VideoGame_Discussion

1) get an extra set of joycons.. then you can play 4 player games like mario kart, party, etc.. The OLED should have a docking station come with it..
2) any of the mario games are good.. what is she into?? There are practically games for all kids.. Get games used, as they don't save to the cartridge, but to the system so you can save some $$$ that way.. get a carrying case as you can hold games in that too..
3) you don't need NSO unless you want to play online. They have a 7 day trial if you wanna try it..
4) Buy a memory card if you want to get online games... they take up a lot of memory (depending on the games) so having one is always good..

If it's new the dock will be included.

Games to get depends on her interests. Typically can't go wrong with Mario or Lego Games though. Lego games are often on a pretty deep discount on the eshop.

A Switch OLED comes with a dock and two Joy-Con controllers. I'd recommend getting a Switch carrying case (the Game Traveler branded ones are pretty solid) and an official Pro Controller, though the latter isn't cheap. Official Pro Controllers can be identified by the thicker +Control Pad and the smaller font on the face buttons.

Kids will do well with Mario, Zelda, Kirby, Donkey Kong, Smash Bros., Yoshi, Pikmin, and LEGO. I might suggest Splatoon and Pokemon, but those are riskier. As a few warnings:
-Recent Pokemon games are lower quality than older ones, but a kid would still probably like them.
-The online community around Splatoon is highly questionable. They can write and draw whatever they want in the plaza, and though there is moderation, not all of these posts are very wholesome.
-Kirby Star Allies and Kirby and the Forgotten Land are quality games, but the former contains some pretty heavy subject matter (cult worship, abuse, and an implied suicide attempt by one of the characters) and the latter has a villain encounter that may terrify a young child (the PAL release put "Fear" on the age rating, for context).
-Kirby's Dream Buffet is good, but its online component is mostly dead by now. Splatoon 2 is the same way.
-Nintendo's games have leaned into sex appeal more this generation than previously. It shouldn't be anything too bad, and the ESRB rating should mention if it's present. But I figured I'd mention it.

NSO is definitely worthwhile! I recommend the standard package (not the Expansion Pack) for $20 a year. It gets you access to NES, SNES, and Game Boy games. Some of the games included on these apps are T-rated games, so do research on any game your daughter wants to play. You also get access to online modes in games, and your online experience may vary. Be safe.

Switch Joy-Cons and Pro Controllers can experience analog stick drift. If that happens, contact the company to take advantage of the warranty, and they'll repair them or send new ones for free.

For cheaper games, buy second-hand or trade on GameTZ.

Thanks @shadyfozzie and @benstylus. She’s probably going to like mainstream stuff like Mario, Mario Kart, possibly Zelda. I’ll probably look out for deals in the eShop and get a memory card if I find we’re making a lot of digital purchases.

Any tips on getting first-party games at reasonable prices? I’m finding it hard to locate them even on FB marketplace. I don’t know if there are any particular sales besides Black Friday that I need to watch out for.

SupremeSarna wrote:

Wow, great feedback - I appreciate it. Thanks for the heads-up on Kirby and Splatoon. I just assumed any first-party game was going to be kid-friendly but had no idea Nintendo was becoming more relaxed with content.

$20/year is very cheap but will dive a little more into what NSO offers before pulling the trigger.

What's the benefit of the Pro controller in your opinion?

B2g1 sales happen occasionally at target, keep an eye out for sale threads here...

Honestly for older games yoy might check ebay too. A lot of 1st party titles that retail for $60 can be had for $40-$45.

benstylus wrote:

Probably what I'll end up doing. Hopefully I can give some business to someone around here first otherwise I'll check out ebay. Any benefit to GS Pro membership to get cheaper games?

@Staraang The benefit of a Pro Controller is that it's a bit better for retro games since his had a +Control Pad, it can take a lot of abuse from a hyperactive kid, and it's less likely to suffer that analog drift I mentioned. A kid would likely be fine with just Joy-Cons, but there is more chance of drift. (I've never experienced it, personally, so it's far from a guarantee.)

