Looking for game recommendations for my 4 year old who just got a Switch for Christmas. He’s having a good time with Donut County, and likes running around the town in Stardew Valley, but looking for something else. Doesn’t have to be super kids-y, but easy, chill, no lose condition or time limits. Thoughts?
A Short Hike
Untitled Goose Game
Just tried goose game with co-op for the first time. It went pretty well. I’ll have to try the other one.
That’s good to hear. My daughter is a bit older than your kid and she loves Goose Game so much.
Maybe Minecraft in creative mode without monsters.
For kids this young Gcompris on a PC or Android device is always great.
All of the Kirby games are really fun for kids, especially the 2D ones. I recommend Kirby Star Allies, I played it a lot with my nephew when he was 5
Yoshi’s Crafted World is pretty ideal for a young kid, there’s a special mode for young kids too where you basically can’t fail.
Animal Crossing.
His brother and I has it. It’s a little complicated right now, but he’s getting there.
The first game my kid played was also at 4, and it was super Mario Odyssey with the assist turn on, which paints an arrow to where to go plus health restores after not getting hit for like 10 seconds. We also got our other kid Bluey because she loves Bluey, and it was super simple to play, but sometimes hard to grasp what they should be doing. I also agree with Kirby, it was basically the 2nd game he played and ended up beating it which was pretty shocking.
My 4 year old loves Super Mario Odyssey… But I have to play a lot of the game for him because he keeps getting stuck. But this is how it starts, he’ll get better quickly.
Mario Party! Play it with him.
Have it. Too complicated and fast paced.
Snipperclips is a really fun and cute cooperative game. Idk if he’ll understand at his age, but you can give it a try. My wife and I love it.
Goat simulator 3, but with voices turned down. They swear a bit in there.
Oh yeah, Goat Simulator is hilarious mayhem!
My daughter is a bit older but loved Tinykin - its on sale for around $6 right now and is a great sandbox environment to play around in while you explore the various rooms with creatures that help you get to your next objective.
Not single-player, but snipperclips is good, relaxed puzzle fun.
Goals are visual and easy to understand, each player controls a shape and they can cut each other to try and fit a predefined “hole” together. There are some physics puzzles based on cutting your shape in clever ways too.
Mistakes have no consequence and often lead to funny interactions. You can’t really lose, you just reset your shape and try again.
Club House Games is an easy recommendation. 51 games that are classics around the world. You probably know how to play the majority of them already. Likewise a Nintendo switch online subscription is the price of a game for a year and comes with N64, GBA, GBC, SNES, NES, and Dreamcast games. Pokémon stadium 1/2, Ecco the dolphin, Kirby super-star saga, Kirby dream course are all good
Mario games playing as the rabbit
I’m not sure which ones he was into at 4yo specifically, but my son’s Switch favorites include…
Super Mario Odyssey Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle Celeste Minecraft Yoshi’s Crafted World Letterquest Big Brain Academy NES Arcade SNES Arcade
Of those, the ones I would say mught meet your super-chill criteria are…
Super Mario Odyssey (yeah, you can die, but you just respawn and can spend tons of time just running around aimlessly) Celeste (normally not, but there’s a lovely Assist Mode) Yoshi’s Crafted World (there’s a no-fail mode) Big Brain Academy (if they can handle being scored on things, without taking it too seriously).
Hidden Folks if you help him with the hints.
Heave ho.
You’ll all have a blast.
