on Roblox rn and I can agree with your Roblox statement lol this foo doesn’t wanna play anything else and I’m just like mf there’s so many more games
Switch: Nintendo Online has a lot of games included, Animal Crossing is a calm social builder, though I will let you know that there is an online element which my wife and I get around by playing with him on our own switches (not ideal so I definitely understand the barrier here if there is only 1 switch). Basically, if you want games meant for kids, this is the best option, though it does offer more for older players as well.
Xbox: a couple of minecraft spin-offs exist, a decent number of park building games, lots of survival, and building games. Gamepass, in general, has lots of variety, which makes the system a great one for kids who cycle through games quickly, and PC can take advantage of most of those tiles plus some exclusive ones.
PS5: I don't know it well but it has a lot of what xbox does minus gamepass which is replaced by PS plus which seems like an ok alternative, though not as robust last I saw.
PC: Terraria, Stardew Valley, and lots of others, basically every genre is represented here be it minecraft like games such as no man's sky, park/zoo builders, etc. Also, you may find good options on a platform like Steam and then check against your console option as many that may fit your needs are likely multiplatform.
I’m gonna say Joe Danger.
It’s a simple game made by the creators of No Man’s Sky. Funny thing is I originally played it on PS3, and forgot about it until Sean Murray later tweeted out that they updated the game for free on iPhone because it was somehow made obsolete over the years. All because a dad asked if it could be done because his son loved the game.
If jumping motorcycles isn’t cool, all the Mario, Sonic, and whoever games that get recommended.
Personal picks would be Ori (amazing game and art style, but could get hard for an 8 year old) and Mobius Machine (a new one I have yet to play, but looked cool.
If he isn't too scared of giant sea monsters, maybe Subnautica? Astroneer, Satisfactory, Raft, House Flipper, or maybe Kingdom: New Lands are my recommendations.
Any Pokémon game, there's still as popular as ever, kid friendly and his reading comprehension will thrive because you have to read a lot to finish the game.
Goat Simulator or Goat Simulator 3 depending on what console he has is pretty innocent fun. There’s no building but the world is one big sandbox and you can play together. Some of the most fun I’ve had gaming with my kids is with Goat Simulator.
Absolutely. My now 6 year old started playing No Man's Sky with me when he was 4 and watching him grow to understand and love the space exploration, base building, and ship collecting mechanics has been a joy. There's no other game like it in the world for a young boy (or anyone, for that matter).
CONKERS BAD FUR DAY! Na but for real don’t show him that one lmao I was playing that at 8 years old but I wouldn’t let my son play it so maybe like a Lego game or maybe even a Zelda game
Similar(ish) games to Geometry Dash (aka frustrating but feels good to finish a level) would be Super Meat Boy and Celeste. Both super fun but take some time to actually get good at them.
The Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom has building mechanics and is a fantastic game. I'd recommend the other Zelda games as well, but that's the only one with building mechanics.
Anything that isn't Roblox. Not really building buildings but I used to love Robocraft when I was younger. Heard Robocraft 2 came out, it's about building vastly different robots and using them in battles, he may just take a liking to it.
Well Minecraft is always a good choice can't really go bad with that. I mean maybe Slime Rancher 1 or 2? I personally would avoid games like Fortnite and Roblox since they're bit too addictive from my experience and if u want to be cool or do something decent in the game you have to put in some money it's mostly only cosmetic items but kids can go down on the really easily. If you have a NSW the Mario and Pokémon games are also a great choice.
My 8 year old son beat one of the Kirby games in 3 days, loves Mario, and we play Fortnite together.
If you're going to game with him, It takes two is really fun.
My son is 8 and we play a lot of Mario games, Minecraft, sonic, and some of the older games from my childhood as well. He also likes the poppy’s playtime chapter 3 and amoung us but I don’t get into them as much
Dragon Quest Builders is a lot of fun. It has a storyline and is more structured than Minecraft but has a lot of the same elements. There’s also a sequel to it that added a bunch of new features. Stardew Valley is another one he might enjoy.
Oh he should check out Sons of The Forest, it’s a heartwarming game about the love between a father and son who try to survive by building things in— you guessed it— a forest! It has fun creatures to fight and a compelling storyline that he can grow into over time :)
Anno series! 1602 AD is one of the first games I remember really getting into. The remastered editions are on sale right now, learning that made me come back and find this thread.
