Good Video Games for Pre Teens and Young Teenagers

Wii:
boom blox
elebits

 

Perhaps you can make it a Violent Saturday night, so every Saturday you let them play violent video games.

 

LEGO games for the win. My son has been playing them since he just turned two. Not only are they fun, they're cheap; if you shop around you can get them for under $20 each.

 

I loved Final Fantasy & Zelda at that age, but both would be poor selections since they are time consuming games best played on your own personal system.

I assume Halo is out of the question, though they would love it.

I'd try:

New Super Mario Bros Wii
Super Mario Kart for Wii
Mario Galaxy 1 & 2
Wii Fit(This kind of depends on their health)
Lego Game Series
Sports games(Madden, 2K sports, NCAA, FIFA World Cup)

 

Mario party 8

 

Call of Duty. My 5 year old nephew plays it and loves it. Im sure older kids might enjoy it too. He averages 1.2 kills per game.

 

I second any of the Lego games, like Lego Star Wars or Lego Indiana Jones.

Sports games would be OK as well, like Madden or NBA 2k.

 

My 3 year old likes to play Halo. I don't let him actually let him play, but I do let him hold a controller and press buttons or let him point out the bad guys. He probably shouldn't even be watching me play though.

 

For the Wii, pretty much any Mario game including Mario Kart, Mario Galaxy, Party. None of the came out recently, so they will likely be reasonably priced and still fun. Kirby's Epic Yarn just came out and got good reviews, ign actually said it was the perfect game for the audience you mentioned. Wii Sports Resort is also great, it has everything from Wii Sports plus more. (Wii probably has the best games for the younger audience).

For Xbox, Kung Fu Panda came with my last xbox and is actually a decent throw in game. You can probably pick it up for about 10 bucks now. NBA 2k is an easy sports game for kids to play as well. Kids would probably enjoy Madden as well (Fifa is a little more difficult to figure out, so I would not go for that). Arcade games on xbox are also pretty fun, lots of kid friendly options there (These are smaller, simpler a cheaper games available on the xbox itself, downloaded right onto the xbox).

I havn't bought a title for PS3 in a long time, so I don't know about that.

Also, DO NOT buy Lego games, they suck, I don't know why people recommend them

 

Little Big Planet and LEGO games.

 

Wii games are probably you best bet since it has a lot of multiplayer/part games and is catered to that demographic.

Notables not already mentioned:
Wario Ware: Smooth Moves
Rayman Ravin' Rabids 1,2,&3
Wii Sports/Wii Sports Resort
Super Smash Bros. (Brawl is the Wii version)
Super Monkey Ball? (I'm not sure if there's a Wii version of this)

And I agree with the earlier poster recommending Zelda: Twilight Princess. Easily in my top 5 of next-gen games, including the 360 and ps3. It's not really conducive to community gaming, but it's fun nonetheless.

 

I think Wii might be a bad idea in a Children's Hospital. Lots of these kids are too weak to walk.

 

I have been waiting for that game to come down in price for years now, but it is still near full price everywhere. Hoping the release of Skyward Sword will eventually lead to a Twilight Princess price drop.

 

Thats why I said Wii Fit depends on their health. Most of the other Wii games involve a need to stand up. Most people just choose to.

 

Just about anything that is cheap enough in the fact that it doesn't require anything extra to play it will be good. For example: not "Guitar Hero"... where you need instruments. I don't know if you could play it without guitars or drums or microphones, though.

What about the SINGSTAR series? Karaoke-style games are good... If you already have the microphone... or maybe the dancing one for the wii?

 

Call of Duty
Grand Theft Auto

Sorry, but when I was a young teenager, I would be playing these types of games, not gay party games.

 

Opening post has the rating of the games he would like. Please read it again.

 

If you're in a public setting, providing entertainment for kids from all backgrounds, you don't really have a choice.