Nintendo Switch- games for 11 & 14 YO girls?

[sunshineandpinot]

The switch was kind of a flop last Christmas. We're not really a gaming family. They have Just Dance and I guess whatever game came with it. 

I'd like to get them another game this year if there is something that might pique their interest? Any recs for 11 and 14 year old girls? I think they might really like Wheel of Fortune? Is that fun and something they could do together and with friends? 

Or maybe I should cut my losses and sell it? lol 

[ssmjlm]

Mario Kart is universally loved in our house. We will all play together.

The switch now has sports games like the Wii as well.

[gerberdaisy]

We aren't a gaming family either but mario kart and luigi's mansion are loved by all.

We're getting switch sports for christmas so can't speak to that yet, but looks like fun.

[abs]

We like Mario Kart and Smash Brothers. Lately DD has been playing a lot of the original Super Mario Bros, too. Honestly though at 12 she’s pretty much over the Switch.

[momin2013]

DS recently downloaded Ooblets - it's super cute and lots of fun!

[luckystar2]

Another rec for Mario kart. My 14 year old dd also loves Mario Party. We’ll play as a family - I like it a lot although dh isn’t a huge fan.

[megkat]

Some favorites here are Animal Crossing, Overcooked, Luigi’s Mansion, Mario Kart, and Mario Party

[sunshineandpinot]

Nov 17, 2022 10:46:37 GMT -5 ssmjlm said:

Mario Kart is universally loved in our house. We will all play together.

The switch now has sports games like the Wii as well.

So interesting! It looks like it has volleyball which my girls are obsessed with! Thanks for sharing. This might be good. 

[sunshineandpinot]

Another question- what price do I want to pay for these? Should I keep my eye out for 20% off? More?

[aspentosh]

DD is 10 (11 in Jan) and her favorites are Just Dance, Luigi's Mansion, and Mario Kart. If playing with one of us, she'll do Super Mario Bros U as well. That was my favorite because it's most like the original Mario, lol.

She's getting Super Mario 3D and Bowser's Fury for Christmas.

For pricing, I generally keep an eye out for $50 or less. There are a lot of deals on Switch games at Target and Gamestop and a lot of places match them.

[shortcake2675]

My kids love Splatoon. I'm getting Splatoon 3 for them for Christmas. They will both play Breath of the Wild. And I enjoyed Pikman on the DS. If it were on sale, I might grab it too.

[tacokick]

I think it comes down to what types of games they like. Do they want to play together? Do they like action games or cozy games?

[tealblue]

Mario kart is good for all. Ds (10) is getting the sports game for Christmas. We also love Mario party and monopoly!

I would say any kind of discount is good- maybe a buy one get one 50%? The popular ones (Mario or newer tiles) aren’t on sale often.

[sunshineandpinot]

Nov 17, 2022 14:10:51 GMT -5 tacokick said:

I think it comes down to what types of games they like. Do they want to play together? Do they like action games or cozy games?

Good question. I think they want to play together and I think they’d like cozy games…. Is that like wheel of Fortune??

[fortnightlily]

My son is 9, and we play a lot. Here are the games we play:

Luigi's Mansion 3 (multiplayer, puzzle solving)
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (multiplayer, racing)
Super Smash Bros Ultimate (multiplayer, fighting)
Gang Beasts (multiplayer, fighting)
Zelda: Breath of the Wild (single player, adventure and puzzle solving)
All the Pokemon series games (single player)
Lego Harry Potter (multiplayer, puzzle solving)
Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga (multiplayer, puzzle solving)
Untitled Goose Game (multiplayer, puzzle solving)
Super Mario Odyssey (single or multiplayer, adventure and puzzle solving)

Games we don't have but that he's asked for are the newest Pokemon game, Sonic Frontiers, Mario/Sonic Olympic Games, Kirby and The Forgotten Land, and Splatoon 3.

[tacokick]

Nov 17, 2022 15:54:05 GMT -5 sunshineandpinot said:

Nov 17, 2022 14:10:51 GMT -5 tacokick said:

I think it comes down to what types of games they like. Do they want to play together? Do they like action games or cozy games?

