SavvyMenu
Savvy Parent's Guide to Video Games
Finally! A website that helps parents gauge the level of violence, sex, gore, difficulty, and boringness for hundreds of video games. From the founder: "Usually if you try to go on forums to ask questions like, "Is it too gory" or "Does it have the f-word?" or "Can you turn off the blood?" people will ignore you, or flame you to death. I don't do that. I give you the information you seek in detail."
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Kids Games
I like where you're headed with this Jorim. Given the huge undertaking though, had you considered linking out to sites that had reviews for the games in your lists?
I'm a gamer, but most of what I play I'd not let my 5 year old near :) But for her and my younger (and now actually my wife too), I got the Wii. A fair number of these games are reviewed by the enthusiast press, even though for the most part their audience (the GTA/Halo/COD4 crowd... or, me) is not the target of such games. So while you are experiencing the games to extract the relevant points for readers here, in the meantime linking to, say, IGN or metacritic could be useful.
Just a thought.
I love the style of your site too btw :)
Reply to kids game
Thanks for your input, I appreciate it, and I see where you're going.
Taking the first comment into account, I've just started to make a new rating system for games that are rated 10-. On the Games page I'm also listing them by age. So if you want to see what the new list looks like, look at the gamecube platform under Games by Age. I finished that in about 2 hours, so I should have the other lists done by today or tomorrow. After I'm done making the lists I'm going to make a placeholder info page for each one, until I can review them. If you didn't already notice, on every one of my review pages I have a list at the top that show the name of the game, among other things, and a direct link to IGN and other review sites. Also if you want to see my new rating system for kids games, go the The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker review and look on the envelope, you will see the new system that rates a game content-wise, difficulty-wise, and if it's just fun for kids, or kids and adults.
Also my games by age are not all of the "E" for Everyone games on the market, but what I think are the most well made, and worth your time. So check out both the new rating system and games by age and tell me what you think.
Playability?
The rating system described can be found and explained at the store when you are buying. I guess this would help if you were purchasing online, though.
What would really help is not to know the censorship level of the game, but the playability. Can my four-to-five year old play this game, or will it be too complicated and make them give up - diminishing their self-confidence and wasting my money? Will it be as exciting as the games that the child sees me play (Pacman is not the same as Spiderman)? I don't want to have to bring SpongeBob into my home just so I know he'd be able to play the game.
The two games we have as example:
Ultimate Spiderman for PS2. This is much too complicated for my 4yo to play, but he really enjoys that it's Spiderman. He's fine learning to walk around the city, and loves to go to the river and jump in the water. The combination of direction+jump is being learned, while the combination direction+jump+grab-wall is over his head. My wife's against him seeing the fighting and combat, but it's entirely possible to hang out in the city and just play races in front of him, or save people who are going to fall off of buildings, or who need to be taken to the hospital. So, I can play it in front of him, or he can play it, so long as I keep it on mute. Phrases like "Now I suck and I'm soaked" would easily get repeated by the impressionable little man.
Lego Star Wars for PS2. Still, this is very complicated for the 4yo to play. But, it's Legos. When someone or something is "killed" the Legos break apart; this, he's familiar with in real life. Some of the story scenes show the hands getting chopped off, but Good v. Evil is very clear. What's nice about this is that I can drop in and drop out at any time as a second player, and help him out, without taking over his controller. We can also play together. The pod racing is his favorite, because it only involves him learning how to maneuver, while the scenery itself moves. Also, if he crashed too many times, or time ran out, it gives a different end sequence, so he has feedback to know what happened, so he can improve.
See what I mean? Where can you find out this kind of information about a game's playability? I'm looking for something categorized by age group - not based on content, but based on play? This could be broken down even further by such things as skills (combination moves), types (race, fight, puzzle, etc), and comprehension (story line, strategy, etc).
To add one more thing...
I forgot to add if your son likes Spider-man, you should try Spider-man: Friend or Foe. It's a beat'em up that's rated E10+ compared to Ultimate Spider-man which is rated T for Teen. It has no language of any kind from what I know, and the controls are very simplified. It doesn't have an open overworld, and most of the levels are in the form of 3D sidescrolling and they're very linear, so it probably won't confuse him. You can also play the whole game in 2 player co-op. If you haven't heard of it, check it out. Again, as I said in my last reply I will try to improve my kid friendly list, but it's pretty hard to get good games for 4-, as there aren't that many on the market for that age group. But, I will try my best to find and add them.
reply to playability
Hmm. Well, first off I just started the site about two months ago, and I haven't really started to review many kids games yet. But, for example in my review for The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker, I recommend the game content-wise for all ages but difficulty-wise 10+ and tell you exactly why. So any game with no objectional content, I will tell you in pretty good detail if your kid will get bored or have a hard time with certain gameplay elements. I do have a list of kid-friendly games on my site. I'd be happy to hear some suggestions on what specific games you're curious about, ask me to look into it and I will review it. Email me at: email@jorimslist.com.
After I'm done with my content review for Grand Theft Auto (which has taken me over a week) I will try to add more features to my kids list and split them into age groups. Check the kid-friendly list out at the games page of my site. Again, give me all the input you like, I'd appreciate it:)
Jorim
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