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My heart is being torn by you youngest daughter who seems to be disappearing into a hole of depression because of C-19. She’s 13 and should be out doing the hints that I probably wouldn’t want to hear about, instead she’s spending all her time in her bedroom in the dark.
Thankfully she has agreed to spend some time after tea with mum and dad so I thought it might be therapeutic to get a two layer game for the Xbox- something mildly competitive where you’re both on screen at the same time. Hi honking maybe a shoot ‘m up but not COD or GTA - something appropriate and light hearted. Or anything else??
I’d welcome your suggestions. Thanks in advance from a sad dad.
Rocket League. Hotshot Racing. NHL (get an older version for peanuts). Golf With Your Friends.
Hope you bring her back to normality. Hopefully the lives of 13 yr olds will improve dramatically quite quickly.
Damn, somehting Nintendo/Mariokart would always be my first choice for the fun, the music and the colourfulness.
Xbox is a bit of a mystery for me, but Minecraft seems to be popular. You could maybe take it in turns to build stuff?
My daughter & I went retro and got a mini SNES...Super Mario, Streetfighter II, Mario Kart etc I actually stand a chance of competing!
Not two player, but Untitled Goose Game is worth a look - my son and I took turns to play it.
team up in apex legends
If you want Mario Kart (which is nintendo only, obv), Crash Bandicoot Racing is basically a clone of MK
There are some fantastic puzzle games that have fun two player mechanics. you MUST get Portal 2, which is much the same as portal 1, but has a two player option.
Also, Rayman Origins is great. 2D platformer at modern graphics point. Starts simple and gets impossibly hectic.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvhwWXF-LfU&ab_channel=Ubisoft
Any of the Lego games. There are stacks of them based on different movie franchises and they're good fun to do two player co-op.
My 2 are spending a lot of time playing Plants vs Zombies 2. I got if for them at Christmas as they wanted a shooter they could play together and I didn't want them on CoD or similar.
I mostly play Fortnite and Minecraft with the kids (mine are almost-11 and 7).
Both require separate devices, rather than a shared screen, but I can play Minecraft on the iPad while they play on laptops. (That used to be an option for Fortnite too until Epic started suing Apple!)
I remember having fun with a frisbee golf game on PS3, using the move controllers - there were other games too, that was good for multiplayer. Does Xbox have an equivalent?
Something that involves jumping about? Modern equivalent of wii sports or that dance one. Something you can look like a dick on and makes her laugh?
Cheers everyone, recommendations are greatly appreciated. Like the sound of frisbee golf, Plant vs Zombies and Portal 2.
Keep ‘em coming. Ta.
Pretty much played this niche version of Rocket League for the last year or so, fun yet strategical use of the powerups.
"Free To Play" these days from Epic store.
Portal 2 as mentioned.
Untitled Goose Game is worth a look – my son and I took turns to play it.
The new version (2?) is the same game but 2 player co-op - short game but well worth a blast.
Bomberman.
littlebigplanet is a lovely game for this kind of thing
The Lego games are really good and they have the advantage of being cooperative rather than competetive and I think some of the rehashed Sonic games are two player co-op as well. Games are a really good way of escaping the awfulness of the current situation and I hope your daughter gets well soon, depression can get [i]right[/i] in the ****ing sea x
Bomberman
This, but be prepared to buy new controllers as they'll be thrown against the wall fairly often 🤣 I love/hate Bomberman.
Fibbage on the JackBox Party Pack, available on steam. Great fun for everyone!
Unravel 2 is a lovely cooperative 2 player problem solving platformer on Xbox.
Guacamellee 2 and unruly heroes are a bit similar but with added fighting - Mexican wrestling or kung Fu.
Sonic racing is a bit like Mario kart on X box. There's a team co-op version too.
^ Unravel 2 on the xbox game pass is brilliant and very adult and kid friendly. Can't recommend enough.
If you want a split-screen shooter and she's on the more mature side of 13, there's always Borderlands. It's rated 18 and quite sweary though.
https://www.commonsensemedia.org/game-reviews/borderlands
My 12yo son played through Dark Souls recently with me helping him (it's not two player on the same console) and loved that. Somewhat counter-intuitive suggestion but it's quite well known for helping people through dark times (seriously) because the theme is you never, ever, give up.
Thanks for that recommendation Garry_Lager - I'll take a gander at it this evening.
A word to the wise, Dark Souls is fantastic but it is a notoriously difficult and unforgiving game. It's not a game for a casual gamer or anyone with a penchant for defenestrating controllers.
