My daughter is turning 5 this Thursday, and we decided to get her a Nintendo DS as a gift. She played with one that belongs to her cousin and loved it. She is just learning to read, so some of the games that are rated E are still over her head. Any suggestions about games that would be age appropriate for her?
Something that can help is you can look on the ESRB's site for games on the DS rated EC (Early Childhood). They have minimal reading and often times are puzzle type games. ESRB.org the ESRB site has a discription of each game so that you know exactly what it is and you'd be able to tell which one she'd like the best.
E (Everyone) Are suggested for children 6 and older, usually because of the reading requirement, still that doesn't mean that there are several E games that she could understand, you just have to look a little closer when you get an E game right now.
Titles that she could use would be the puzzle games, or mini games, Mario's popular for being easy to understand too. Pet games, racing, guitar hero, pretty sure there's both barney and barbie on the DS too. (If she likes those kind of things.)
Another title on the DS is Dora the Explorer (I don't know if she's a Dora fan or not but the option's there.)
If they don't have tetris on the DS, I would be very shocked. (In particular since I remember reading about an incarnation of it on the DS already.)
Another place you can go for assistance is GameStop. You can find titles that you can't find at walmart and at the same time, there's usually at least one person there who knows about video games…So narrow it down and they'll be able to make suggestions.
I'd suggest staying away from the RPG's and similar titles til' she's got a solid handle on reading. Right now titles such as FINAL FANTASY, or CRONO TRIGGER, are not viable just because she's learning to read still. Admittedly those RPG's wouldn't likely interest her since they were more focused towards boys. But they are a case and point for the genre…
