Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler Need advise on picking PS3, XBOX 360, Wii, or ?

My six year old son keeps wanting a PS3, XBOX 360, or Wii. Whenever we go to Costco, he pulls me to the isle where they have the PS3 and Wii. I am not a big fan of electronic games. He has a Nintendo DS and I am still doubtful whether it was a good purchase as he can get fixated to it on long family drives. Nevertheless, I don't feel good walking out of Costco without a gaming console and a teary eyed six-year old. I even put the PS3 in the cart one day, bought it, and then returned it right after the check out counter; talk about torturing your child. I think I may give in soon and buy something, but I don't know what to buy. Costco's online store has a PS3 package that comes with a remote controller for the DVD/BD part and two dualshock controllers. I see many folks writing how happy they are with the PS3, but not sure if their comments relate to its gaming capacity or DVD/BD features. I also heard that XBOX 360 has more games and better graphics. I just don't know which one to buy. I would greatly appreciate your input. One thing I definitely don't want is violent games no matter how good the graphics, etc may be. Thanks in advance.

If gaming is the priority, I think the 360 is still the way to go for sheer variety. That being said, the Wii is a strong choice if it's always going to be a group activity. That's where it really shines, and a six-year-old may not care about the games being any more complex. The PS3 is getting better titles these days, but I still almost exclusively use it for Blu-ray playback. I'm sure more people will chime in. These are my opinions.

Hello ihifi,

Generally speaking the xbox 360 and ps3 are a better choice for the age groups of 16+ due to the nature of voilence and mature subject matter in the games. The 360 and ps3 are not marketed towards children so games are not geared around them. There are kid friendly games on these systems but the Wii has better games and more selection in this area. The majority of Wii games are suitable for children and built around the younger age groups.

Now I have a 360 and think it has the best selection and games of all 3 systems but for a 6 year old the games would be too complex and above their ability.

Go out and get your 6 year old a Wii right now and surprise him. Put a smile on his face! ...its also the cheapest.

I have all three consoles.. forget ps3, if you think YOU will play it, get the xb, if not get the Wii.

We have kids and they love the Wii. There are a lot of rated games on XB and ps3 since they target a more mature audience. It's a pain for us, we always have to check the rating.

With the Wii, it's dead simple and fun. You can even buy the classic nintendo games.

360 is for more serious gamers. Teens and up I would say. PS3 is a far 2nd place from the 360 as far as games go. PS3 makes a good blueray player is about all.

The Wii is popular with young kids. The best choice for a 6yr old. When you 1st get it you will play bowling and stuff. That fun will wear off and you will realize that the whole system is a gimic around that wii-mote and all the games are pretty much boring. Still your 6yr old will continue to love it.

My 9 yr old has a few games for the 360 (and more than he should have for his DS - thanks to Grandmas), but the 360 is basically mine. In terms of appropriate game content available for the 360, I'd again say that there's little to none.

While I don't have a PS3, my best friend does and the scene is no different there.

The Wii really is the only choice. Nintendo has owned the young child video game market for years, and that's not likely to change. I read this weekend that Disney is working with Nintendo and there will be several titles released this year.

My four yr old wants to play Wii like her big brother, but she's not there yet.

Young kids don't care about the graphics quality. Get the Wii and you'll be a hero. Or, stick to DS only, but the Wii really is a different experience, and it and its games, by and large, are not too pricey.

Thank you very much guys for all the great input. So far, Wii seems to have your unanimous consensus for a six year old.

I'd say Xbox Live Arcade has a fair amount of choices for younger gamers, but yeah, I'd have to go along with everyone else that Nintendo has cornered the market on that demographic, even if most get mediocre reviews. Ofcourse, if the critics writing reviews were 6 years old, I'm sure the grades would be much higher.

Don't get pressured into doing it if you'd really prefer that you didn't have it. It is optional, after all.

I personally can't stand the Pokemon stuff, but must admit that it forced my son to read more because he really wanted to play those DS games, and they're pretty text heavy. Now he's become a bit of a bookworm and gets rewarded for reading a stack of books with a new video game. Fair trade as far as I'm concerned.

My nephew got into reading through video games, too. It *can* serve a purpose.

Both my kids got there start to reading from wanting to play more advanced games. Both my 9yr old and 5 yr old play Pokemon and they can have some fun swapping characters from their DS's to Battle revoltuion on the Wii. Don't forget you get to download (buy) a mass of old games on the Wii virtual console.

If a quick game of something is more your style, the Wii is it. I have been looking at the 360 and PS3 and most of the games are so much more involved, I don't have the time to play them. I had a hard enough time getting through Twilight Princess with my schedule.

a six year old? Wow. That's a little young for the ps3 or xbox. Not sure if there are many kid friendly games on those systems. I have the ps3 and like it a lot. For a kid i would recommend te WII though. I hear there are a lot of kid friendly games on there plus he will get a workout.

Thank you for all the input from everyone. If there are various hardware/accessory options on the Wii, games you would definitely recommend, and place to buy, etc, please let me know.

For some of the older/downloaded games you may need the classic controller. The system only comes with one remote and nunchuck so you will need another set of those for head to head play. The best deal for an extra remote is to buy WiiPlay, it comes with a remote and some more games you son might like. WiiFit is also a fun game my 5 yr old likes to play and there are a few snowbaording/skiing games that make use of this controller.

If you ever venture into playing Gamecube games on the Wii, you will need a gamecube controller, this can be bought, in place of the classic controller, but the classic controller plugs into the remote for semi-wireless play, the Gamecube controller is wired and only has about 6ft of cable.

There are a ton of accesories you can buy, but the only ones I have ever been interested in are the rechargeable battery packs for the remotes. I presently just use rechargeable batteries so you may want to keep a few of them on hand.

Be sure to have at least two controllers with nunchucks (sp?). I haven't tried any other gadgets like zappers, though we do have the balance board.

I recently saw a battery charging/cradle system that looks pretty good. I'm regularly recharging AA batteries for the remotes, so I'm considering that charging option.

Games? Mario Kart might be a good start. The included wheel is cool but really not necessary. My son likes to use it.

Be careful of getting games that are too complex for the age range. Assuming that you've got a wireless network, you can download "Virtual Console" games using the Nintendo channel when you connect the Wii to your network.

That also brings up the storage issue. Last week, coincidentally, Nintendo released a system update that supports higher capacity SD cards. The internal storage is pretty limited, and the support for SD cards had been limited to 2GB. Now it's 32GB. So you might want to get a card if you don't already have one.

EDIT: Jay beat me to the Send button.

Young kids seem to gravitate to the Wii. If you want to pick amongst the 3, one way to choose is get one that most of his friends have. That'll make it easier to share games (and cost).

That being said, I'm with you regarding the 'iffiness' of introducing kids to video games. I have the DS, PSP, Wii, Gamecube, and PS3. But I'm the major player because I know how addictive these can be and the last thing I want is a battle w/ video games and my kids. I've let my kids play Wii but only turn it on w/ a pre-agreed time limit so that there's not fight to turn it off.

My 6 yr old daughter also asks me for her own DS often. I told her she can get one when she can explain to me what it is. She doesn't really know because her group of friends don't play it and I don't play it in front of her often. Don't know how long I can keep that going though...