GameCube for my 6-year-old
 

My 6-year-old boy has been playing my ancient PS1 for the past year or so, but it just died the other night. I'm going to go ahead and buy a used GameCube at EB Games for $59 this weekend and wondered what used or new games you'd recommend for that age group.

He'll be playing the far majority of the time, but my 10-year-old daughter and me will be playing sometimes as well.

The only game that's definitely on my list so far is LEGO Star Wars since he's played that at a friends house and loved it.

What does he like game wise? Also, whats his skill level? IE my 5 year old cousin loves and excels at zelda but his 8 year old brother gets frustrated at the puzzles in it.

My favoirtes:

Super Monkey Ball 1 or 2 or both. My brother and sister (6 and 12) love this game. They can play each other in mini games or they play seperately on the puzzles.

Mario Kart, if he likes racing games.

The mario sports games are fun too. Mario Tennis and Super Strikers(soccer).

Definitely

Mario Kart Double Dash
Mario Tennis
Mario Strikers (!!!!!!)
Lego Star Wars
Mario Party

Probably

Mario Sunshine
Super Smash Bros.
Animal Crossing
Wave Race
Rogue Squadron (since he likes Star Wars)

Maybe

Zelda: Wind Waker

He already has a DS and loves New Super Mario Bros, Mario Kart, Yoshi's Island, and Mario and Luigi on that platform.

On the PS1, he liked Gran Turismo, Star Wars something or other, and a few of the Crash Bandicoot games.

I'd like to get him into a few of the sports titles like Mario soccer or baseball since I loved the EA games back in the college days.

I'm not sure he's ready for Zelda-type games yet, but I could be wrong. His biggest problem with most games of that genre is not being able to read all the words on the screen, although most of that should be cleared up within the next year (he starts 1st grade in a few weeks)

You can't go wrong with Mario Kart and Mario Party. My son (who is also six) loves Lego Star Wars too.

Not to stray off-topic, but can someone explain Mario Party?

Doubt it.

Just kidding...I've never owned one, but I think it's just random multiplayer minigames...to what end, I have no idea.

Mario Party is a board game, you play with 1 - however-many-the-limit-is people and the spots on the board are marked - most consisting of a mini-game that requires either one, two, or all players to participate. The mini-games vary from jumping rope to racing to fights, they're fast and generally quite fun.

Great idea to get your son a Gamecube. It's the perfect system for a kid of that age; well, from the last generation at least. It had a lot of excellent family games, mixed with some great adult games.

I would recommend:

Super Mario Strikers: You said that you wanted to get him Mario Soccer and this is the game you were speaking of. It's a lot of fun, but it's also a little violent (yes, a Mario game is violent, but in a bit of a comic sense.) The gameplay is fast-paced and it consists of a lot of slide tackling and also using weapons like bombs and shells. It's the most fun I've ever had with a Mario Sports title, by far and I highly recommend it. I just figured you'd like to know about the comic violence, in case you wouldn't want your son playing it because of that.

Mario Kart: Doubledash!!: This game really hasn't dropped in price, but it's a lot of fun and worth getting. It revitalizes the Mario Kart games by allowing you to have two different characters in a car at once and that dynamic allows for great multiplayer.

Super Mario Sunshine: The Mario games have always been great and this one is as well (or so I've heard; I haven't played much of it as of yet. It's in my backlog.) It's a little different, because it has Mario using a water gun to rid his world of pollution, so it's relatively educational in a sense. Mario games are also always great for kids. It's not a side-scroller, like the (amazing) New Super Mario Bros. for the DS.

Mario Party 4-6: This is a great multiplayer party game that was well-described by an earlier poster. It's really competitive and it's a ton of fun to play against friends. The reason I'm recommending only 4 to 6 is because I've read things about Mario Party 7 being very slow, compared to the others. Supposedly it takes forever to get through one game, because the AI-controller characters take a year to take their turns. You really cannot go wrong with the Mario Party games, though.

Super Smash Bros.: This game is full of comic violence, because what it is at heart is a fighting game featuring Nintendo's famous characters. It's a lot of fun and it's also great for multiplayer. It's not overly violent, because there isn't any blood or anything.

Lego Star Wars: I've yet to play this, but I've heard nothing but great things about it. It's the Prequel Trilogy in an action game, featuring Lego characters. It's supposedly really interesting and a lot of fun. A sequel is in the works for all of the systems on the market today, including the Gamecube. It will cover, "The First Trilogy."

