I had a similar experience playing with my 5-year-old boy, Max, right down to the boat being enjoyable and the car not so much--as well as that spaceship landing puzzle turning into a maddening solo challenge involving Dad using both controllers simultaneously. Definitely plenty of highs and lows, but that bittersweet ending was totally worth it. Max showed a twinge of sadness when he accepted that I was going to space without him. His solution impressed me: as soon as the credits had finished, he asked me to return to the "home" level early in the game so we could be there together again. Although he accepted the ending left us separated, communicating from afar (something he and I have done frequently IRL due to my travel blogging wife's amazing adventures), he understands video games are a fantasy we can control, and so he used the level select as a time machine to return to a point in our journey that had taken on unexpected importance... for both of us.
Thanks for sharing your experience with the game, Cord. It's funny that you decided to play with both controllers at the end as well. That's way too tough!
Hehe, I have a 9-year-old, and I *also* did the spaceship test at the end with both controllers. He was getting too frustrated otherwise. Only part of the whole game!
I've played quite a few cooperative Lego games with my kid (starting from when he was around 5) and it sounds like we've found the easier ones. I would recommend giving Lego City Undercover or Lego Avengers a try. There's not much platforming and the consequences of dying are virtually nothing so frustration is minimal. The more proficient player can take care of the puzzles when necessary while the less proficient can smash things up and charge around. There's lots to find and explore once you get access to the open world. Untitled Goose Game is another one we had success with.
Lovely writeup. As a parent of a 5yo, the line about your child picking the Red brick again for the second playthrough made me laugh. Classic 5yo move. You set everything up so they can have the experience they want, but their own little heart and brain decide differently!
Have you tried Yoshi Crafted World? I've been playing it with my 5-year-old son, and it's a great game to play with him—the art style is very appealing to children, and the ability for one Yoshi to jump on top of another and have unlimited eggs to throw at enemies and the scenery makes the (few) difficult moments much easier for him.
I haven’t tried it with her yet. I remember being turned off originally because I expected Yoshi’s Island and it certainly isn’t that. Maybe that’s exactly why it would be a good fit for her though.
We tried the Switch Kirby game awhile back and she likes the idea of it, but it is very complicated for her. The platforming and amount of enemies on screen can cause a lot of frustration and anxiety.
I’ll try the demo for Yoshi with her and see if she likes it.
Just finished this with the 6yo, we had a very similar thing where she got downright frustrated that I could go into space, but not her. I think there was some sadness hidden in there as well due to the splitting up, but it was nowhere near as pronounced as when we played Blanc when she was 4. If you haven't yet, I can highly recommend playing it with your 5yo, it's a beautiful experience.
This was a great write up, thank you. I finished it a couple weeks ago with my 7 year old, who mostly was able to do the challenges by himself, but also struggled with the lander (which I also did with two controllers) and was also sad at not being the one to go to space. It sounds like your little one handled it better than he did :) Still, it's a good opportunity to have a conversation!
It seems like all parents did that task with the two controllers! Really a spike in difficulty that the game didn’t need.
I really need more co-op games to play with my child though. I’m tempted to try PowerWash Simulator honestly. At least that one will have no penalty. I’m just not sure how long it will hold her attention.
It has the two-analog-stick problem all first person games do, which might be tricky for many 5 year olds. We had a good time with the Tt Lego games, (So. Many. Lego. Games.) Donut county, Sonic Racing or Mariokart, Alba, A little to the left (we have a slight OCD child), and maybe try the Frog Detective games together?
Ha your description of your daughter playing Astro Bot perfectly matches my son’s experience (to date his only game he’s played) so I feel like this is a preeeeetty accurate portrayal of how this would go. 😆 lovely story, thanks for sharing!
Thanks for reading, Eric. The concept of 3D space is a challenging thing to grasp. I think the playful atmosphere of Astro Bot's sandbox area allows children to experiment without penalty, which is important. I'm not sure the devs imagined us playing with our very small children, but we're going to try anyway!
Your story definitely is giving me some flashbacks of trying to guide my son through LEGO Builders' Journey on iPad - lots of start-stop frustration and difficulty discerning the difference between tapping and holding.
With that in mind, may I recommend Moving Out? there are a spate of accessibility options that soften the time limit, allow for single players to move traditionally heavy '2p-only' items, and a few other features.
