Techno Tots - Wii Mario Kart
Monday, May 19th, 2008If you have been following me on Twitter, you discovered I took the plunge and purchased a Wii last week for the family. I picked up Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Mario Kart and the much needed accessory (Wii Steering Wheels). And while I have only played one game of Super Smash Bros., I’ve been addicted to Mario Kart and so has my son.
Mario Kart is a very simple game to play, however it provides incredible entertainment value. The maps included are very engaging, run from easy to navigate to more challenging in nature, and are full of colorful Nintendo characters and Mii’s. Mii’s are avatars that you can create in your own image, that are used within the game as you play along.
Creating your Mii is one of the first tasks accomplished when you are setting up the console, and my son loved interacting with this process. While I controlled the creation of his avatar, my son had full creative input in regards to the physical features. Hair, skin tone, facial expressions where all his choices, and we ended up with incredible cartoon likeness when completed.
As my son is not yet 3, I did have some reservations that he would not be able to play using the controller correctly. And that may very well be the case for other games that use the standard controller. However the Wii Wheel in Mario Kart is incredibly easy to use, even for a child at such a young age. That said, it did take several games, with Dad’s guidance, for him to understand you turn the wheel itself and *not* your body, to make the kart change directions. And now, after several family gaming sessions with an emphasis on “trading turns” and “sharing,” my son is able to complete several tracks on his own, without any help at all from Dad. Watching cartoons has now been replaced with requests to play the racing game.
While I don’t claim to have the exact answer to when you should introduce your child to video games, I’m sure it lies somewhere between when you feel the time is right for your child and/or according to your own personal parental beliefs.
But I would love to hear from the community.
At what age did you introduce video games to your children? What restrictions, if any, did you put in place for usage? Is there a negative to introducing video games to our kids early on?
