Cliff Notes – What’s the best family friendly video game for Christmas?
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Nintendo‘s Family Focus: Nintendo consistently prioritises family-friendly content across its games, appealing to a wide age range, unlike competitors like PlayStation and Xbox, which offer fewer family-oriented titles.
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Limited Options from Competitors: The lack of family-friendly exclusives on PlayStation and Xbox has led to a decline in interest from younger audiences, who often turn to mobile gaming instead.
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Christmas Game Choices: For parents seeking family games this Christmas, Nintendo’s offerings such as Mario Kart World and Pokémon Legends: Z-A stand out as the most appealing options.
Games Inbox: What’s the best family friendly video game for Christmas?
Mario Kart World – definitely family friendly (Nintendo)
The Thursday letters page wonders how PlayStation got so behind with video game streaming, as a reader admits how many times he’s replayed Resident Evil 4.
Adults only
I think a lot of people overlook one of the most important reasons that Nintendo are successful. Obviously, there’s a lot of good things about the Switch 1 and Switch 2 but the one thing they are always very consistent about is that almost all their games are family friendly. That doesn’t mean they’re only for kids it means they’re for anyone, no matter their age. Even Metroid is only ever a 12.
But what games are there on Xbox or PlayStation 5 like that? Virtually no exclusives and barely any multiformat ones, now there’s so rarely a new Lego game. I fee; people have been saying this for years but Sony and Microsoft, and all the rest, don’t seem to care.
No wonder kids are more interested in their phones nowadays, when there’s so little on the consoles that they’d like. And yet when there is, with Minecraft, it’s the biggest thing around. I feel that Sony and Microsoft never really learn anything from Nintendo ‘s success, they always act like they don’t even exist.
The thing is, it gets worse as the years go by. Sony used to at least have a few family friendly games, but now it seems like only one or two a generation. Ask yourself, what’s the best family game for Christmas? It’s all Nintendo choices: Mario Kart World, Donkey Kong Bananza, Pokémon Legends: Z-A, or Kirby Air Raiders. For a parent, especially a casual gamer, it’s a no-brainer.
Coolsbane
Fade to black
It’s such a shame what’s happened to Crash Bandicoot and Spyro. The Crash trilogy remakes did so well and then the fourth game didn’t quite sell as much as they wanted and then that’s it: bam! Shut the whole thing down, it’s not even worth trying anymore.
Expert, exclusive gaming analysis
Even if they do a current gen remaster of Crash Team Racing that is the most minimal effort possible and means nothing for the future of the series. Hopefully it leads to something anyway, but I will be surprised if it does.
It also worries me that while Toys For Bob have hinted they’re doing a new Spyro The Dragon they’ve never actually confirmed it, so that could go south too. These old PS1 platformers were good and it’s a real shame to see them slowly fade out of memory.
Keith
Game recognises game
It’s nice to see Rockstar acknowledging how good Nintendo is and how influential their N64 games were. I’m sure Nintendo are the last people tryhard GTA fans would want to give any credit to, but you see that amongst game developers there’s no doubt that they’re the gold standard that everyone aspires to.
That doesn’t mean they can’t make bad games, as we’ve seen this year a surprising number of times, but when they’re on fire there’s nobody that comes close.
The only thing that confuses me about Rockstar’s comments is I really don’t see any sign of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time in GTA 3. The camera system, especially the lock-on, is nothing like it and that’s to the negative as far as GTA Is concerned. It was barely much better by GTA 4, to be honest.
Focus
One more time
A hot topic to consider, which game have readers replayed the most?
Mine would be Resident Evil 4.
I played the original on the GameCube on release a few times (yes, I’m that old), then the Wii version a few times (the Wiimote was great for aiming), then played the same version on PlayStation 4, which brings me to the remake…
I’ve just finished the remake again for the second time.
Long story cut short, I’ve played all versions too many times to count but I’m not done with it yet.