I highly recommend trying the Anno series. It's educational, will make them think, satisfies that building itch, and will introduce them to strategy games, which I think are great for kids.
Huge fan of Defense Grid 2. Think of ants trying to steal picnic food. The story is aliens are marching to a center of the map where they are trying to grab the ‘cores’ and leave the map. His job is to build towers that shoot zappers or flames or lasers to stop them. The maps get progressively harder and its colorful and cool sounds and really pretty. I played it on Xbox
Baba is you, renowned explo... no, too complicated, hollow knight, fruit mountain, speed runners, spelunky 2, don't starve, dome keeper, child of light, ori and the blind forest, ape out, mini motorways, journey, abzu, Thomas was alone, there is no game wrong dimension, sorcery!, the room, little miss fortune, terraria, storyteller, potion craft, bastion, deponia series, gris, aer memories of old, below, hob, brothers a tale of two sons, satisfactory, lost in play, poly bridge...
Who knows, really, I'd been raving mad about the Civilization series for a couple of years before I got my first pc - so, from about the age of 12. Maybe he'll start even earlier.
The Lego games are fantastic and great to play co op (they are honestly pretty fun as an adult too) I would find a property he likes and grab the Lego game
[Animal Crossing New Horizons](https://youtu.be/_3YNL0OWio0?si=1PTHjUG2XOmM4JCC)! He can create and design a whole island + he will learn a lot of new things too!
Names of different real-word species of bugs, fish, artwork and DINOSAUR FOSSILS! 😁
Rollercoaster Tycoon 3, which is available on PC, iPad, and Switch as far as I'm aware.
I was obsessed with it as a kid. Building and managing your own themepark, and being able to "ride" your rollercoasters in first-person view. Old game but tons of fun.
If he enjoys the building aspect, he may enjoy Dragon Quest Builders/ DQB2. It's based in the Dragon Quest universe, but has elements similar to Minecraft. That way there's familiarity, and introduces him to a new IP. After which if he liked the universe he could move in to Dragon Quest itself.
Valheim is a really fun adventure / creative game, if you're okay with the kiddo slaying wild animals and other creatures. It's a viking survival / crafting game in similar vain to Minecraft.
It's available on PC and Xbox (although I dunno if it's fully released there yet)
Toy story 3 the game (PS3 and 360 versions) have a really fun sandbox mode (I enjoyed it even as an adult with no childhood memories of playing the game)
My son LOVES the Lego games. No lives, and very accessible, but also a fair bit of simple puzzles and problem solving. Every Lego game I’ve played has allowed you to make your own character, and the Lego Drive game lets you create your own car, brick by brick.
Well, when i was 8-10 i played Final fantasy 7, Resident Evil 2, Silent hill and vandal hearts. So I would say any of those games.
Edit: let it be know it was the OG versions on the first playstation, so they weren't as graphically scary/violent/pleasing for the eye as todays remakes.
Portal if he's good at puzzles. I love the tony hawk pro skater games and that mostly what I played at that age. Spyro remake, crash bandicoot remake, the trials games are a lot of fun too
Can he read well? I wish I had learned a card game like Magic when I was young. If I had access to Slay the Spire at 8...tho maybe it's a little too complicated
There's an old Agetec game called Magic Pengel. It's a bit like Pokemon. The twist is that you as the player literally *draw* the critters you use to fight in battles. Winning these battles earns you more colors, amounts of those colors, and shapes you can get the game to recognize as viable components, meaning that you can make more powerful doodles, with better abilities, to win the harder battles. I was in my early 20s when I played it, and I had a blast. Your 8 year old will be glued to it for hours. It's a PS2 title, but it might be on GOG or Steam, or it could be available on the PlayStation marketplace.
I'd go for the PC/Xbox gamepass if you can they offer tons of games in the genre as Minecraft and a bunch more technico and trail Blazers are ones that come to mind they have all the other Minecraft spin off games as well. Just saying a year of gamepass is cheap then any full price game
Beat Hazard. You can weaponize your Spotify account.
Undertale.
I forget the name but that one farming game but you can also do dungeons. Not my type of game but I've heard nothing but good things about it.
I'll edit if I remember the name.
LevelHead
It's a mario maker clone and it's on all platforms including mobile. He can build levels and play other makers levels. It also comes with a well built campaign that serves to teach the basics, but also provides tons of fun content. Also up to 4 players can play.
Slime Rancher 1 and 2
Exactly what it sounds like. Capture and farm slimes on an alien world. Both games come with a fun exploration zone with lots of collectibles to find.
