Recommend: Family Oriented Coop XBLA & 360 Games

[Acert93]

I have browsed many of the XBLA demos (not all, but many) and am finding a lot of them don't have MP/Coop for the demos so I am hunting for feedback. I am looking for the following:

Platform: Xbox 360 titles
Type: Arcade or Retail
Style: Coop or "fun multiplayer" (not ultra competitive)
For: child (4 years old), wife

For the child (boy, 4 years old) I am looking for something simple enough--coop "Feeding Frenzy" would be great. The new GeoWars has coop but it is a little fast, can be difficult to keep your eye on your player, and the dual sticks is a tad bit advanced right now. My son likes racing games (he can drive the Nissan Speedway track with an R1 racer in FM2 without hitting walls when using the wheel!) but Mad Tracks didn't seem to click (and boy, Revolt! on XLBA would rock! MUCH better game) and Cars was a little too difficult. I am looking for something "age appropriate" in content as well as controls. He really likes Feeding Frenzy (watching and playing) so I am hoping there may be something similar to this that has coop or "fun" multiplayer. Marble Blast is something I have looked at, but the camera was a little tough for him. I want to avoid blatant killing, shooting, and such (although eating other fish is ok Double standards ftw!) We don't play much, but I would like to find something easy enough for him to pickup (or worth learning) that we can enjoy together once in a while. He did like the Burnout Paradise demo (he loved crashing head on into cars... it was ok I thought, but the "racing" part seemed totally missing) but alas no splitscreen. (It is hard to find split-screen games, even hard to find such that also have AI support w/ split screen... sad!)

For the wife ... she doesn't really like gaming although I have found a couple games here or there she liked. She liked Mario Kart and, interestingly, Battlefield 1942 (only shooter ever she could stomach; mainly because it was very team oriented, shooting wasn't even necessary to achieve objectives, and it was very very easy to pick up but took time to master--KUDOS Dice). FPS with a gamepad are a no go. Anything that involves a lot of time is a no go (sorry VP). She thought GeoWars was dumb... tough cookie here! I thought Carcassonne was interesting (tile based card game). The Castle Crashers demo was interesting but it got a little too tough and bloody for her pretty quick. A more strategical game that puts wits before gaming braun would be nice... but it has to be interesting (no action games so far have interested her at all, like Kameo) and easy to pick up. My wife is liking FM2 with the wheel, so that is nice... although not quite easy to pickup!

This is a pretty tough assignment, so kudos to anyone who can help me scope out titles :smile:

Ps- I can squash any music games out of hand unless they released a piano game that allows a digikeyboard to be plugged in. GH, RB, Singstar games need not apply. Scene It also is a no go seeing as my wife has watched maybe 20 movies ever.

 

[AlNom]

Give Castle Crashers a whirl - 4 player co-op offline or online, arena mode, button mashing food eating contest (think Simpsons arcade with the balloon filling). I believe there's a filter for blood although I find it rather tame... I only went into the options once. Have a look!

 

[obonicus]

Give Castle Crashers a whirl - 4 player co-op offline or online, arena mode, button mashing food eating contest (think Simpsons arcade with the balloon filling). I believe there's a filter for blood although I find it rather tame... I only went into the options once. Have a look!

I said this in the earlier, similar thread, but Castle Crashers goes a little overboard with poop jokes on one or two occasions (like the forest level), so be cautious. Is there a filter for that too?

 

[RobertR1]

Try the Braid demo. She might like the music, atmosphere, story depth and puzzle solving. Give it a shot. While it's not co-op you two could have a bit of fun together trying to solve the puzzles and debating your interpretations of the story.

 

[MoHonRi]

We are really enjoying the new Viva Pinata game. You might want to give that a shot. It's not violent, (aside from breaking your little critters) and can be quite fun. *shrug*

 

[DrJay24]

Scene It is about the only 360 game my wife has ever played and enjoyed.

 

[PARANOiA]

I second Viva Pinata: TIP. My girlfriend hates gaming and we've put hours into it. She actually counted down the release date more than I did.

The other one we play together is Tetris on XBLA, though that's competitive. It's just another Tetris game, but that's hardly anything to complain about. I'd guess that's my most played 360 game purely because we play together for a half hour a week since it came out.

I've also put a fair bit of time into N+ with actual "gaming" friends is N+, which is surprisingly clever. Puzzle Fighter is again not co-op but has good local multi. XBLA has stacks of great local and/or co-op friendly titles that also happen to be family-friendly (as opposed to family games that happen to be co-op!). Try a bunch of demos and see what they like.

 

[Gerry]

How about Worms for good ol' family fun?

 

[Zassk]

Dance Dance Revolution Universe 1 & 2 got fair reviews, and seem to be casual-friendly.

 

[Acert93]

Thanks Nav. I appreciate the list! Is Golf Tee it Up 2 player? I also saw Sega Superstar Tennis at the store and that hit me: duh, my wife LOVES tennis and a fun (easy to pick up, but a rewarding learning curve) tennis game would be a great coop title (especially if we can play online as a team).

 

[eastmen]

Uno..... just don't let the kid play it online..... I think i'm going to jail some little kid started running around in our game naked . I don't care for that so much. The hot chick that flashed us was kinda cool though. But yea no online for them with any cam enabled game.