Would also recommend overcooked 1 & 2. Really great coop game for up to 4 players on screen. Its both simple and really difficult to get all the order out at the same time.
Dark Souls: Git Gud. Sonic All Stars Racing is also reat fun in split screen. Also Unspottable is great, all on the same screen, very simple but infuriatingly good fun.
Dark Souls: Git Gud.
Exactly the message you want to be giving to a depressed 13 year old girl? You're just not good enough?
Unravel 2 as mentioned above would be number 1 on my list. My daughter (9) and I have had a great time over 1/2 term playing. Superb graphics and needs lots of team work to solve the puzzles.
I've been playing Blockhead Theatre with my GF (not a gamer, but played a load of Prince of Persia on her Dad's PC as a kid) through lockdown.
It's brutally difficult in the later stages, but it's quite funny and progresses nicely.
Overcooked 2 was less successful. Nearly caused a raging argument.
We've stuck a couple of hours into Biped, which is kind of fun.
I'm keen to give Hyper Light Drifter a go.
I'll get flamed for this but in your situation I'd let her go and meet up with a couple of mates and be kid again a few times a week.
perchypanther
Free Member
Dark Souls: Git Gud.Exactly the message you want to be giving to a depressed 13 year old girl? You’re just not good enough?
No it's not, it's also not a game I'd choose to play with a depressed 13 year old girl either. It's notoriously difficult and also has some dark themes. Git Gud is pretty much a phrase that goes with the game. If you've played it you'll realise that it's difficulty puts a lot of people off, depressed or not.
Exactly the message you want to be giving to a depressed 13 year old girl? You’re just not good enough?
Very much this. There's a time and a place for ferociously difficult games but this isn't one of them.
Chess?
Git Gud is pretty much a phrase that goes with the game
Git gud is a phrase that really, really boils my piss.
It pretty much sums up why a lot of teenagers are depressed in the first place. Not just in relation to video games either.
The pressure on teenage kids to constantly assume that they should always somehow be better at everything is crushing for them.
I'll second borderlands, great fun messing about.
Minecraft is loved by my 13yo daughter, she preferred building ever more impressive buildings but has now started building redstone devices (a mix between coding and being a sparky).
Terraria is another one she plays (although not as much) that is good team work fun.
Elite could work too, one of you flying the main ship the other in a turret/SLF mini fighter (loads of support in the stw player group).
Do any of her friends have a games console? As they could play together online which is possibly better for her again?
Minecraft..can split screen, or one on Xbox/ipad/laptop
Unravel 2 is BRILLIANT - me and my 6 year old play it..she calls it 'stringy'!! Lovely game.
Rocket league - ace!
Crash team racing...is the best you can get that isn't mariocart..
Teraria..like 2d mine craft
Puzzle games are good..can't remember any!
I think the trouble is now, all teh best games are multiplayer via the web, rather than 'old school sit in the same room and play'.
DrP
Very much this. There’s a time and a place for ferociously difficult games but this isn’t one of them.
DS isn't near ferociously difficult. It just came out at a time when game design had gone too far down the road of hand-holding and subservience to the player, and it was an effective (and massively influential) antidote to that. It is unforgiving and not signposted, but gameplay is OK difficulty (in pve).
Anyhow it was just a different suggestion - sometimes explicit light-hearted and fun doesn't connect with someone feeling down. But it is for sure a polarising game and not everyone's cup of tea.
Git gud is a phrase that really, really boils my piss.
It pretty much sums up why a lot of teenagers are depressed in the first place. Not just in relation to video games either.
The pressure on teenage kids to constantly assume that they should always somehow be better at everything is crushing for them.
Git Gud at life is really, really hard. So getting good at Dark Souls is easy, comparatively speaking. Which is part of the reason why there's a r/darksouls post every week of people saying how the game helped with their depression. The perseverance to not go hollow is the game's theme and it's clearly something that resonates with people.
My lad is inseparable from Fortnite (aged 10)
What about chess as in the real game?
Very interesting thing on Radio 4 the other day suggesting that computer game playing is helping many boys from avoiding depression in lockdown, where as because many girls dont play computer games, they have been suffering with depression.
Dark Souls is fantastic but it is a notoriously difficult and unforgiving game.
This.
I came to say the Overcooked games too.
Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime is fun and co-op.
Human: Fall Flat has been a lot of fun for our (remote) group to play through together.
Oh, and my wife and I had a blast playing through Guacamelee! a few years back.
+1 for untitled goose game
It's excellent....