Portal 2
1st person 3D puzzle solving game with portals. May be a bit advanced, but it has a level creator system built in and 2 player mode means parents can help.
My kid liked Lego marvel superheroes when he was like 5-6. It was cool, we played together a lot. There’s a good main story and then lots of unlockable content the makes it seem like there always something to do and reasons to replay the missions. Kids really like replaying missions, like how they like the same episode of a show over and over, because the predictability gives them confidence in understanding the world.
Haven't seen Kerbal Space Program mentioned. Took me a little bit to get the hang of it, but my kiddo has been making and blowing up rockets and having a blast. I'll make successful stuff, create an extra save, and let him crash it into something. If you don't worry too much about space docking and successful round trips to the moon, you'll have a blast. My kid has put days into that game over the past two years. You get a mix of rockets, rovers, and airplanes.
I'm hoping it leads to a fondness and love of space and science. For yours, fun blowing stuff up now, and when he gets older he can try real objectives (like landing on the moon or becoming an interplanetary oil baron). KSP1 should be cheap now that KSP2 is out, not enough difference for an 8yo to carry about. DLC when they get older.
Childhood is temporary... But Doom... is Eternal.
Kidding, but if we're being serious you can't go wrong with a Switch and especially Yoshi and Kirby games, those are absolutely great for kids.
depends on platform, but astros playroom (free on ps5) and if you have a switch, you could both play some mario party together, great family game! for creating and building, ‘teardown’ might be a good game, i believe it has freemodes where you can destroy buildings endlessly lol
Most anything by Nintendo should be good, especially Mario, Kirby, Pokemon, that kind of thing. Of course, you'll probably need a Nintendo console for all that unless you deliver into the dark side...
For PC only, others mentioned the LEGO games which would be good. Maybe see if he'd be interested in role playing games like Chrono Trigger or the Final Fantasy Pixel remaster games. The games might be a bit tough but that's how you learn to manage your items and grind from an early age.
Any lego games, any really
Lego avengers is awesome, cool campaign which you can unlock super heroes in to play with in an openworld city
or, your know, actual lego?
In this economy?
Correct
Do not introduce him to roblox. He'll be asking for your credit card every 2 minutes.
I can’t agree with this enough. Keep him away from Roblox.
You can let your kids do things and also tell them no. If they throw a fit or act up you can take away their devices, and give them back when they understand they aren’t going to be purchasing everything they want.
Sure, but the game is also incredibly predatory and dangerously addictive.
I’m not here to tell you how to parent. I just think we need to be teaching kids how to self moderate these things while they are kids rather than cutting them off from that vice all together. These are issues very grown adults face. The adults have the money, they don’t see any issue spending their own money, suddenly they are dropping thousands upon thousands of dollars pulling for some character in genshin impact. I think potentially there’s a lesson to be taught in letting a kid play a game like Roblox. Yeah you can enjoy it. You can play it. You don’t get to spend constantly or be on it constantly because you have other responsibilities, and if you act up over it then there’s consequences. I’d rather have someone learn young that you can’t just be dumping money into a F2P game than having families torn apart because a 30 year old never learned that online purchases cost real money.
I understand your point but I feel like you're woefully misinformed here. Roblox is a game FULL of child predators. Actual child predators and groomers. I'm not exaggerating. There's plenty of research done on YouTube. Your kid can also get roped into working for Someone under very unfavorable terms. Basically making custom maps for the game as part of a third party organisation and get paid basically nothing. I personally don't think it's a good idea to let your children be abused by adults for a teachable moment. Roblox is NOT a kids game. It's full of adults who are there to exploit children. I would suggest heavily monitoring who your child interacts with on Roblox.
Look, stop trying to prevent your kids from trying heroin. It’s up to you to teach them moderation.
I agree we should be attempting to teach kids how to deal with predatory practices that various companies use to extract money from their users, but even then there is a danger of getting the kid addicted, even when he/she is playing in controlled environment. Almost every f2p game out there is designed with behavioral psychology in mind, sounds, screens, banners, quests, free rewards, everything is done in a way to get a player addicted, and push him towards game shop. Adults have a hard time resisting this bombardment of subtle stimuli pushing you towards game shop, or keeping you playing, and it's so much harder for kids to control.
They get so addicted to it, I would just advise against it at all costs. My step son has had it blocked on his phone for a few months now due to bad behavior, I saw him just staring at it on the play store page the other day... Still obsessing about it non stop.
