Do Kids Really Like Kids’ Games?

I’m sure you’ve done this before: you’re perusing the store shelves, looking at all the games, and your eyes land the latest “That’s So Raven” game. At that moment, you can’t help but ask yourself, Do kids actually enjoy these games? Well, apparently not all of them. In a recent feature from Pocket Gamer, Mike Cook spoke with a couple of youngsters to determine just what sort of games kids enjoy. What he found was that they’re playing some of the same games as adults. Not Grand Theft Auto or Halo necessarily, but Sonic the Hedgehog, Loco Roco, Animal Crossing; these games are not intended solely for children. Even better, these games have been shown to help a person’s learning capacity. But some of the games developed solely for kids seem to have become more simplistic and easy than games from over twenty years ago. One eleven-year old girl even notes that her younger brother beat the Alex Rider: Stormbreaker game in less than a day.

I hate to sound like an old man, but back in my day I had to walk fifteen miles to school through the freezing snow in shoes made of lead, and my video games weren’t that easy. I mean, look at the old NES games, most of which were designed with kids in mind. The Mario and Zelda games still offer somewhat of a challenge even to an experienced gamer. It’s just nice to see that some kids aren’t buying into the muck being thrust upon them.