Chevy Malibu (PSN ID)
PS: Capcom did a brilliant job on the remake. I can’t fault it.
Impulse purchase
I don’t know why I’m bothering with another prediction email for Nintendo but personally I hope they buy MercurySteam. I loved Metroid: Samus Returns and Metroid Dread but they are very inconsistent, and I feel Nintendo could knock them into shape, like they did with Retro, who were not well thought of before Metroid Prime.
Everyone says they should buy Sega or Capcom or whoever but I like the fact that the Japanese games industry still has lots of separate but still quite big companies, and Nintendo gets on with them all already, so I don’t see what it would have to gain by buying them.
The only one that would kind of make sense is Square Enix who, like a reader said yesterday, seem to have been off the ball a lot lately. But they’re the most expensive and I don’t think Nintendo wants all that trouble.
Tanzim
Tortoise and the hare
I think it’s fair to say when people talk about streaming games, from a console perspective it’s Xbox you think of. Despite the fact PlayStation launched their service first, and with the latest update to the portal they now have a first party handheld streaming device with no equivalent from Xbox in sight.
The only problem is they seem determined to make these things fail. PS Plus Extra is great for anyone new to PlayStation, and a year ago I was. But now I’ve caught up a bit I don’t see much point in renewing for another year. New games are few and far between, and by the time anything bigger than an indie gets added (which seems to be 2+ years) you’ve probably bought it.
The PlayStation Portal has some issues but overall is a good device, but for streaming has a similar problem in that it requires the most expensive tier of PS Plus, which offers even less value for games. So you’re then paying £100 a year, but to play anything new you also need to buy the digital version of the game from Sony. At which point you’re better off just remote playing from a PlayStation 5.
Tim
GC: You’re right, it is strange how they squandered their purchase of Gaikai back in 2012, which, as you say, put them well ahead of the game. We can only assume that it was largely pointless without the data centres to make use of it properly, which is where Microsoft has a massive advantage. Or perhaps not, because their streaming service has always been inferior to GeForce Now.
Physical media
Just a quick query, due to downsizing I have issues 1 to 128 of GamesTM, for free collection from the Maidstone area. They are in a pretty decent condition with many issues barely read… I feel it’s a shame to have to dump them in the recycling bin!
Also, I have an original Xbox console for sale, never used or unboxed, so if anyone knows of a genuine retro buyer/or are personally interested could you contact GC for my contact details.
Big cheers.
Mark
GC: We can’t get involved in buying or selling, for legal reasons, but if anyone’s interested in the magazines we’ll be happy to pass on their email to you.
Rival universes
I’m fine with Insomniac continuing to get the best licences from Marvel, as I think they’ve proven they know what they’re doing. I think some of their storytelling is a bit boilerplate at times, but I don’t think anyone can say the three Spider-Man games weren’t good. Even if the way they copy the combat from the Batman: Arkham games is pretty shameless.
It would be better for everyone if DC also had their equivalent games but with Warner Bros. on the verge of being sold, and who knows what happening to their games companies, I can’t imagine a sudden turnaround for anything, even if Rocksteady are supposed to be working on a new Batman game at the moment.
When James Gunn first took over, he talked about there being games that were in the same continuity as the movies and other stuff, and we haven’t heard a word about that since. I imagine because he was just saying stuff, with no real idea what would happen.
The sad thing is that, just like the movies, it used to be DC that was way out ahead of Marvel and then they just lost the lead for no reason and barely even try to take it back. With all the Warner Bros. acquisition talk and whatever I hope that DC gets sold off as a separate company and takes control of itself, rather than always being at the mercy of uncaring execs who keep forgetting they even own it.
Taylor Moon
Inbox also-rans
I would have to agree that Pokémon Legends Z-A is actually pretty good. It’s got problem but it’s definitely a step in the right direction. The problem now is will the next game be a similarly sized step up or will this count as the one big improvement to last the generation?
Lucky
I played Ball x Pit for six hours straight yesterday. Please, send help.
Uri
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