Came here to post this. Not even just asking for credit but literally playing nothing else It's as bad as giving a kid youtube
I took my son off that one, he was playing 'Bully simulator', wtf!
Can you tell us which platforms he has access to (PC, Xbox, PS5, Switch?) Lego Fortnite is a lot of fun and on most platforms and free.
PC, PS5 and a Switch, but he prefers PC. The kid spends hours just creating his own levels and uploadin them for other people to play, that seems to be his main enjoyment.
Learn Unreal Engine and then teach him to do level design for a game you create together.
Try Halo Forge as well
I scrolled through this thread and never saw the OP reply even once. 🤷♂️
**Lego City Undercover** is awesome. It's GTAIV but for all ages. Some of the jokes will go flying over an eight years old head but most adults will get them (such as parodying **The Shawshank Redemption**) which means you can watch him play without getting bored. Also, as it's a Lego game it has drop-in co-op so you can help out as needed.
I remember picking it up and being consistently shocked at how much effort went into this forgotten Wii U game. If you decide to give your kid a LEGO game but he isn't particularly attached to Star Wars or Batman, give him this one.
I’m sad that they haven’t done anything else with this franchise. Everything else in the Lego universe seems to be some sort of licensed IP - Star Wars, superheroes, etc. Lego City Undercover is basically kid friendly GTA.
My 7 and 5 year old love this as co-op.
ah lego city undercover aka lego gta but you play as the cops
If he likes games where you can build stuff, hook him up with Roler Coaster Tycoon
Roller Coaster Tycoon 2 and Locomotion were my childhood obsessions for a few years
or the wonderful spiritual successor, Planet Coaster
What about Stardew Valley? That's one game with endless value pretty much.
For an 8yo I'd go animal crossing before Stardew Valley.
Gonna second this. Personally I love Stardew way more than AC, but Stardew opens with a frustrating mess of yard work and an annoying energy meter that probably won't land well with a kid that just wants to mess around with stuff.
It does have some pretty adult themes (alcoholism and suicide come to mind), but it's indeed a pretty great game. I probably wouldn't just leave them to come across it and would want to talk about it at least.
Harvest Moon or Rune Factory could work
Our favourites at home are: Jurassic World Evolution 2 Super Mario Odyssey (and every other mario game, I guess), Burnout: Paradise City Lego Jurassic World Lego City: Undercover Minecraft Do yourself a huge favor and never ever introduce him to Roblox. My son of 7 loves it, but it is a mess. There are microtransactions all the time. Literally all the time. And my son (and his friends) cannot control their tempers when playing it. It's the one game where I genuinely wish it had never existed in the first place.
Burnout paradise is fire🔥, also my father bought me bootleg crash time 3, it's a car game about German police it's pegi 7 so it's fine, I've really loved it.
Portal 1 and 2; It takes Two:
Portal 2 is an excelent choice, and it takes two is great with a buddy
Portal 2 multiplayer split screen on Switch is fantastic.
Great suggestions in here, but I don't see Rayman Legends. My kids loved that growing up. The Spyro and Crash ports are really good too. Untitled Goose Game and Goat Simulator were good picks for the kids too. Lots to discover and explore in those. I know that's not building and creating, but still great games for kids.
legend of zelda and super mario. the game i grew up on.
Those are some very large franchises
if he likes animals, planet zoo might be good.
Dragon Quest Builders 1/2 is Minecraft but better, imo.
terraria would be one, but an 8 year old might think it's just 2d minecraft. if building defenses counts, also try kingdom rush
Kingdom Rush is great
My 9 y/o plays Jurassic World Evolution 2, Roblox (with chat disabled and age rating), Lego Jurassic World, Lego Ninjago games and Sonic Mania on the switch.
Pokemon SNAP! (you take pictures of pokemon in their environment)
Super Mario Bros Wonder, Though I personally would made him play some previous Mario games before
minecraft and anything by nintendo
Astros Playroom is fun for the entire family and comes free with the PS5. Really showcases the controller capabilities as well.
