My little nephew is always asking to play the games on Xbox or GC that I’m playing but the controls are typically too complex. Does anyone know of any games on these consoles that a 4yr old could play and enjoy? Thanks.
As I used to tell people at Target: How about a ball?
Seriously, don’t let the videogames sink their claws into the kid too early.
I reccomend Halo 2 and Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem. 
Note: Halo 2 involves frantically shooting hoardes of aliens coming at you , often with assualt rifles. Eternal Darkness is a psychological horror game that has scared the crap out of grown men. Don’t let your kid play these.
I can’t think of any videogames that a four-year-old can handle.
When my son was four I’d sometimes load up Ocarina of Time and let him run Link in a circle.
Strangely enough, one of the earliest games my son could “play” was Tony Hawk. If you don’t do any stunts you can just skate around using only the joystick.
The Spyro games are also really good for little kids. I think they may be exclusive to Playstation though … .
Pikmin and Monkey Ball are thoroughly harmless (until you get really good at Monkey Ball and every level becomes M-rated for language*). Animal Crossing is good if he can read; it’s about running around a village making friends with various animals and collecting things, but there are no voices.
Oh, and Resident Evil 4. I know I always scream like a little girl when I hear “Detras de ti, imbecil!” and a chainsaw takes off my head.
- Yours, not the game’s.
My three year old plays many Playstation games and gets a fair amount of enjoyment out of them. He loves War of the Monsters, which has a fair amount of violence in the form of large monsters fighting each other and destroying cities in the process.
Test Drive: Off Road, is fun and allows for quite a bit of free-roaming, and less need for facility with the controls.
Some of the collections of older games (Midway and Namco) are good as well, since Golden Oldies like Galaxian and Pac Man can be played with limited control skill.
Little Case will be three in a couple of months, and loves racing sims, especially those with damage engines where you can smash up the car: Race Driver 2 is a favourite. He’s also a big Simpsons fan, so Simpsons: Hit And Run is a family favourite - very “cartoony”, with great graphics and voices, and you can acquire cool vehicles like fire-engines, Willy’s tractor and Grandpa Simpson’s WW2 jeep and then destroy them, to his unending delight. His ability with the controls is limited, but improving, and it’s always a shared activity: he accelerates, I steer.
I’d stay well away from the shooters, since some of the violence is pretty graphic and scary for kids, and limit his time on it - I guess that’s up to his parents, but Little Case gets no more than 30 minutes a time two or three times a week - and never in the daytime; it’s an occasional treat before bed, and takes second place to reading stories.
Fuzion Frenzy is simple with most (all?) of the games using one or two buttons and one stick/crosspad. Its really a party game and I’ve never played it alone but its fun and appropriate for a youngster.
I also have a four year old and an xbox, which is basically his.
Along the lines of Fusion Frenzy there is Shrek Super Party that is also a party game and really simple. I don’t know about his but it’s my favourite for playing with him and mom. Oh and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is also great for playing alongside him.
I just asked him what his favourite game is and he pointed at “The Incredibles”. But I think he loves the movie more than the game… and If there was a Toy Story game for the xbox I’m sure he would point at it. Sadly there isn’t.
In addition to the great suggestions offered in this thread, you may also want to check out Metacritic, a video game review site that takes reviews from many different sources and averages the scores together. That link goes to the Xbox section, but they also have a Gamecube section.
Generally, movie-related games come out around the time of the movie, which I agree is unfortunate for movies that many consider timeless. There is a Toy Story game for Dreamcast. You could probably get a copy of it along with a used Dreamcast console for less than the price of a new Xbox game alone. Might be something to think about, depending on how bad your son wants it.
How about some building blocks and legos?
Only if it comes with a special controller.
I beleive the weenie comes built in.
Why does it have to be either video games or legos?
My children (9 and 3 year old boys) seem to manage both of those things, as well as army men, wooden train sets, play costumes, computer activities, and children’s sports leagues (soccer and basketball right now). When they aren’t watching cartoons, movies, or playing with friends, that is.
If you dislike video games, fine. But the OP wasn’t asking “What toys should I buy for a three year old?”
My four-year old likes to play Shrek 2, Spyro: A Hero’s Tail, Wallace & Gromit: Project Zoo, and Batman: Vengeance. (There are others, but those are the ones he likes that are available on XBox.)
He also likes to play BloodRayne 2, but we don’t talk about that.