Please talk consoles with me!

[wakemewhenitsallover]

Thinking about maybe getting a console as a main present, to be shared by my 10yr old and 6yr old.

I know very little about consoles.

The kids like playing Minecraft and Roblox on phones. I'm not keen on them having loads of violent games.

I think the concept of the Wii was great - getting them off their bums and giving them some exercise. MIL has a Wii and they enjoy it. But - are they quite old now? Are they still worth getting?

I haven't used a console for years. Are they about more than just games these days? What else do they do?

Which is the best console for kids? (That doesn't cost an arm and a leg if possible?)

I had an 11yo and a 7yo. We have a Nintendo Switch, which is great and gets used loads (you can get Minecraft on it - not sure about Roblox) and the games are pretty non violent as they are Mario type based in the main but even the non-Mario ones aren’t bad. We have Plants Vs Zombies, Splatoon, LegoWorld. For Christmas it’s Pokemon Let’s Go Eevee and Starlink. They are cheap though - the consoles are around £300 but they are also portable which is great for holidays.

We also have a PS4, which is my DH’s but the kids have used it for Skylanders in the past but the games tend to be ‘older’.

*have rather than had. They are still very much with us!

I'm guessing you meant to say they aren't cheap?!!

I wondered if the Switch would cause more arguments as the portable mode it for one person isn't it?

Or do you rarely use that and just leave it plugged into the telly most of the time?

All the kids here want Play Stations or Xboxes. Personally for younger children I prefer the Nintendo Switch as I feel Nintendo has more tween friendly games. This also has some of the active features of the Wii I believe and can be used on the TV or on the go with two controls.
That said they aren't cheap!

Nintendo Switch has a pull out control on either side I believe.

Bloody hell. Yes, they aren’t cheap. Apologies!

You can play two player games with the Switch actually, which is great for things like Mario Kart.

It very rarely leaves the house unless we are on a long journey or similar. It stayed plugged in to the TV mostly.

It’s a great little console but definitely aimed at the younger end of the market but given your DC’s ages, I don’t see that being an issue as it’ll be a couple of years (hopefully!) before they want their own PS or X Box to play the older games.

The x-box 1 S looks like it's £100 cheaper. Is it any good?

My 10 year is even the switch for Christmas, we've the limited edition Pokémon Go Evie one. Not cheap at all $500 but it's lovely and will make him very happy.

Why do ALL the X box one s bundles at Curry's come with an 18 rated game? What crap marketing.

Mm. Two minds. A Wii - very old now, especially the earliest ones. You’d get a Wii for dirt cheap and since it’s so old now in terms of console generations the games will be cheaper too PLUS the Wii uses discs rather than cartridges and takes a wider range of Wii games.

The Switch - newer. Has games like Mario (currently battling my way through Super Mario Odyssey!) MarioKart, Pokemon, Minecraft IIRC, Zelda - not too violent. More expensive than a Wii though I think bundles nowadays are £230/300? Portable and can be used in the car etc. But - the games are much more expensive compared to Wii games - I paid £120 for three Switch games for Christmas this year at £40 a pop whereas Wii games cost half that. Plus, the Switch uses cartridges so there’s less of a range.

I think it depends also on what your 10yo wants, I say the 10yo as they’re the most likely to be chatting about it in school etc? So if they’re interested in that, playing/talking about it with friends etc I’d be more likely to get a Switch. If not, then I’d lean toward a Wii.

Amazon do an Xbox one with fortnite or Fifa.

My nephew has an XBox 1 and they’ve just bought another for my younger nephew. The games are a bit older.

I think perhaps look at the type of games available, that they want to play/you’d be happy with them playing with and work backwards from there.

There’s little point in buying them a console where a large proportion of the games are off limit to them due to age or content.

You’ll likely get them nagging to play Fortnite more on an XBox or PS as this seems to be the preferred way to play the game (you can actually download it for the Switch)

I’ve just re-read your OP, I definitely wouldn’t be buying a Wii. They are pretty outdated now.

We had the Switch last year and it’s been a great investment (we completed Odyssey over the Xmas break littletortoise!) but I’ve always been a Nintendo fan.

They don't play Fortnite.

DS loves Minecraft, couldn't care less that everyone else seems to be playing Fortnite!

He also loves Roblox and is into building his own games for it using the Roblox studio thingy.

Both DC like multiplayer games like murder mystery on the phone and they like playing online games with DS's mate online. I don't know what console he has, possibly x box?

DD loves all sorts of rubbish like styling puppies' fur etc. She'd love dance games I think. She enjoys educational stuff like word games.

I think DS would like fantasy / adventure type games.

Can you do anything with console's that's not play games?

The're on the internet these days so surely they can do more than just games? Or am I missing the point here. are they just for games?!

The problem as had with the Xbox was the games. We struggled because they seemed to be for under 7s or over 15s .

You can play the Switch online with pals on different platforms. Just buy headphones or else they’ll drive you mad.

You haven’t said which ones your eldest but my DD is the eldest and doesn’t play on the Switch much at all - they do have Nintendo Labo for creative type things, which is meant to be excellent but again, not cheap when you add in the cost of the console.

Xbox is the preferred choice of console round here. Fortnite and Fifa19 the preferred games.

My dd 9 has a Xbox one s we got a bundle with Minecraft but it was more than a year ago. She mostly plays Minecraft or just dance although she does have other games it is connected to our living room tv so we also use it for you tube and Netflix.

www.argos.co.uk/product/8366241

This is the bundle I bought although I got it from Tesco. Top tip if it's for Christmas plug it in and check it's working do all the downloads before the big day. Our original one had a hardware fault and we had to return it so it was nearer the 28th of December before dd actually got to play on it.

That’s a good tip actually! We did it and the Switch downloaded a update for an hour,’plus setting the accounts up took forever.