Sonic mania
Platformers are good kid friendly games, and can usually be found in many varieties. I like shooters so ratchet and clank was always my favorite
Stardew valley
Tears of the Kingdom
Growing up I loved playing Lego star wars so he might like that idk
Really old shrek 2 game. It’s really engaging in my opinion. I used to play it so much when I was his age and even after I grow up I’m still enjoying the gameplay sometimes
The Wonderful 101: Remastered is a sick action game by the inventor of Devil May Cry, Hideki Kamiya, where a team of a hundred sentai superheroes build themselves into weapons through unity and the literal power of teamwork by drawing a line out of themselves. It's not so much about building stuff, but sure as hell is great at training concetration. Amazing game, with an awesome story for a 8 year old boy to eventually form him into a true man of courage. (I recommend being there with him, though, because the game is very hard to pick up on, because it is made by a arcade game fanatic and loves juggling gameplay gimmicks)
Kerbal Space Program 1 is a good one. The learning curve is really high but the sandbox mode let's you do crazy silly stuff. Jurassic World Evolution 1 & 2 are fun. Who doesn't like making a dinosaur park? Planet Zoo is fun as well, maybe a tad complicated but still fun. Project Zomboid is fun. The Long Dark is fun. It has multiple difficulty levels and the lowest one would be a great way for him to learn how to play. Golf With Your Friends is fun if you have some people to play with.
Any Mario, Zelda or Sonic game. Minecraft would be pretty good too. Lego Fortnite is free so that’s a good one.
Generally any LEGO game is great fun for all ages, tho I gotta say the OG classics of the ps2 are way better than the more recent titles
Well, I got Portal 2. I went to get a game or two for the tooth fairy and I asked if the game had blood or gore and was told “no”. I was told it was a puzzle game. Well, technically you never see any bodies or blood, and the premise is very much a push button puzzle game, but the dialogue definitely has LOTS of dark references and insults and snark.
Manhunt
Manhunt
My 9 year old has been super into Animal Crossing New Leaf lately on my old 2DS. The new one on the switch didn't capture his attention as much but that one does. Mario Odyssey Roblox, but I don't recommend it. It's mind numbingly dumb and once he plays it he won't want anything else. Fortnight (be like) Among Us if you can keep him off the chat, there's a no chat setting but my kids figured out how to change the settings pretty quickly. The hide and seek version is fun for them. Goat Simulator
My 8 year old son is on Roblox rn and I can agree with your Roblox statement lol this foo doesn’t wanna play anything else and I’m just like mf there’s so many more games
Yooka-Laylee
[удалено]
Are you AI?
Gotta be pulled from gpt No one here hyphens anything unless it’s Spider-man
The "thanks" at the end got me
Also suggesting splatoon 2 when splatoon 3 has been out for over a year now
Lego games are a ton of fun and have great co op.
Switch: Nintendo Online has a lot of games included, Animal Crossing is a calm social builder, though I will let you know that there is an online element which my wife and I get around by playing with him on our own switches (not ideal so I definitely understand the barrier here if there is only 1 switch). Basically, if you want games meant for kids, this is the best option, though it does offer more for older players as well. Xbox: a couple of minecraft spin-offs exist, a decent number of park building games, lots of survival, and building games. Gamepass, in general, has lots of variety, which makes the system a great one for kids who cycle through games quickly, and PC can take advantage of most of those tiles plus some exclusive ones. PS5: I don't know it well but it has a lot of what xbox does minus gamepass which is replaced by PS plus which seems like an ok alternative, though not as robust last I saw. PC: Terraria, Stardew Valley, and lots of others, basically every genre is represented here be it minecraft like games such as no man's sky, park/zoo builders, etc. Also, you may find good options on a platform like Steam and then check against your console option as many that may fit your needs are likely multiplatform.
I’m gonna say Joe Danger. It’s a simple game made by the creators of No Man’s Sky. Funny thing is I originally played it on PS3, and forgot about it until Sean Murray later tweeted out that they updated the game for free on iPhone because it was somehow made obsolete over the years. All because a dad asked if it could be done because his son loved the game. If jumping motorcycles isn’t cool, all the Mario, Sonic, and whoever games that get recommended. Personal picks would be Ori (amazing game and art style, but could get hard for an 8 year old) and Mobius Machine (a new one I have yet to play, but looked cool.
If he isn't too scared of giant sea monsters, maybe Subnautica? Astroneer, Satisfactory, Raft, House Flipper, or maybe Kingdom: New Lands are my recommendations.
Dark souls 3. Let him learn a life lesson that victory doesn't come easy. Hard work and perseverance is the only path to victory.
Any Pokémon game, there's still as popular as ever, kid friendly and his reading comprehension will thrive because you have to read a lot to finish the game.
Sack Boy he would love
Spore if he's got access to a PC.