Good question. I think they want to play together and I think they’d like cozy games…. Is that like wheel of Fortune??

Cozy games are more cute/story games than action oriented. I think WoF would be more of a classic game.

This is a good list of ones they could play together that have a cozy vibe (not #5 tho!)


sea.mashable.com/entertainment/9893/12-cutesy-cozy-games-to-play-with-your-loved-ones-right-now?amp=1

[yellow23]

My 10 year old girl plays multiple Pokémon games, Minecraft, and animal crossing the most. She also loved Zelda and Mario odyssey, but she beat those a long time ago (she is surprisingly good at video games, which makes her older brother very mad at times). Minecraft and animal crossing get played with her friends a lot. She enjoys Mario cart with her brother and little sister sometimes. Also, the Untitled Goose game was a huge hit last Christmas, although she beat that pretty quickly too. Luigi’s Mansion was a surprising flop in our house, none of them like it much.

[niq]

msniq isn't much of a gamer but likes the "slow play" games like Animal Crossing, Stardew Valley, Cozy Grove, and Littlewood. She's branched out into Spiritfarer, which is a bit of a platformer.

If they like puzzle games, our favorites are snipperclips and Death Squared (Death Squared is not grim, it's like Portal, there are a bunch of nerdy jokes about robots and AI).

I really recommend Super Mario Brothers U deluxe, it's a fun game to play in groups.

V is basically into Minecraft and whatever he saw on Youtube last week. Sigh.

[browneyedgirl9]

I'm not a gamer, but my kids have Overcooked and I really like it.

[polarbearfans]

Mario kart and animal crossing are a lot of fun! We play Mario kart as a family and animal crossing too. It is a lot of fun on animal crossing once you get the island set up. You can decorate it or collect things. There is also an expansion game to add that allows you to get a job at designing homes for vacationers.

[hermione]

Nov 17, 2022 10:46:37 GMT -5 ssmjlm said:

Mario Kart is universally loved in our house. We will all play together.

The switch now has sports games like the Wii as well.

These two are the correct answer IMO.

[pittpurple]

My almost 10 year old isn't really into games but she likes Animal Crossing. She's started playing Zelda a bit (the adult version) as there's a story to it. She looked through a bunch of games online and put The Wild at Heart on her list as I think it's a similar sort of thing - an adventure story fantasy thing.

I think she'd like some of the games where you like adopt pets or similar but saving that for the next time.

[estrellita]

+1 to Animal Crossing, Mario Kart, Mario Party, Super Smash Bros, and several of the others mentioned.

I don't think I saw them mentioned so I want to add Yoshi's Crafted World and Disney Dreamlight Valley.

[ellipses84]

My 11 year old loves Stardew Valley (since he was 7 and I know adults who love it). IDK much about it… it has to do with farming… he says it’s not like animal farm… he’s very literal though so maybe they are similar? I was explaining something about agricultural harvesting seasons to him and he was like, “I knew that, I play Stardew Valley!”

I’d gear it to their interests, like a certain character or a certain type of game (like board game, cooperative games, artistic things, building worlds, etc). If there’s any old games you liked to play, they probably have it on Switch and my kids love when we play games with them. I like MarioKart, super Mario, Tetris, gameshow / trivia / party games and we got the kids the retro Atari game this year.

[ellipses84]

Nov 17, 2022 12:10:27 GMT -5 sunshineandpinot said:

Another question- what price do I want to pay for these? Should I keep my eye out for 20% off? More?

20% off is good especially if it’s a newer game. They don’t go on sale that often and this week is probably the best week to buy them. Recently Target had some games half off but it’s select games and not always the ones you want. Often after a game has been out a while Nintendo will drop the price permanently but Mario games are usually always around $50-60. There also a pretty cheap subscription service for certain games.

[niq]

Nov 18, 2022 21:12:46 GMT -5 browneyedgirl9 said:

I'm not a gamer, but my kids have Overcooked and I really like it.

WARNING: spouses should not play this game together, it's fast track to divorcetown, LOL.