Introduction
Being a lifelong gamer myself, from a young sprout in the PS1 days, all the way to the current PS5 generation, I feel it’s my duty now as a Dad to educate the younger generation on the fun and beauty of video games. Myself and the Mini Blaavenger get together at least once or twice a week for a mad little gaming session.
With the most recent PS5 update adding in the support controller option, even single-player games can be played together as it removes so much frustration from young gamers as they get started on their gaming journey.
Below are 5 games we’ve played that would be great choices for you to play with your kids, nieces, nephews, cousins, or family friends. Whatever your situation, enjoy these!
1 – Astro’s Playroom
Now this one was an absolute surprise hit for me. This game comes free with every PS5 and wow!
There is so much variety, throwbacks, and fun to be had here. This is the only single-player with no co-op option on the list.
You play as Astro, a little energetic robot who lives within the PS5 and explores the different areas of the console. From the Cooling Springs, the GPU Jungle, the SSD Speedway, and the Memory Meadows, we took turns on levels, which are short and sweet, each displaying a new gameplay mechanic and use of the Dualsense controller.
Whenever Mini B is playing, I just sit back and love all of the easter eggs and nods to previous consoles and franchises. Now she plays through the game on her own and even tackles the time trials. DLC for this would be well received and something I would gladly pay for. I’m sure others would too.
Word of warning, the final boss is a tough one!
2 – Untitled Goose Game
I knew this was gonna be a great game as soon as I saw “Press Square to Honk.” I love this game’s art style and it’s animated so brilliantly.
You play as a group of mischievous geese with a list of tasks to terrorize a little rural village. You can honk, snatch items, and interact with several objects in the world. Some of the tasks require teamwork while others require setup steps. But when you complete a task and strike it off the list, the satisfaction and want to do more are immense!
Just messing with the locals in ways not on the list was a great laugh inducer. Plus, on a side note……HONK!!!
3 – Lego City Undercover
Any Lego game can go here but Lego City Undercover just has so much to do and see. This is an open-world game with a massive Lego city and surrounding areas to explore. You play as Chase McCain, a rebel cop, returning to Lego City to catch his nemesis, who has recently escaped from prison. You unlock gadgets and parkour for traversal, vehicles galore, and a scanner to find clues and secrets.
Then there’s the unlockable characters, which Lego City Undercover does not disappoint. Cops, civilians, bad guys, and the usual random characters are all here to be unlocked and a lot of them have special abilities to help unlock more areas and characters.
The humour in the Lego games is always top notch and the number of films and shows that get the typical Lego humour treatment is too many to count. The kids won’t pick up on many of the references but they’re more for the grown-ups.
4 – A Hat in Time
A Hat in Time is a callback to the days of Super Mario 64 and Banjo Kazooie platformers. The love and attention that went into this is pretty evident. You play as a space-travelling, top hat wearing kid (and a bow wearing kid in co-op) who loses her ship’s fuel source (cosmic hourglasses) and must explore an entire planet to locate the timepieces to carry on her trip home. Finding yarn can unlock new hats on your adventure, each new hat giving a new ability, the Sprint hat is my favourite as you can buy a modifier that unlocks a motor scooter, so much fun.
This one is geared more toward the advanced younger gamer as the platforming is quite challenging, involving timed double jumps, dives, mid-air directional changes, and hook swings. There is a lot of variety in the levels, with everything from an action movie train level, a murder mystery, B-movie sci-fi, and way more. There’s also DLC to unlock a cruise ship and metro themed levels. Ideal for old-school platformer fans and young gamers alike.
5 – Goat Simulator / Goat Simulator 3
These are the absolute G.O.A.T. (pun very much intended). The sheer absurdity, randomness and chaotic fun to be had in these games is something every gamer needs to experience. The amount of belly laughs and cheek hurting smiles that came out while playing these were plentiful.
You play as a goat, that’s it, but that’s not it. You can play as a number of animals and other crazy things (e.g. walking microwave) as you cause chaos everywhere and to anyone.
The games just don’t take themselves seriously and it’s because of this freedom that allows the game to be exactly what it wants to be, a blast. The first game’s GOATY edition has all the DLC which makes the game exponentially bigger. Each area of the game is a somewhat open world with zombies, a medieval setting, a Payday parody, and space. Every setting pokes fun at its source material, movies, books, and shows.
The second game is a proper open world game with a farm, mountain range, cities, suburbs, and forests to explore. The same humour is there and the gameplay and visuals are better tenfold, grinding on electric wires is way too much fun. I had way more fun with the second as they refined the gameplay and world to be more fun to explore. Your little one will laugh a lot playing these.
Conclusion
Plenty here to keep you and your little one occupied for many hours. I know this is not “The” Top 5 games to play but it’s a great starting point to open up awesome games to a new gaming generation. There’s a reason they call it playing video games because playing is fun!
