Buying a Gameboy/Game station - help!

Okay - you guys were so helpful when it came to helping me choose a pet for my almost 8-year-old son (cats Will & Grace continue to be great) - I thought I would try again. My wife and I started talking about this pre-Xmas, but are thinking now that we are better targeting his birthday in Feb, so we have a little time.

Please note that he has a 5-year-old younger sister and we do NOT plan on getting her into games - sure, if we get a TV gaming console she can learn to share on some of the games, but we would not get her a Gameboy…

For a boy his age, what is the best approach to gaming?

  • Should we start with a Gameboy (simpler games, cheaper, portable) or a game console - Playstation/Xbox (can grow with it, more games, better visuals, sister can use it if needed)? Please share WHY along with your choice!

  • Based on your response - what should we get? If a Gameboy - which model? If a console - which kind? I know the old Xboxes are still available - one of those vs. a new Xbox 360? Again - WHY?

Okay - now that I have recommendations as to WHAT, help me with HOW!

  • what rules do you have established with your child regarding use of the gamer?
    > after homework
    > after chores
    > only X minutes per day - 30? 60?
    > Can/can’t do it when having friends over?

  • other tips for easing a game toy into the house???

I know nothing about these things - take it slowly, explain everything and please be patient with your responses!

And thank you!

If you get a console, the XBox tends to have more mature games. The Playstation fits comfortable in the middle, and the Gamecube appeals most to the elementary set.

If you get a handheld, get whatever his friends all have. A big part of the experience is playing everyone else’s games - less interesting if you have a PSP and they all have GBAs. GBAs (GameBoy Advanced) seem to be the most popular and have a lot of benefits for this age - the biggest being they don’t cost an arm an a leg when they inevitably get lost or stolen.

Handhelds have a lot of pluses for mom and dad - they don’t monopolize the TV, they can be brought along on long car rides or when your kid has to be along for his sister’s dentist appointment.

Consoles are more fun to play, more interactive. You can get great accessories like the eye toy or a dance pad that keeps all the game from being just good exercise for your thumbs.

Is your son prone to losing things? The Game Boy Advance, when closed, is only the size of my palm (I have small hands). A bus driver I chat with once complained to me about his son almost losing his Game Boy. The boy left it outside their house, forgot about it, and went inside. So it might not be a good idea to buy him a GBA (or any other portable system) if you’re worried about having to replace it (although it’s nice for long car trips).

Has your son ever played video games at all, like at a friend’s house? If you could tell us the names of any games that he likes, that would help.

I notice that you didn’t mention the Nintendo GameCube. The GC library has a reputation for being quite family-friendly, if you’re worried about finding age-appropriate games.

I looooove my GameCube and I definitely recommend it.

I’d go with a console before a portable. I love my new xbox, it was really pricey but i 'm subscribed to gamefly.com so I can rent games really cheap.

Portable games are nice too, I cant live without those either for my train ride in the morning.

I chose a Gameboy Advance a year ago when WhyKid was 11.5. I like that it’s portable, because the only times it’s useful for *me *are when we’re not home: waiting at the doctor’s office, long car trips, etc. He is not allowed to play it when there are social things going on, like at a restaurant or a party. He is not allowed to play it until all homework and reading is done, and is then limited to 1 hour a day before bed. He is definitely allowed to play it when his friends are over, as it’s the main thing they have in common - they bring their Gameboys, and they all hook together so they can all play together - no waiting for turns the way it was when we were kids on Atari. He is allowed only E or T rated games, no M.

It is the first thing taken away if his homework isn’t turned in or grades slip. The other reason I like the small unit is it’s very easy to take away - it just goes into my dresser drawer. There’s no console to unplug, move or otherwise argue over because it’s in plain sight.

Last Christmas, he pooled all the giftcards he got for Christmas and got himself a Nintendo DS which I always assumed was a Gameboy, but now that I look on the website, it’s on another tab. Whatever, it’s still a small handheld. He like it because it plays more games, links to other kids’ systems easier (it does it wirelessly, instead of with the cables needed for Advance) and looks and sounds better. He still plays the Gameboy Advance at times - about 30% of the time I see the Advance, and 70% is the DS.

Just a note - my son is always losing things, except for his Gameboys. He keeps track of them like a hunting hound. He bought himself a case for each, which also holds an impressive number of games, and he’s very responsible about keeping track of his stuff. He knows that if I find a game lying around, it will “disappear” for some undetermined amount of time. After the first week, I never found a single thing out of place.

Wow - all good. Thanks. Keep 'em coming!