I had a similar experience playing with my 5-year-old boy, Max, right down to the boat being enjoyable and the car not so much--as well as that spaceship landing puzzle turning into a maddening solo challenge involving Dad using both controllers simultaneously. Definitely plenty of highs and lows, but that bittersweet ending was totally worth it. Max showed a twinge of sadness when he accepted that I was going to space without him. His solution impressed me: as soon as the credits had finished, he asked me to return to the "home" level early in the game so we could be there together again. Although he accepted the ending left us separated, communicating from afar (something he and I have done frequently IRL due to my travel blogging wife's amazing adventures), he understands video games are a fantasy we can control, and so he used the level select as a time machine to return to a point in our journey that had taken on unexpected importance... for both of us.
Thanks for sharing your experience with the game, Cord. It's funny that you decided to play with both controllers at the end as well. That's way too tough!
Hehe, I have a 9-year-old, and I *also* did the spaceship test at the end with both controllers. He was getting too frustrated otherwise. Only part of the whole game!
I've played quite a few cooperative Lego games with my kid (starting from when he was around 5) and it sounds like we've found the easier ones. I would recommend giving Lego City Undercover or Lego Avengers a try. There's not much platforming and the consequences of dying are virtually nothing so frustration is minimal. The more proficient player can take care of the puzzles when necessary while the less proficient can smash things up and charge around. There's lots to find and explore once you get access to the open world. Untitled Goose Game is another one we had success with.
I don’t think my child would actually do the checklist of Untitled Goose Game, but she has enjoyed running around and causing mischief
Lovely writeup. As a parent of a 5yo, the line about your child picking the Red brick again for the second playthrough made me laugh. Classic 5yo move. You set everything up so they can have the experience they want, but their own little heart and brain decide differently!
Have you tried Yoshi Crafted World? I've been playing it with my 5-year-old son, and it's a great game to play with him—the art style is very appealing to children, and the ability for one Yoshi to jump on top of another and have unlimited eggs to throw at enemies and the scenery makes the (few) difficult moments much easier for him.
I haven’t tried it with her yet. I remember being turned off originally because I expected Yoshi’s Island and it certainly isn’t that. Maybe that’s exactly why it would be a good fit for her though.
We tried the Switch Kirby game awhile back and she likes the idea of it, but it is very complicated for her. The platforming and amount of enemies on screen can cause a lot of frustration and anxiety.
I’ll try the demo for Yoshi with her and see if she likes it.
Just finished this with the 6yo, we had a very similar thing where she got downright frustrated that I could go into space, but not her. I think there was some sadness hidden in there as well due to the splitting up, but it was nowhere near as pronounced as when we played Blanc when she was 4. If you haven't yet, I can highly recommend playing it with your 5yo, it's a beautiful experience.
Hmm. I actually don’t know what Blanc is. I’ll have to look into it.
I know the narrative that the team behind Lego Voyagers wanted to tell, but it wasn’t easy to explain to my child!
This was a great write up, thank you. I finished it a couple weeks ago with my 7 year old, who mostly was able to do the challenges by himself, but also struggled with the lander (which I also did with two controllers) and was also sad at not being the one to go to space. It sounds like your little one handled it better than he did :) Still, it's a good opportunity to have a conversation!
It seems like all parents did that task with the two controllers! Really a spike in difficulty that the game didn’t need.
I really need more co-op games to play with my child though. I’m tempted to try PowerWash Simulator honestly. At least that one will have no penalty. I’m just not sure how long it will hold her attention.
It has the two-analog-stick problem all first person games do, which might be tricky for many 5 year olds. We had a good time with the Tt Lego games, (So. Many. Lego. Games.) Donut county, Sonic Racing or Mariokart, Alba, A little to the left (we have a slight OCD child), and maybe try the Frog Detective games together?
Ha your description of your daughter playing Astro Bot perfectly matches my son’s experience (to date his only game he’s played) so I feel like this is a preeeeetty accurate portrayal of how this would go. 😆 lovely story, thanks for sharing!
Thanks for reading, Eric. The concept of 3D space is a challenging thing to grasp. I think the playful atmosphere of Astro Bot's sandbox area allows children to experiment without penalty, which is important. I'm not sure the devs imagined us playing with our very small children, but we're going to try anyway!
Your story definitely is giving me some flashbacks of trying to guide my son through LEGO Builders' Journey on iPad - lots of start-stop frustration and difficulty discerning the difference between tapping and holding.
With that in mind, may I recommend Moving Out? there are a spate of accessibility options that soften the time limit, allow for single players to move traditionally heavy '2p-only' items, and a few other features.
I think someone else mentioned Moving Out. I’ll look into that one.