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.

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.

I’m double on the Bubble Bobble! A core memory for me is playing that game with my brother for hours on end!

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 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.

Wii sports is retro…

cries

Honestly? This is a great, low stakes way of letting him get the feel for the game without feeling like he’s not “helping”.

This is the way.

And in case OP doesn’t know: the same can be done with Sonic 3 and then with Sonic and Knuckles.

But also, I second starting with Sonic 2. The controls are a bit simpler, and it’s a classic.

Those beat em ups are a great way to spend time together. As long as you can keep continuing, you barely need to pay attention and it gives you something to talk about.