| Game | Review |
| Animal Crossing - Wild World | This seems quite sweet and full of furry animals, but does need a lot of reading to get the on screen instructions, and follow the story, however some adult reviews have said their children like this game and cope quite well once you get past the intro. |
| Animal Crossing - Wild World | This game was a complete pain and very frustrasting for our younger child, and even we had problems getting started. Our friends had said give it a go, and although the music is nice, and the graphics sweet, we didn't think it was worth the money. |
| Bee Movie | Lovely game for younger players, you will need to spend a bit of time explaining the rules but the movements are easy, and the tasks are easily understood and achievable |
| Build-A-Bear Workshop | This game has been reviewed on other sites and appears to fit the bill for the 4 to 6 age group. If you have used this game please post a review. |
| Cars (Pixar) | 3 limited games to start you off, all with written intros that you need to read for the instructions. Requires some adult help, but once you know what controls are needed for each part the individual games can be played by 5 or 6 year olds. Some adult help needed. |
| Herbie Rescue Rally | Good racing game, no problem for our 5 year old to play this. |
| Lego - Indiana Jones | My 5 year old and i just love the graphics on the lego games. You do need to read the instructions to get the most from it, but if you have played other lego games then it is fairly easy to change characters, build and earn blocks and get around. It gets a bit difficult when you need a certain character to open a certain section, but we just love it. Very very forgiving in terms of lives, you can die loads of times and not have to restart which is very good for younger ones. |
| Lego - Star Wars, (The Original Trilogy) | This game has written instructions and hints throughout, which makes it difficult for a child who cannot read to play without continuing adult help. My son loves this game, but I had to become familiar with it myself before he could get anything from it at all. It's a lovely game with great graphics but not really suitable for this age without help. |
| Mario and Luigi Partners in Time | The commands are fairly easy once you have done them a few times. If your child is the sort that is happy to ignore the on screen instructions and just keep pressing A through them, then they should be able to find their way around. If they like to know exactly what is being said or what they need to do, you will need to sit with them whilst they play this game |
| MarioKart DS | The general online consensus seems to be that this is a number 1 must have game for children in this age range with a DS. Tell us if you think otherwise. |
| Mario Super Brothers | There were lots of games in this set which were ideal for younger players. You may need to explain how some of the games and puzzles work, but once they know they are fun and addictive. Some of the puzzles were not very forgiving and didn't give you much chance to get things wrong, but on the whole, worthwhile |
| Nintendogs | A great disappointment to us, very expensive and needed continuous reading to be able to play, not one to recommend at all for this age range |
| Peppa Pig | I was looking for a game for my 4 year old girl to play on her DS Lite, she was complelely new to the ds, just wanted one like her big brother. Peppa Pig was perfect! Really simple to follow, simple colouring in pictures and easy tasks to do. Like building a snowman and washing daddy pigs car. She quickly learnt how to use the stylus. The voice guided her on what to do, so no reading involved. However she is a big peppa pig fan, I think this is essential, otherwisw it would not keep a childs interest. An ideal first game, but wouldn't recoment it for ages 6 and above. |
| Power Rangers | A little bit of text at the beginning, and a limited amount you can do without being able to pass through the levels. Our son likes this game but hasn't got past the first level. He is 5 |
| Ratatouille | This game could be played by 5 and 6 year olds, but they will need some help in starting. Once they know the basics then this could be a game for them. The cooking game is fairly easy to master, and once you have helped them with what the on screen instructions are (easy tutorial to follow) they should be able to play all of the cooking games without help. |
| Sonic Rush Adventure | You will need to spend a bit of time reading the instructions and possibly playing the tutorials on here, but once you know the commands to get around it is quick to learn and my 5 and 6 year old can do it no problem. |
| Sponge Bob's Atlantis Squarepantis | This has an easy tutorial to get you started with actions, and then throughout the game the hints are given again, which is no good if you cannot read, but if your child is happy to just keep trying then this game is ok. The graphics are good, but ideally you could do with reading ability to make some of the moves. But on the whole not too bad |