Other recommendations:

Super Monkey Ball
The Sonic Mega Collection

And for God's sake man, get yourself Metroid Prime and Resident Evil 4!!!!

Agreed!

Get him a Super Nintendo instead.

Sounds like he's pretty well committed to the cube.

But if other systems were on the table, I think a GBA SP would be a better investment than an SNES. They both cover a lot of the same territory, but the GBA adds portability and some great new stuff...plus it's a relatively modern system.

We do already have a GBA SP and a DS which do get a lot of play.

I went ahead and bought the GC last night and purchased two used games, LEGO Star Wars and Sonic Mega Collection. I will keep an eye out for Super Mario Strikers and Smash Bros Melee in the coming weeks. I know it's a last generation console, but I just can't see shelling out $300-$400 for a 6-year-old right now.

Anyway, my son and I played LEGO Star Wars for about 90 minutes before bed last night and we both have really enjoyed it so far.

I hear you on Metroid Prime and Resident Evil 4! I imagine they would be games to play after the kids are in bed though?

Um, I think that getting a T rating would put this title farther away from a must have for a 6 year old. The rest of the titles mentioned are E. Have to agree that Super Mario Strikers, Mario Kart: Doubledash, the Mario Parties, and the Super Monkey Balls are all great calls (and you yourself will enjoy them too!). I'd say Donkey Konga too but that'll cost more than the system to get the drums. :lol:

Prime, no. Prime is Nintendo-fare, meaning no blood/gore and few "scary" bits if any. It's a little on the violent side (you do, afterall, kill stuff), but no worse than any Saturday Morning cartoon.

RE4, absolutely. Resident Evil 4 is one of the most gory, violent, and creepy games I've ever played, and also one of the most fun. (Creepy in the sense that an encounter with a certain powertool made me jump.)

Also, the Cube is the perfect "first console" imo, introduces some great classic characters and has focus on gameplay over cinematics.

My favorite Cube games are Mario Sunshine and Rogue Leader, but I think they may be too hard for a 5-year old (assuming he wants to beat the games rather than just play around).

I was going to say wouldn't Sunshine be a little tough for a 5 year old? I'm sure he would have fun running around and jumping, but you might have to help him get to the actual levels. Maybe not though.

A pretty good and straight forward beat-em-up is Batman Rise of the Sin Tsu. Probaby could find a copy for less than $5. Same goes for the latest batch of TMNT games. Not great games by any stretch, but would certainly be fun for younger kids.

And for Papa: get yourself Eternal Darkness to go along with RE4 and Metroid Prime.

The Super Monkey Ball 1/2 pack would be a great pick up and it can be found under $20.

Sounds like the next one on my list will be the Super Monkey Ball 2-pack which I know I saw at EB games. Super Strikers and possibly Super Smash Bros Melee after that.

Plus RE4 and/or Metroid Prime for papa!

you might try Animal Crossing as well. My kids spend lots of time with it.

I was at Meijer the other night and saw some GC games on clearance. I picked up Mario Sunshine and Rogue Leader for $9.99 each, which seemed like a good deal.

LEGO Star Wars is still being played almost non-stop though.

For a 6 year old kid the perfect game is:

Super Monkey Ball

It's a game for people of all ages, it's a fairly easy game too so it's not going to frustrate either.

It's also one of the best multiplayer games on the Gamecube.

My son is 5 and a half now. His favorite cube games are Super Monkey Ball (either 1 or 2), Mario Party 6, and Lego Star Wars. Some of the recommendations above he's tried, but just doesn't have the skill to pull off. Even on the ones I recommended, he gets stuck a lot.

Super Monkey Ball - it actually gets VERY hard later on. He's ok with most of world 1 puzzles, but can't clear all of world 2. Mini-games are all fine though.

Mario Party 6 - he's not too good at anything requiring fast button mashing, he just can't mash fast enough.

Mario Sunshine he liked a lot, but its kind of hard/complicated too in places.
Super Smash Bros he doesn't like at all, he's not skilled enough to pull off any special moves, so its kind of just a button mashing bore for him.
Animal Crossing - you need to be able to read, which he can't do. Though he does like walking around collecting stuff.
Mario Kart - he doesn't seem to like racing games in general, so he gets bored

He also likes sonic a lot, but it gets too hard later on.