I might've oversold the stuff in those specific Kirby games, but you should do your research on those particular elements. In KSA, the villainous cultists are ultimately saved and turn good. In KatFL, the scary boss in question can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmvRLfFQXjE
I don't know how much fear is too much for your daughter, but I'm sure you can judge.

If you subscribe to NSO, you can pay $100 to get two game vouchers that can be redeemed for digital games.

It’s not a huge discount but it’s a convenient option

I played King Oddball on Vita and it seems perfect for an 8yo. Also Fez if the controls don't suck. (If rotating is mapped to L/R and not ZL/ZR I will scream)

Also Pokemon Sword/Shield the only trouble is knowing which version to get. Nintendo are terrorists and want to confuse everyone.

Get a glass screen protector and case. Amazon has 100's and many case+screen protector combos. Pick one that is relatively cheap and has a lot of reviews averaging near 5 stars. If you're going to buy mostly physical, get a case that holds more carts. Apply the screen protector before giving it to her if possible. Maybe not as important with the OLED, but giving it to a kid I'd play it safe.

As said if you know you'll buy mostly digital get a large memory card. Even if you go mostly physical I'd still get at least 256gb as nearly every cart has required downloads and many digital games are cheaper than physical. Buy the card from a reputable store. Amazon can sell counterfeits, even direct from Amazon.

Many 3rd party games on the e-shop go on sale for deep discounts regularly, 50-90% off. Expect each title to be 10-20 gb, so again memory card. Many of these titles are much cheaper digital. As mentioned the Lego games regularly go on sale for under $10, but the physical ones all hover around $30.

First party games go on sale regularly. A normal good sale is $40 and happens ~4 times a year. A very good sale is $30 and happens maybe once a year around black Friday. Unfortunately they just had the Mar10 sale, so it will likely be a while before the next one, maybe after the May-June direct (or whenever they announce the Switch successor). Lastly, QVC has a sale regularly for new customers where you can get 1 first party game for under $30 shipped. I got Luigi's Mansion 3 for $26 during the Mar10 sale at QVC.

As for games, I have boys around that age. Big hits were Minecraft ($30 game), Animal Crossing New Horizons, LoZ BotW, LoZ TotK, LoZ LA, GOAT Simulator (goes on sale for under $10), Smash Bros, Mario Kart, Mario Odyssey, Mario Wonder, Kirby Forgotten Land, Mario 3d World/Bowser's Fury, Lego Jurassic World, Lego Skywalker Saga, Untitled Goose Game, and Pokémon Arceus. They go on spurts of playing 1 game for weeks or months, then move onto something else or go back to an old favorite like Minecraft, Zelda or Animal Crossing. There are free to play games like Fall Guys, but if she is the type that would ask for paid skins I'd avoid that unless you're willing to pony up.

Games they didn't like or weren't big hits were Pokémon Let's Go, traditional Pokémon games (Sword/Shield, Diamond/Pearl), NSMBUDx, Mario & Sonic Olympics, Sonic games, Mario Party, Arms, Hyrule Warriors Zelda, Wii Sports, Lego Marval, Lego City and Paper Mario. Many of these they played only a bit and then went back to one of the others listed earlier.

The online membership is nice if they like NES/SNES games. You can get in on family plans which makes it very affordable, and you get access to DLC for Mario Kart and Animal Crossing as long as you have the NES Online membership.

One thing that was odd for me was saves were tied to profiles. So let's say you bought Tears of the Kingdom and wanted to play it yourself. You'd have to create a profile for yourself as well as your daughters. If you both wanted access to NES Online on your profiles you'd both need to subscribe (thus the family plan). It's not a big deal for us as the kids can take advantage of NES Online on my profile.

I wouldn't worry too much about a pro controller for an 8 year old at this point in time. I regularly play with joycons despite owning a pro controller. And I'm sure you've heard of joycon drift. The controllers will eventually start to register movements without moving anything. Nintendo fixes this for free as of now.