I was always a console player for many years. Mainly Nintendo because of the flawlessness of their Mario/Zelda series.
Until recently I shyed away from handhelds because I could never see the dimly lit screens. Now I bought a Gameboy Advance SP with the brighter screen. At $70 this is a bargain. Games are cheaper than a console however they are more simplistic and graphics not as good.
For an 8-year old I think this is the way to go. No need for an additional TV. No wires. No hook-ups. An inexpensive form of gaming.
I’ll still play consoles but mainly for deeper, graphic intense, complex games that probably wouldn’t be good for an 8-year old anyway (i.e. Resident Evil, Prince of Persia, Tiger Woods Golf, Madden Football).

Systems in my house:
Me: PS2, PSP, Xbox 360.
My son (age 7): Game Boy Advance SP (he also plays PSP and PS2 whenever he can)
My daughter *age 6): Game Boy Advance SP, which she rarely plays.

**Dangerosa **plays the PS2. I haven’t let her have much time with the 360 yet. :slight_smile:

For kids, my recommendation is the Game Boy Advance SP(the clamshell model). As **Dangerosa **already noted, there are significant advantages to the handheld – portability and not taking up the TV being two big ones. Lower cost of games is another.

If you’re up for somewhat more expense, consider the Nintendo DS (aka Dual Screen) which is backward-compatible with Game Boy Advance games and also plays DS games. The main selling point of the DS is its touch-screen (which allows for new kinds of gameplay) and its wireless networking capabilities.

I would not recommend a PSP for an 8-year-old. I have one, and my 7-year-old plays it every chance he gets, but at $250, they’re too expensive to let someone that young be responsible for (in my opinion; my son is responsible and careful but he’s 7, so I’m not comfortable with it).

The primary downside to the handheld units is the chance of loss. If you’re not certain about that, and willing to take on the slightly higher cost and potential inconvenience of a dedicated console, you get a lot more power for your money.

For consoles, the best choice is the Playstation 2. It’s inexpensive (about $130) and has a gigantic library of games, spanning a wide range of genres. A really good second choice is the GameCube. Sitting next to me here in the office (ready to be wrapped and delivered to the Children’s Hospital in St. Paul) is a Game Cube bundle that includes the Cube, Mario Party 7 and an extra controller, all for $99. Quite a deal. There are some games which are Game Cube exclusives – anything Mario is Game Boy or Game Cube only, for example.

Xbox 360 is really hard to get and expensive, and not really worthwhile for someone that young. The main selling points are online-enabled gameplay and HDTV compatibility, plus a set of games that appeals to adults. All of the launch titles are either shooting games or sports titles.

The Xbox is pretty similar to the Xbox 360, except less expensive. I wouldn’t recommend it for a kid.

I own a DS, games are ridiculously expensive so don’t buy that. Gameboy SP’s are a good idea. Good range of games, good if one of his friends owns pokemon then they can trade and stuff if he has it.
Maybe if you are friends with his friend’s parents you could ask them if he likes playing with their console (if they have one).

I design videogames for Sony. I have an eight-year-old son. I agree with what a lot of parent have already said: Get your boy a GBA SP. There are lots of age-appropriate games and the portability means its great for keeping him occupied in a variety of situations. (For example my son plays in the waiting room while my daughter is at the speech therapist.)

If you get him a portable system, whatever the brand, please get him headphones if he will be playing it in doctors office waiting rooms.

This is all great - thank you. My wife is checking with other moms to find out what their kids have so my son can share games and network with their GB’s but I am pretty sure that is the way to go for now.

I appreciate the help!

I agree with what most people have said here. The Playstation 2 is the console to get for at home behind the TV, and the GameBoy that the other kids have is probably your best for on the move, and maybe also overall if indeed he’s part of a culture that plays gameboy games together.

In general, your kid will learn more from a PS2, and there are plenty of games you can play together on that too, if you buy an extra controller or even get a multitap for 4 or more players.

Also, especially if you have more than one kid, a PS2 can be something great for them to play games on together. I recently witnessed two kids about the same age (8 and 9 if I remember correctly) have at Jak & Daxter (the first one). They had a great time together, even though you can play only one at a time. I have been playing games since I was 10 myself.

A (3D Platformer) game like Jak & Daxter gives them a definite head-start in mathematics, especially geometry, and if I had a choice I would definitely give my kid a PS2 first, and a gameboy second.

