Top 10 video games for kids this year
— -- It's been a good year for video games focused on kids.
Our list of the best kid games of 2011 includes games for kids ranging in age from 4 to 12, spanning all video game platforms. For the first time, we have a preschool game on Kinect (Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster). Educational games that are equally as fun are popping up on the Nintendo DS (The Magic School Bus: Oceans and Team Umizoomi). Revered and iconic characters are returning in new games (Kirby Mass Attack,Super Mario 3D Land, Skylanders Spyro's Adventure and Professor Layton and the Last Specter). Two Lego games provide hilarious re-enactments of classic movies (Lego Harry Potter: Years 5-7 and Lego Pirates of the Caribbean). The list even has a kid-friendly MMO (massively multiplayer online game) that is full of zany platforming puzzles (Monkey Quest).
Here's this year's best:
FOR AGES 4-6
Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster
From Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, best for ages 4-7, $49.99, for Xbox 360 Kinect. Rated E.
By using Kinect, kids get to play games with the Sesame Street Muppets without having to use a controller. This magical gaming experience has kids jumping, wiggling and running in front of the TV to interact with a variety of friendly monsters. In the process, preschoolers will learn about friendship, working together, facing fears and how to solve problems.
Team Umizoomi
From 2K Play, best for ages 4-6, $29.99, for Nintendo DS. Rated EC.
Based on a Nick Jr. TV show of the same name, this cute math game lets kids join the two pint-sized heroes and their robot friend on an adventure to find missing parts to a rocket ship. Using early math concepts, kids will explore over 25 learning games, which adjust to the kid's ability as he or she plays. This is a great pick for your youngest gamer.
FOR AGES 7-9
The Magic School Bus: Oceans
From Scholastic, best for ages 5-9, $19.99, for Nintendo DS. Rated E.
Kids join Ms. Frizzle's class to go on an adventure under the sea. By exploring six different locations in the ocean, kids are exposed to and play with all kinds of underwater creatures. The game does a great job of combining fantasy travel in the Magic School Bus with fun educational mini-games that teach facts about underwater animals.
Monkey Quest
From Nickelodeon, best for ages 8-14, $9.95/month, for Win/Mac. Rated E.
This massively multiplayer online game is perfect for kids who have tired of "Club Penguin." In this world, you are a monkey who goes on hundreds of quests to save the world. The world is exciting, funny and beautifully displayed in 3D. It looks and plays like a console platforming game. Whole families can enter this world and play together.
Kirby Mass Attack
From Nintendo, best for ages 8-up, $29.99, for Nintendo DS. Rated E.
Cute, pink, blobby Kirby gets split into 10 mini-Kirbys in this side-scrolling, platform-puzzling game. You go on an adventure to rescue all of the little Kirbys and, in the process, save Kirby's planet. Game play is unique, because you are in control of a group of characters instead of just one.
Super Mario 3D Land
From Nintendo, best for ages 8-up, $39.99, for Nintendo 3DS. Rated E.
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