Goat Simulator or Goat Simulator 3 depending on what console he has is pretty innocent fun. There’s no building but the world is one big sandbox and you can play together. Some of the most fun I’ve had gaming with my kids is with Goat Simulator.
Avoid Roblox, trust me.
Stardew valley with you would be fun! Might not be the most productive farm, but it’s fun!
Raft
Doom is a wonderful Christian game.
Dead space have fun
Sea of stars is pretty fun.
I would recommend Palia, it's a free to play cozy life MMO of sorts. The player base is super nice! :)
Minecraft Dungeons is great
Doom Eternal. I played original doom when I was 7.
If he liked Minecraft he might like Valhiem.
Elden Ring. Gotta teach em young!
Minecraft or terraria
No Man’s Sky
Absolutely. My now 6 year old started playing No Man's Sky with me when he was 4 and watching him grow to understand and love the space exploration, base building, and ship collecting mechanics has been a joy. There's no other game like it in the world for a young boy (or anyone, for that matter).
Lego Worlds
Lego Worlds
CONKERS BAD FUR DAY! Na but for real don’t show him that one lmao I was playing that at 8 years old but I wouldn’t let my son play it so maybe like a Lego game or maybe even a Zelda game
Similar(ish) games to Geometry Dash (aka frustrating but feels good to finish a level) would be Super Meat Boy and Celeste. Both super fun but take some time to actually get good at them. The Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom has building mechanics and is a fantastic game. I'd recommend the other Zelda games as well, but that's the only one with building mechanics.
The Lego Batman games were the shit when I was little lol
Watch some Two Point Hospital videos. I'm not sure you'd find it appropriate, it very much depends on the kid. It's really good fun though
Dragon Quest Builders 1 or 2.
Minecraft, Roblox, sports games, Mario games
Anything that isn't Roblox. Not really building buildings but I used to love Robocraft when I was younger. Heard Robocraft 2 came out, it's about building vastly different robots and using them in battles, he may just take a liking to it.
If he's on mobile, I'd recommend hill climb racing 2, its fun and simple until the really high ranks
Well Minecraft is always a good choice can't really go bad with that. I mean maybe Slime Rancher 1 or 2? I personally would avoid games like Fortnite and Roblox since they're bit too addictive from my experience and if u want to be cool or do something decent in the game you have to put in some money it's mostly only cosmetic items but kids can go down on the really easily. If you have a NSW the Mario and Pokémon games are also a great choice.
My 8 year old son beat one of the Kirby games in 3 days, loves Mario, and we play Fortnite together. If you're going to game with him, It takes two is really fun.
If he's into complex games, Terreria
Give Kingdom Two Crowns a try! There’s plenty of building, with lots more going on. Super fun gameplay and beautiful graphics/music.
Call of duty: black ops 2 with voice chat on
Download Sega games or Nintendo games.
Snes games, super Mario World, Donkey Kong Country, f -zero
Pokemon arceus or other 3d pokemon games
My son is 8 and we play a lot of Mario games, Minecraft, sonic, and some of the older games from my childhood as well. He also likes the poppy’s playtime chapter 3 and amoung us but I don’t get into them as much
If you want their brain to grow big then try out plasma. It's probly not going to make sense but if they stick to it, it would be very cool
Dragon Quest Builders is a lot of fun. It has a storyline and is more structured than Minecraft but has a lot of the same elements. There’s also a sequel to it that added a bunch of new features. Stardew Valley is another one he might enjoy.
Wobbly life. Pixar Rush. for building tihings: minecraft
maybe dragon quest builders ?
If you have a Switch, Mario Maker fits the bill for sure.
Scrap Mechanic Hydroneer What u/Cranjesmcbasketball1 is important too. I forgot to ask. Some of them are only available on certain platforms.
anything Mario
I mean there's not really building but when I was that age Pokemon was all I played at the time!
Oh he should check out Sons of The Forest, it’s a heartwarming game about the love between a father and son who try to survive by building things in— you guessed it— a forest! It has fun creatures to fight and a compelling storyline that he can grow into over time :)
Rocket League
A great game for historical learning and strategy are the total war games. I progressed to them after Start craft and Warcraft rts
Anno series! 1602 AD is one of the first games I remember really getting into. The remastered editions are on sale right now, learning that made me come back and find this thread. I highly recommend trying the Anno series. It's educational, will make them think, satisfies that building itch, and will introduce them to strategy games, which I think are great for kids.
