For my 5 year old boy...

[michaelthegreat]

My boy cut his teath on Poko Nyan, which is the perfect starter game since you can't die. His favorite game right now is Kirby Wii. He has improved so much playing that game and can actually get halfway or so in the game before it gets too hard for him. He plays a little SMB1, but he can't get past 1-2 on his own. He has the same issues with SMBW.

What would you suggest next? It can't require reading. It can be NES, SNES, Famicom, Super Famicom, N64, Gamecube, Wii, PS2 or PS3. I also have a gameboy advance which I'm going to give to him once I find a couple of games that he can play.

[80sFREAK]

Try logic games - good for brain

[nintendodork]

I started playing Pokemon when I was 4. Even if he can't read the words, he'd still probably like it. I know I did.

[MaarioS]

Road Fighter is a pretty good example . If you have Warioland 2 on GB, it's just a brilliant thing for him because you can't die there

[manuel]

Mario Kart!
My son loves Double Dash since he was 3.
Mario Kart Wii should be good, too with the steering wheel.

[Parodius Duh]

I started playing Pokemon when I was 4. Even if he can't read the words, he'd still probably like it. I know I did.

wow. I was 16 when the first game was released....


as for some games that dont require reading and would keep a young kid entertained.....my 4 year old niece loves Tiny Toon adventures 1 & 2 and its all she ever wants to play when they come to visit me.

[Nightstar699]

I started playing Game Boy when I was 3, and Pokémon Yellow, and Super Mario Land 2 were my favorites. Just a couple years later, I grew fond of Sonic Adventure on Dreamcast.

[Parodius Duh]

I cant believe how many young as fuggg dudes are into the Famicom!!!! Thats awesome!

I thought it was mainly an old mans system (age 25+)

[petik1]

Nope, there are quite a few <20 y/o members. I think I'm the youngest current active member, or one of.

[That Guy from Faxanadu]

How about Bubble Bobble? You can retry the levels as many times you like with the infinite continues, and it´s a great game to play in co-op. It gets hard in level 57, but you´ve got a lot of fun levels before that   

[Cheetahmen]

I'd say relatively simple platform games, arcade games and puzzle games are probably the best.

[Yelir]

How about Balloon Fight (NES), or even Hello Kitty World (FC)? Those seem like pretty decent titles that are quite simple but now that I think of it some find these boring. :p

[Cheetahmen]

How about Balloon Fight (NES), or even Hello Kitty World (FC)? Those seem like pretty decent titles that are quite simple but now that I think of it some find these boring. :p

Balloon Fight's one of my favourite NES games.

[michaelthegreat]

Manuel: Yeah, I forgot to say that mariokart wii is one of his favorites too--I've intentionally not told him it's a race and he has a lot of fun driving around... And he loves watching me play "frog-cycles"  as he calls Excitebots.

nintendodork: Pokemon is his favorite anime. I won most of the DVDs (anime and movies) on ebay for a little over $100, so he had a pretty awesome Christmas (maybe I did too...). My plan for Pokemon games is for them to be a "I can read so I can play pokemon now" thing...

I think balloon fight and many of other games mentioned will fit in with SMB1--games that require more dextarity that I realized. I'd like him to play for fun and learn by playing without having to die over and over. I wish I would play more like that. I'm a perfectionist gamer who wants to play more for fun. So I'm looking just for fun to start him out...

Warioland 2 looks awesome for a first game for his gba! I love the hidden coins everywher. I think I'll find sml2 since that's easy. I found a gba for $5 at a yard sale (with games that are too hard and ones not for his age), so I'm going to tripple the price with these two games...

I hadn't really thought about gameboy games till the suggestions, so I looked around a bit more. I'm really interested in Trip World for him but I don't think I want to pay the bounty. Then noobow looks like it would teach some critical thinking--I agree that some brain stretching is great 80sFreak. Anyone have any idea what noobow goes for? I watched a youtube video and I love how he shakes his head no if you ask him to move off a ledge...  We need a shakes his head no Disk-kun icon...
 
Started him on Kirby Nes today since I remember that being pretty easy. He's having a blast. I was never a huge Kirby fan, but I can see now that he's going to have Kirby nostalgia in his 30s...

Really appreciate the help guys! Love to hear if you can think of anything else easy.

[Jedi QuestMaster]

GB:

-Super Mario Land 1 I remember being easy (I think I was 8 when I played it, & beat it, & it wasn't even my game)
-TMNT (maybe )

NES:

-Mappy & Mappy Land <- very fun game, esp. Mappy Land
-Pinball
-Spot

N64:

-Cruis'n USA (this is what we had our little brother play when he was little with a rubber band holding down the 'Z' trigger to accelerate He even won some! Of course, he was playing as the Jeep )

Anything with penguins.