Hand held Kids video games

[Curtis]

For Christmas we are looking at getting hand held video games for my boys. They LOVE to play different games on our iPhones. We have considered the iPhone touch or older un-used iPhones. Costco will also have Nintendo DS systems on sale next month.

I'm not into games, don't play games, and have never even heard of many of the systems on the market. Any suggestions are appreciated.

Thanks for the advice.

Curtis

PS They are 6 years old.

[2DoorImpala]

Nintendo will have the most kid friendly games. You can get them a gift card and have them choose what games catches their eye, that way you'll know they wont just push it to the side and not play it

[sniper4usmc]

DSi or DS XL...But I heard new DS 3d is coming out soon

[Theorren]

The DS systems are great. Both my 5 year old and 10 year old have them. The one downside to them is when they use the stylus and you have to buy more. You also need to tell them to not use their finger or a pen/pencil on the screen as it can damage them. The nice thing is that in a place like Play-n-Trade (insert local video game store) , you can pick up used games fairly cheap as well as used DS's (look at all of them, some are in better shape than others).

Both of my kids play on my i-pod touch, but you are limited on games that people produce, they are not always the best, and can get boring pretty quick. But the touch screen seems to be fairly intuitive for kids.

[Sajedene]

My vote is for Nintendo. They have a lot of age appropriate games and you can monitor the games they have. It can also be an incentive (do enough chores / make grades to earn a game, etc) And if they both get one they can connect and play together.

[bubbapug1]

I'd stick with the apples. Get them an Ipad or an itouch. apps are cheap. nintendo games aren't

[acorn]

My kids have them all, Game Boy, DS, DSI, PSP And Itouch and the Itouch is the only one they've never gotten bored with. There are hundreds of free and cheap games and apps plus music and movies for the Itouch (or Ipad). All the others require going to the store a buying expensive games that 3/4's of the time suck.

[Bongos]

DS XL, my kids love it! Get gases like Lego anything (star wars, batman, raider), Mario Anything (Super Mario, Cart, etc)

These will provide countless hours of much needed quiet time when you need it.

[MasterrEugene]

Many kids LOVE the nintendo DS. There are so many kid friendly games. My vote goes to the nintendo DS for a 6 year old

[vahtryn]

The DS is a great platform for games. Then again apple is certainly a good one and the touch isn't a bad platform. Android is also getting up there in the amount of games as well.

It's really a hard call. I do play mobile games from time to time because I have an iPhone. Though when I get a new job I'm moving over to the android platform. I don't really want a DS personally as I already carry an iPad with me most places or a laptop.

[novabrian]

Yes DS are really great for kids.

[orangeglo]

DS's are awesome!

[Nick1236]

Sony PSP so you can steal it and watch movies while on the throne doing your business

[Curtis]

Thank you for the input. It has been very helpful. Now I just need to chase down the costs.

My vote is for Nintendo. They have a lot of age appropriate games and you can monitor the games they have. It can also be an incentive (do enough chores / make grades to earn a game, etc) And if they both get one they can connect and play together.

This is one of the reasons we are changing out outlook on mobile video games for the kids....the have responded great to the incentive/consequences.

[spddrcr]

go for the ds xl and an ace kard or R4i card. also for the poster who experienced problems with fingers and pens messing up the screens just buy the screen protectors and put em on there. my kids are 6 and 9 today and the ds has been a blessing for long trips or doc /dentist appts. also they make a bunch of stylus that can attach to the ds with a cord so they cant get lost.

and my last tip is to forget about buying the 3ds, your kids are to young to use 60% of the new features. just ask yourself if you really want your kids to be talking to people they dont know online at such a young age? these features can be turned off on all the systems but the 3ds is really making it a point to intergrate online interaction into the system. the xl is cool because the screens are good size.
if you want more info on the cards i listed let me know