As others have mentioned, a second set of joycons is nice. It allows for 2 player on any game, and 4 player on a lot of games in a pinch. The Switch tabletop mode is nice. I once had to take the kids while getting an oil change. It took longer than expected, so we were there over an hour. Sat at a table, popped in Mario Kart and soon my kids were having races with other random kids waiting with their families. I felt like it was one of Nintendo's Switch commercials. lol

Target is currently selling WarioWare: Get it Together! and Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope for $15 and $20, respectively. Both are games kids can enjoy. Wario has some crude humor in it.

SupremeSarna wrote:

I might get one of those and an extra set of Joy-Cons too.


She's a bit of a scaredy-cat so I don't think she'd tolerate that.

flamingtoastjpn wrote:

Thanks, I'll check it out.

KCPenguins wrote:

Great feedback and pretty much what I was looking for, thank you.

She seems to like Stardew Valley so I might get that and maybe Animal Crossing. Probably will get either Mario Wonder or 3D World, Mario Kart, a Lego game, and Minecraft as well. That would be a good set to start with I think. I'm tempted to get Tears of the Kingdom too.

Do you guys have recommendations on an SD card? What do you think about this one:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&lo...

I would definitely suggest Mario 3D World/Bowser's Fury. You can play it with multiple players.

Staraang wrote:


One word of caution on TotK. While it's a great game, it is a bit darker than your typical Zelda. The opening in particular was pretty creepy for Zelda. We initially withheld it from our kids, but they eventually saw it later with no issues. Link to video of opening below.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_K0qgfbg-Fw&pp=ygUSR...

BotW might be better to start with, but it's an open world game similar to the first Zelda. Once you complete the training area, you can go anywhere or do anything, and the game let's you go. It may be a bit daunting (or boring) for an 8 year old on their own.

As for games, you know your daughter. From my experience kids like games more if the parents are involved, but there are exceptions (Minecraft, GOAT Simulator).

KCPenguins wrote:

Thanks for the heads-up on Zelda. I get the feeling she likes games where you build/make things. So she likes Minecraft and I’ve seen her take an interest in Stardew Valley so will probably get that. She played a lot of Disney’s Dreamlight Valley which has some adventure and character development elements so I think she may even like RPGs. She once saw me playing Chain of Echoes and asked if she could play it.

If I could give you my Stardew Valley I would. lol I hated that game. I was wanting a new Animal Crossing. Heard all the comparisons. Was very disappointed. It was more Harvest Moon than Animal Crossing.

TotK has great building with Ultra Hand, but it's a tad clumsy and might be a bit much for an 8 year old on their own. Dragon Quest Builders is Minecraft meets Zelda. I really enjoyed those, but again an 8 year old likely struggles on their own. Good news is there are extensive demos for DQ Builders. Take advantage of demos for her to try out games. Princess Peach, Kirby and the Forgotten Land, Pikmin 4, etc. Many games have demos.

My son is 8, he likes most of the first party games, not much else. His favorites are Mario Maker, Both Zeldas, 3D world, and Luigi's Mansion. He's not all that interested in NES or SNES games so the expansion is more for me.

Overall Mario Maker is his most played.

I really like the Pro Controller too.

Pretty sure Amazon is currently running a first party digital title sale - $39.99 for a lot of gems.

https://www.amazon.com/stores/page/preview?isSlp=1...

KCPenguins wrote:

Good call on demos, I didn’t even think those existed anymore for consoles. That would be a good way to avoid buying games she doesn’t like.

Rollobobo wrote:

Thanks. Probably going to try to get physical versions of the first party stuff. Hopefully a sale comes around soon.

aaandrewww wrote:

Cool, I think I’m going to definitely go with 3D world to start with out of the first party games.

Keep in mind this is the Switch’s last year before their focus shifts to new hardware in 2025.

