I have an old Raspberry Pi 1 (!) still going strong with Batocera Linux running NES, SNES and Mega Drive (Genesis) emulators.
I’m looking for easy multiplayer games that can be played with a 5yo. Non violent and ideally co-op, bonus points if somewhat educational.
On the SNES, all of the games below have coop:
- Tiny Toons Wild and Wacky Sports - a collection of several silly minigames as some sort of tournament, with minimum scores that need to be reached. No direct violence between players, only cartoon shenanigans like falling down a cliff, snowballing after tripping while skiing, etc. (Maybe show the kid some of the old cartoons as well, if s/he enjoys, I’m sure the game will be more interesting to him/her)
- Super Bomberman - Might count as “violent”, since you’re bombing weird looking enemies, but it’s a formula that rarely gets old and plays great as co-op. Your kid might enjoy 3 and 4 the most, with the variety of mounts to be had (if your rpi can run NeoGeo games, Neo Bomberman is also a great choice)
- Top Gear - Racing game with one of the best soundtracks in the console. Top Gear 3000 goes to space and has plenty of options for upgrading your car.
- Secret of Mana - Might count as “violent”, especially as you start off with a sword and kill cute bunny-thing enemies. An action RPG that, once you get the 2nd character, it can be played with the 2nd controller. Drop-in/drop-out, so you can easily join and leave while your kid plays or vice versa. The same applies for Secret of Mana 2 (Seiken Densetsu 3)
- Magical Quest 2 and 3 - Disney games that are best when played cooperatively (the first lacks coop). Starts off easy enough and you get new costumes that give special powers, which help you out in the stages going forward. It’s “Disney violence” how you beat most enemies (jumping on their heads, spinning them against one another)
- Kirby Super Star and Dreamland 3 - Both allow for a second player to join in and help. Dreamland 3 has a very unique and cute looking style.
- International Super Star Soccer - If you’re into normal football (soccer), this is easily the best of its kind for the 16-bit era
- NBA Jam - Also available on the Mega Drive, dunno which version is better. BOOM SHAKA LAKA!!
Sonic 2! Let the 5yo be tails! He’ll never die. He can collect rings and kill enemies. It’s the best 2 player platformer ever created
Goofy Troop
Snake Rattle and roll! For the NES.
Alley Cat Remeow Edition is a fan remake of Alley Cat, an arcade game, with up to 4 players, but it’s PC (should still run on that hardware, i hope!)
Lode Runner (NES) might be okay. Not multiplayer, but it’s got nice low-stakes puzzling gameplay.
Edutainment games are a bit few and far between on consoles - Donkey Kong Jr. Math springs to mind, but it’s remarkably dry for a Nintendo game.
Troddlers - SNES
The music in Troddlers slaps.
Its a puzzle platformer game similar to Lemmings. Little dudes walk in a straight line and you play as a wizard that can place blocks. You have to get the little dudes to the exit.
The only violence is when the little guys or the other player gets smooshed by a block I think, its been a long time since I played the game.
SNES:
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Harvest Moon - this can lead into allowing the kid to plant something IRL and having them water it regularly, allowing them to “be a real farmer”. Incidentally this is also a great way to get a child to eat vegetables, as a child who refuses to even consider eating a vegetable will change their mind when they grew it themselves
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Super Mario Kart
Mega Drive:
- Dr Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine - simple puzzle game with humorous characters from the old cartoon
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The NES sesame Street games are pretty good.
My youngest loved sesame Street countdown. it was really forgiving and taught her basic platformer mechanics.
R.C. Pro Am
Lemmings for Amiga had a 2player split screen mode. Goal is to guide the most lemmings (yours and the other players) into your exit.
A bunch of arcade games become much more friendly to kids with infinite continues, shmups, fighters, brawlers, etc but for those you’ll need to filter on violence. I’d probably also avoid anything RPG or story heavy.
My picks would be Bubble bobble, Kirby on SNES, ice hockey on NES, Mario 1-3, super Mario kart, Tetris, monkey ball, Dr Mario. For Sega Sonic 1-3 & knuckles, ecco, robotnik’s mean bean machine, Alex kidd, outrun
Joust. Easily understood game for little ones, and you can discourage player killing.
Ooh. Good one! Joust even gives nice bonus points for managing not to kill each-other.
It doesn’t count as non-violent, but every kid I have played it with has thoroughly enjoyed the TMNT arcade game (as well as the Simpsons game that plays similarly. If you play with them you can essentially carry them through the game and they are just along for the ride, but feel like they are part of the team.
Bubble Bobble is one of my favourite retro multiplayer games since it has both players playing simultaneously (not each take a turn/hand off the controller) but might still be a bit difficult for a 5 year old 🤔
Edit: Tetris & Dr. Mario for the SNES might also work
Dr Mario? My 3 yo wanted me to play Dr Mario while looking around in the n64 thing on switch. The game totally crushed me. Maybe 5 year olds are better at it than 40 year olds 😂
I second Dr Mario. When I first went off to kindergarten, my mom and little brother would play Dr Mario together. It’s perfect for that age range, simple to play and control, with an option for two-player mode.
Nah. I played the crap outta Bubble Bobble around that age. Some of my best early memories involve playing Bubble Bobble on NES with my parents after dinner every night. Had all the level codes jotted down on a sheet of notebook paper, including all the lettered levels.
If Bubble Bobble fits; Snow Bros, TumblePop, Puzzle Bobble or Super Pang may work too.
- Bonus educational game, is to install GCompris and solve the puzzles together.
I played the shit out of bubble bobble as a 3 year old. It has passwords for saves, which was tricky because none of me and the other neighborhood kids could read. It’s a great game, though.
There’s one level like a third of the way through that baffled us for weeks. Still hard, as an adult. Good fun, though. Lots of “go go go go get it go go go oooh no dang.” moments.
This is a great idea. I was also just thinking of using cheats to enable invincibility for player 2, that way they can save you and not worry about dying.
I’m double on the Bubble Bobble! A core memory for me is playing that game with my brother for hours on end!