Get the new version, double trouble, one goose can do the task whilst the other just causes distractions and general mayhem hahaha!
Cannot believe Splatoon has not been mentioned.
Human Fall Flat and Gang Beasts! Excellent fun!
My 13 year old and 9 year old play these together.
As above Overcooked, Unravel 2, Untitled Goose Game etc etc
Also, Worms.
When my daughter was that age she loved Theme Hospital and The Sims. The world has moved on but I believe there are newish versions of both available as an intro. Also, isn't Animal Crossing a fairly social game if she can get a pal interested? Little Big Planet was another popular one for kids.
Also (and I'm whispering this) but pets can introduce a lot of new energy - just saying.
Tony Hawk Pro Skater 1+2 - Does multiplayer split screen.
I like to sit with my 11 year while he plays Sea of Thieves and get him talking about how the game is going.
Also, when youre buying these games; ive had some success with game key websites. Granted you dont get a physical disk to resell, but you do get it NOW.
Once you've chosen a game, have a poke around online and you can often pick stuff up for under a tenner without getting off your butt.
https://www.cjs-cdkeys.com/categories/XBOX-One-Games-%28Digital-Downloads%29/
They normally email you a code, or make a code available in your "store account" window, which you type in to the xbox, or copy and paste into the xbox account through the app/site.
If you do it on the app or site, your console starts downloading immediately, even if its "off".
probably sucking eggs and all that. sorry.
Just get an Xbox Game Pass subscription and let her pick one of those games?
Agree with alot of the above especially the Game Pass recommendation. It's next to nothing for a trial and means you can experiment with games to find somthing that works for you.
My 13 year old daughter is back on Minecraft with her mates at the moment which seems like a decent social way to pass the time for her. We also play Minecraft dungeons or Crash team racing although our favourite family game on the xbox is Ultimate Chicken Horse.
Moving out is also ok and much less likely to end in a fight than overcooked!
What about chess as in the real game?
Dunno about chess but that's not a bad shout generally. Consider modern physical board games maybe? #AskMeHow
Some great suggestions that i will have a look at this evening.
I really appreciate everyone's time spent in replying - cheers all, beers on me.
Games I've enjoyed playing together with my now 12 year old daughter on Xbox (in date played order):-
- Lego games (Indiana Jones)
- Overcooked (2)... can get a bit mad and shouty in our house
- Rocket League
- Fortnight, Fortnight Fortnight... pretty much all she plays now... unfortunately she won't let me play anymore as I'm not up to her standard !
Can’t believe it took that long to make it to Worms. I finally cracked and was talked into downloading it this lockdown to play online and it’s as entertaining as I recall from teenage years, if not more
We've taken to Mario Karts on the WII again after it sat idle for months. Simple and great fun - lots of laughing, shouting and general mayhem. Recommended.
Buy an old Wii with sports resort. That's amazing fun
+1 for Rayman... Rayman Legends if you can, played through most of it with my son as a 2 person co-op, howling with laughter as i yet again got stuck and he had to rescue me!
I don’t know if it’s available on current gen Xbox but I had an absolute blast playing splosion man and ms splosion man with a mate on the 360.
Current multiplayer fave is deep rock galactic.
Some brilliant recommendations so far. I’d add
Unravel Two - Great little puzzle co-op game.
Streets of Rage 4 - Bond over eating chicken and smacking bikers with a piece of guttering.
Pang/Bubble Bobble - Old Skool fun.
Should be a wealth of great little indie co-op titles on the store too.
I'm an advocate for board/card games, i play something with my daughter and she'll start up conversation and sometimes we don't finish the game. It's a great vehicle for just spending time together & chatting
Two favourites at the moment is Plotalot (uk developed & printed - bonus!) and kingdomino (dominos with an entertaining take)
If choosing beware of complex/battle based/multi-player/being lead down a path that your daughter might have no interest in playing. I've learnt the hard & expensive way 🙂
On the board game front I bought ‘Pandemic’ years ago - it’s co operative so rather than a winner you have to work together which is nice for people who aren’t huge board game fans.
If you can stretch to it, I'd really recommend getting an Oculus Quest 2. It's something completely different that you and your daughter can take turns doing and laughing at how stupid each other look as you're boxing, bowling, dancing, shooting, slicing etc. There's some great family games as well involving one person in the quest and the others on smart phones. You can also cast it your phone or a chrome cast on your TV to see what they're seeing in the headset. My kids absolutely love it, especially watching people try and play Richies plank for the first time.