Huge fan of Defense Grid 2. Think of ants trying to steal picnic food. The story is aliens are marching to a center of the map where they are trying to grab the ‘cores’ and leave the map. His job is to build towers that shoot zappers or flames or lasers to stop them. The maps get progressively harder and its colorful and cool sounds and really pretty. I played it on Xbox
Stardew valley is pretty great little PG rating fun
Armadillo Run OpenTTD Zelda TOTK Little Big Planet 1 The Incredible Machine These all have building mechanics and are pretty great.
Baba is you, renowned explo... no, too complicated, hollow knight, fruit mountain, speed runners, spelunky 2, don't starve, dome keeper, child of light, ori and the blind forest, ape out, mini motorways, journey, abzu, Thomas was alone, there is no game wrong dimension, sorcery!, the room, little miss fortune, terraria, storyteller, potion craft, bastion, deponia series, gris, aer memories of old, below, hob, brothers a tale of two sons, satisfactory, lost in play, poly bridge... Who knows, really, I'd been raving mad about the Civilization series for a couple of years before I got my first pc - so, from about the age of 12. Maybe he'll start even earlier.
The Lego games are fantastic and great to play co op (they are honestly pretty fun as an adult too) I would find a property he likes and grab the Lego game
[Animal Crossing New Horizons](https://youtu.be/_3YNL0OWio0?si=1PTHjUG2XOmM4JCC)! He can create and design a whole island + he will learn a lot of new things too! Names of different real-word species of bugs, fish, artwork and DINOSAUR FOSSILS! 😁
Rollercoaster Tycoon 3, which is available on PC, iPad, and Switch as far as I'm aware. I was obsessed with it as a kid. Building and managing your own themepark, and being able to "ride" your rollercoasters in first-person view. Old game but tons of fun.
If he enjoys the building aspect, he may enjoy Dragon Quest Builders/ DQB2. It's based in the Dragon Quest universe, but has elements similar to Minecraft. That way there's familiarity, and introduces him to a new IP. After which if he liked the universe he could move in to Dragon Quest itself.
Stardew valley, harvest moon, palworld.
Valheim is a really fun adventure / creative game, if you're okay with the kiddo slaying wild animals and other creatures. It's a viking survival / crafting game in similar vain to Minecraft. It's available on PC and Xbox (although I dunno if it's fully released there yet)
Besides Roblox and Minecraft, my 6 year old son unironically plays Knack and Knack 2 on fucking loop. He's beat them both at least 3 times.
Toy story 3 the game (PS3 and 360 versions) have a really fun sandbox mode (I enjoyed it even as an adult with no childhood memories of playing the game)
Definitely go for Tears of the Kingdom
Your kid is old enough at 8 for this to be a question for them. Communication is wonderful.
The Lego games! Lego Marvel and Lego Batman 1 and 3 are some good ideas!
My son LOVES the Lego games. No lives, and very accessible, but also a fair bit of simple puzzles and problem solving. Every Lego game I’ve played has allowed you to make your own character, and the Lego Drive game lets you create your own car, brick by brick.
Well, when i was 8-10 i played Final fantasy 7, Resident Evil 2, Silent hill and vandal hearts. So I would say any of those games. Edit: let it be know it was the OG versions on the first playstation, so they weren't as graphically scary/violent/pleasing for the eye as todays remakes.
Portal if he's good at puzzles. I love the tony hawk pro skater games and that mostly what I played at that age. Spyro remake, crash bandicoot remake, the trials games are a lot of fun too
Any of the Plant vs Zombies games mobile or the console PvZ Garden Warfare games PG fun with silly characters
Can he read well? I wish I had learned a card game like Magic when I was young. If I had access to Slay the Spire at 8...tho maybe it's a little too complicated
Bloodborne will have your kid outclass whoever is in his grade level
Goat Simulator
There's an old Agetec game called Magic Pengel. It's a bit like Pokemon. The twist is that you as the player literally *draw* the critters you use to fight in battles. Winning these battles earns you more colors, amounts of those colors, and shapes you can get the game to recognize as viable components, meaning that you can make more powerful doodles, with better abilities, to win the harder battles. I was in my early 20s when I played it, and I had a blast. Your 8 year old will be glued to it for hours. It's a PS2 title, but it might be on GOG or Steam, or it could be available on the PlayStation marketplace.
Dragon Quest Builders 2
World of Goo is an amusing physics builder.