But it definitely matters what the other kids have - if all the other kids had Xboxes, I’d give him an Xbox. If all the other kids had a Cube, I’d give him a Cube. But the Playstation 2 is the best console currently out there, simply because it has such an amazing library of great games for all ages, and it plays CDs and DVDs out of the box to boot, which is also great for a kid - they can watch their Pixars and Disneys endlessly.

A second hand PS2 can be a good thing too, especially if electronics don’t scare you - the only really serious problem a PS2 typically has is that it gets dirty inside, which is easily fixed if you can handle a screwdriver. And second hand PS2s come around for very low prices. In fact, sometimes you can buy or get a dirty PS2 for practically nothing, open it, clean it, and have a PS2 that is as good as new.

It is noteworthy, by the way, that a Nintendo DS has some really cool games (like Nintendogs - if you’re into that, I personally hate it but I can see it’s a great game), but it can also play older Gameboy Games. This is often forgotten, like I imagine is the case with the kid above who picks up his old Gameboy rather than put the games into his DS.

(just like the Playstation 2 can also still play Playstation 1 games, like the still brilliant Micro Machines v3, or the really nice platformer Pandemonium, all games that can be found for practically nothing even in regular shops, but also check old rental places that sell their stock, etc. )

Y’know, I asked him about that last night, and he said you can play old games in single player mode on the DS, but sometimes he likes to play multiplayer mode (I dunno, he’s a weird kid) or, more often, he’s playing his Advance while his DS is charging.

If you do go with a console, I’m a big Playstation 2 proponent. Of course, with PS 3 coming out sometime soon, it’s library will soon become stagnant (on the plus side, that means the prices for the games will drop)

and if you do pick up a PS2 and want a ‘family friendly’ game…

Katmari Damacy is in my opinion, one of the greateest games ever made. It’s extremely simple to play, and is totally mesmerizing. Basically, you roll things up like giant snowball. In early levels, you’re rolling up small things you’d find on someone’s floor; like coins, dice, moving up to batteries, casette tapes, video tapes etc.

Eventually, you start rolling bigger things up. Plants, children’s toys, small pets, larger pets, slowly snowballing to the point where you roll up the entire neighborhood you started in in a single motion, and keep getting bigger, taking up islands, storm systems, everything.

It may sound kind of stupid and boring from my description, but I cannot outline just how fun this game is to play.

I just picked up it’s sequel “We Love Katamari” a couple weeks ago. I love it.

DS games are slightly more expensive (high end is $34.99, norm is $29.99) if you buy new. In addition, the DS allows you to play all of the old Gameboy Advanced games (but NOT the original Gameboy games). On top of that, as mentioned before, it allows you to play against others wirelessly, and McDonald’s has wi-fi set up in their restaurants now specifically so people can play against one another on the DS.

If you are looking for a handheld, I would recommend the DS for its huge library and ease of use.

For a console, as much as I love my new XBox 360 and some of the innovations contained within it, a) the library is relatively small and b) good luck getting one before Christmas (I was able to get one from Circuit City online in a 3 minute window before they sold out).
While people are generally right that the Gamecube is the most kid-friendly (and it is), unless your kids are big fans of all things Mario and Zelda, it may not be the way to go. I am not saying EVERY game has those characters, but their best games consistently do. I would look instead at the PS2. In addition to its huge library, it has many GOOD Dance Dance Revolution games (the Gamecube has one title, and it has gotten poor reviews) that if your son won’t play, I bet you will. Or if not that, you have Karaoke Revolution. Okay, so maybe not the best selling points for a game system, but the PS2 seems to have the widest variety of titles of all the console systems out there.

Just a minor nitpick, but the DS does NOT work with the old Gameboy games. It DOES work with the entire Gameboy Advance library, but if you try an old old title for the original Gameboy (like I did with Kid Icarus), you will see that there is no way to insert the cartridge.

I would definitely recommend a DS over the Gameboy SP, if only because it plays both DS and SP games – which i can still rent both of from gamefly along with the other consoles.

The DS is a little more expensive but i think its a sturdier and much more impressive piece of hardware.

The problem is, you have to buy new most of the time. With the SP, there are a lot more second hand games.

I don’t know about over there, but over here, the wi-fi is set up for a completely different reason than specifically for the DS.

Huge library? Compared the the SP as everyone else has been recommending? IMHO, the OP is not looking for a gaming system with all the bells and whistles. Just something the kid will enjoy. I’m not trying to argue with you, I own a DS and also highly recommend them. But I would not recommend one to a 7 yr old child.

The most fun my little sister had on my DS was playing an old SP game. You don’t need a dual screens to entertain a 7 yr old.