The internal storage is the fastest which you get 64gb of. You can’t go wrong with getting a SanDisk or Samsung microSD unless of course it’s counterfeit

If I could get an OLED switch again, I’d definitely order this accessory for handheld gaming: https://crkd.gg/products/nitro-deck-white-edition

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flamingtoastjpn wrote:

If he’s a member of costco or sam’s club they frequently do “percentage off” deals on various gift cards including nintendo e-shop, heck even dollar general has done those deals once in a blue moon

https://www.dekudeals.com/

That is a great site for consolidating deals and pricing on switch games

Staraang wrote:

1. I swear by these controllers. They feel great and, by design, won't ever have stick drift.
2. Buy used, buy from here. Lots of cheap Switch games to be had. I may have a few she'd like if you want to message me.
3. NSO is only worth it if you plan to get mileage out of the retro catalog. Me, I love NSO as a convenient way to go back and play NES/SNES/GB/GBA/N64 games I grew up playing. The library of offerings is good, but not great. Most heavy hitters are there, with some exclusions.
4. The joycons are notorious for stick drift. I still highly recommend looking into options with HAL effect sticks. That essentially means the button magnetically makes contact with the board, versus there being a physical piece that can wear down over time.

EclipseLion wrote:

Looks cool. Do you find it that much better than using attached Joy-Cons?

brian9824 wrote:

Totally forgot about this site. Good call.


Frank wrote:


How do those controllers compare with the Switch Pro controller? Looks like they cost $48 on Target with current discount so certainly a fair bit cheaper.

Staraang wrote:

I own an OEM pro controller and prefer the guilikit.

Tbh I'd start with the basics and see if she even gets into it before buying too much else. Case, screen protector, memory card and a couple games if that fits your budget. See how excited she is and how she plays it. I play mostly handheld so the pro controller is almost worthless for me aside from first person shooters. If they have gyro aim I still usually use handheld.

KCPenguins wrote:

That’s what I was planning on doing anyway. I have all the basic stuff you suggested except for the memory card. I think the few digital games I’m going to start her off with should fit easily on the internal 64gb. If she doesn’t play it much I’ll probably use it and see how much I like it. If I do I’ll probably get some of the stuff people are suggesting.

KCPenguins wrote:

Definitely do this. It saved my Switch once and I am ever so glad I had one on it.

Don't bother with NSO unless she has friends who have Switches and they want to play online together. My son had absolutely no interest in the older retro games like I thought he would. And he only played 1 game online once.

At 8 my son got the most mileage out of the Mario games, Odyssey and Bowser's Fury in particular. Those are pretty good for any age.

Anxiouz wrote:

Thanks, I'm going to try to get 3D World + Bowser's Fury. She showed interest in Mario + Sonic at the Olympic Games too. I'll probably try to get a couple Mario games and a farm sim like Stardew Valley or a Harvest Moon game.

Isn't Harvest Moon on SNES Online?

KCPenguins wrote:

It might be. I just don’t know how much retro games would appeal to a kid her age when modern games with advanced graphics and more polished gameplay are available. I was thinking of a Story of Seasons game which is related to Harvest Moon.

Ask if she's interested in New Pokemon Snap. That one's a keeper in my eyes, with countless hours of replayability.

Staraang wrote:


Isn't Stardew Valley basically Harvest Moon SNES? That's what I gathered, which is why I brought it up.

SupremeSarna wrote:

She hasn’t shown much interest in Pokémon as a franchise though that’s not to say she wouldn’t like the game. I’ll see what she thinks.



KCPenguins wrote:

I see what you’re saying. It does have a retro look for sure. I’ve never played a Harvest Moon game before but based on how these new retro-inspired games are designed they usually have quality of life enhancements that old games don’t have. That’s kinda what I was referring to. I shouldn’t write off retro games completely though. She did play a bit of Zelda LttP and Mario Kart on my SNES mini last year and seemed to like those.

Just do a trial when she gets it. I think you get 7 days.

KCPenguins wrote:

Nintendo Switch sale going on right now at some of the major retailers. Got Super Mario Odyssey, Mario Kart 8, and Sonic Superstars for $108 plus tax at Amazon. Not bad, I think.

If you buy the Switch new from Gamestop you should automatically get a free year of their pro rewards program. I bought one for my girlfriend and it came with it last year.

Staraang wrote:


Mario Kart 8's DLC is free with NES Online as long as you're a member. It doubles the number of tracks in the game among other things.

KCPenguins wrote:

Oh nice. Will have to check that out.

stevemoco wrote:

I don’t see that deal advertised on the site currently but they’re offering $25 off $250.