Seeking recommendations for video games to play with niece
 

Our fifteen-year-old niece will be visiting for a week in June, and we are considering getting a video game console and games to play with her.

Does anyone have suggestions for games that the three (or at least two) of us could play together?

Bonus points for less violence and other adult themes.

Extra bonus points for anything educational.

We don't have anything right now, so we would have to buy the console (or whatever) as well as the games. We'd prefer to get something used / cheaper, because it will probably get put away for next time, so we won't get much regular use out of it...unless we get addicted!

Thanks!

My guess is at 15 she's already got favorites...

I don't do video games, but my kids have a Switch, and you can download a lot of the old NES nintendo games, which could be a lot of laughs to play together.

"Just Dance" is a hoot too.

Thanks for that! I looked into Nintendo Switch, and it looks like there are several games that we can play together, e.g. Mario Go-Karting (or something like that).

The "Just Dance" game would likely kill us, unless there is a "sedentary" mode, LOL.

Fifteen years old, into video games AND a girl. Oof. Prepare to be frustrated.

Seriously, you're going to find out that teenagers typically only like the company of other teenagers. Her love of "video games" is more likely her parents not understanding that she's teleconferencing with her friends over Discord on her PC or doing Tik Tok on their phones. I don't know of many young people over the age of 12 who have any sort of social life having any desire to actually play videogames - much less with relatives on console in a common area of the home.

I say that as a father of a fifteen year old boy who's into video games and who I'd like to get outside and actually do physical activities "IRL" with his friends. Things went downhill when I replaced the Xfinity router (which had parental controls) with one I bought from Best Buy (which does not have parental controls.) I'm also tempted to change out the door knob to one that does not have a lock because he just cannot be bother with common courtesy. He insists on his privacy though and even resisted having an Amazon Echo put in his room because he was worried we were using it to spy on him. I literally have to trudge upstairs and pound on his door to get him to come downstairs for supper.

But I digress. FWIW I'm also into gaming and consoles are actually becoming less sought after, with the exception of the ones that can support virtual reality goggles - which Sony Playstation, Microsoft XBOX and Nintendo Switch all can support. Nintendo tends to be proprietary and more focused toward "kids and tweens" but by and large they're probably the most family oriented. Back in the day my little guy and I used to play wii Sports together - but to be honest that was when he was 8-9 years old.

Thanks for the info, and good luck!

We went ahead and bought a Nintendo Switch system yesterday, and some multiplayer games, so we'll see what happens.

Even in their teens, both of my kids would play MarioKart with me. In fact, a lot of teens welcome the opportunity to drop back a few years to a point when their life was ‘simpler’.

Have fun and most important, just be there and listen.

Rick

Thanks, Rick!

The Nintendo Switch is probably your best bet with Mario Kart, Mario Party, Kirby, Raving Rabbid Rabbits, etc. but honestly which games she will like is anyones guess.

The good news is all consoles nowadays have a shop that connects online so you could literally buy the games through the console together. I don’t think they take long to download.

Good luck!

Um, why not pick up an inexpensive guitar of some kind, teach her a few of the basics, point her toward some good internet learning resources, let her take it home, and have her bring it back next time she comes to visit - takes the passive-entertainment and planned-obsolescence factors off the table...

Something like this:

https://media.musiciansfriend.com/is...-2000x2000.jpg

https://www.musiciansfriend.com/guit...lectric-guitar

Thanks! We've already given her two guitars and an amp, and her parents have since bought her another guitar, so we are hoping she brings one of those to play while she's here, plus she can play any of mine, which I'll leave dotted around for her to pick up any time, as well as a keyboard. If she likes the video games, we will hopefully do some bonding whilst playing those, too.

Huge industry.
Such an odd thing to say.

I do agree on the part where she may not want to play with adults.

A lot of games today are social. For example, my son would team up with his friends from school and the neighborhood, as well as his cousins, to play multi-player games online. And when they got together in person, they still played video games and used social media apps to communicate with one another even though they were sitting right next to each other. This is a generational thing, not just a lack of a social life.

I agree; it is a huge industry and I myself am a consumer of it. Some role playing games are actually more engaging that what passes for entertainment in the television and motion picture industries. My point is that some teenagers may be more savvy than we give them credit for and by and large teens are social creatures - especially with regards to other teenagers and finding their own identities.

Now I could be wrong about the OP's niece but in my experience having been a teenager and watching 2 generations of teenagers afterward, Discord on the PC has become almost akin to how my generation used to lock itself inside its bedroom and tie up the telephone for hours.

At least that's what my teenager does. Gone are the days of he and I playing wii sports together though - though he does confess he sometimes misses those days.