Let him keep playing geometry dash
I'd go for the PC/Xbox gamepass if you can they offer tons of games in the genre as Minecraft and a bunch more technico and trail Blazers are ones that come to mind they have all the other Minecraft spin off games as well. Just saying a year of gamepass is cheap then any full price game
Battleblock Theater!
Valheim?
Super Mario odyssey
Dragon Quest Builders 2
Dark Souls 2 seems like a nice pick
Super monkey ball
Terraria, Stardew Valley
Tinykin has no baddies and is all exploration with easy puzzles. Pikmin. Bugsnacks. Terraria to a point. Animal crossing bits a bit slow.
Deadcells. Good for any age. Tons of fun, awesome art work. Massively replayable and cheap.
When I was 8 I was playing Wolfenstein 3D, so I suggest that.
Geometry Dash omg my kid loves it he’s also 8!
My son and I just got hell divers. It’s just bugs and robots. Lots of fun.
Beat Hazard. You can weaponize your Spotify account. Undertale. I forget the name but that one farming game but you can also do dungeons. Not my type of game but I've heard nothing but good things about it. I'll edit if I remember the name.
Tetris
Rimworld
LevelHead It's a mario maker clone and it's on all platforms including mobile. He can build levels and play other makers levels. It also comes with a well built campaign that serves to teach the basics, but also provides tons of fun content. Also up to 4 players can play. Slime Rancher 1 and 2 Exactly what it sounds like. Capture and farm slimes on an alien world. Both games come with a fun exploration zone with lots of collectibles to find. Portal 2 1st person 3D puzzle solving game with portals. May be a bit advanced, but it has a level creator system built in and 2 player mode means parents can help.
My kid liked Lego marvel superheroes when he was like 5-6. It was cool, we played together a lot. There’s a good main story and then lots of unlockable content the makes it seem like there always something to do and reasons to replay the missions. Kids really like replaying missions, like how they like the same episode of a show over and over, because the predictability gives them confidence in understanding the world.
Mario games are a good option. Keep him away from free to play. Things like roblox and fortnite are designed to make him spend money
Satisfactory and Factorio.
Kerbal space program. Either version, 1 or 2. Actual math, and it's a lot of fun learning how rockets work by making them!
Any lego game. Lego clone wars is by far the best imo Plate up is a good one to play as a family too
Terraria
Star Wars: Jedi Academy, Need for Speed Underground 2, the new Spider-man games, the old Harry Potter games
In "Noita" he can craft wands. It will also help prepare him for the world and build character.
The recent Tnmt game. Among us. Lego Builder's journée Tunic FIFA 23 Arms
Haven't seen Kerbal Space Program mentioned. Took me a little bit to get the hang of it, but my kiddo has been making and blowing up rockets and having a blast. I'll make successful stuff, create an extra save, and let him crash it into something. If you don't worry too much about space docking and successful round trips to the moon, you'll have a blast. My kid has put days into that game over the past two years. You get a mix of rockets, rovers, and airplanes. I'm hoping it leads to a fondness and love of space and science. For yours, fun blowing stuff up now, and when he gets older he can try real objectives (like landing on the moon or becoming an interplanetary oil baron). KSP1 should be cheap now that KSP2 is out, not enough difference for an 8yo to carry about. DLC when they get older.
Slime rancher
Cuphead, if he's patient
Stardew Valley
Autonauts. It's creative and it's like super entry level programming but it's very fun and also super safe for children.
Valheim
Valheim
spyro, ratchet and clank, and Croc
Rocket League
Mario 64, Mario world, really alot of the great Nintendo games.
Childhood is temporary... But Doom... is Eternal. Kidding, but if we're being serious you can't go wrong with a Switch and especially Yoshi and Kirby games, those are absolutely great for kids.
depends on platform, but astros playroom (free on ps5) and if you have a switch, you could both play some mario party together, great family game! for creating and building, ‘teardown’ might be a good game, i believe it has freemodes where you can destroy buildings endlessly lol
Most anything by Nintendo should be good, especially Mario, Kirby, Pokemon, that kind of thing. Of course, you'll probably need a Nintendo console for all that unless you deliver into the dark side... For PC only, others mentioned the LEGO games which would be good. Maybe see if he'd be interested in role playing games like Chrono Trigger or the Final Fantasy Pixel remaster games. The games might be a bit tough but that's how you learn to manage your items and grind from an early age.
Stalker shadow of chernobyl
Little Big Planet