As children grow, they begin to be clear about their priorities, as for gifts I mean obviously, since they are still too young to know where they want to direct their professional life, what studies to take ... for them fun comes first, although for parents it is always something secondary, always after school.
Technological gifts always triumph, even more so when it is your first smartphone or video game console, since it will remain with you for a lifetime and will be remembered fondly. But before taking the step, especially if we talk about consoles, we must take into account a series of factors before knowing what console to buy for a child.
In this article, we're going to focus on the 14-year limit, although logically, if we want to take special care with our children, we can extend the limit up to a couple of years because not all children evolve both physically and mentally at the same speed.
Video game rating system
All the games that reach the market have a classification, like the movies, it is the one that is informed of the minimum age from which its use is recommended, in this way we quickly avoid buying a game for our children based on the cover exclusively, as we parents did when we went to a video store and in 100% of the cases, we were guided by the cover, although the content was very different.
In the European Union the PEGI system is used, which establishes a number by age from which it is advisable to enjoy the game and which at no time indicates the difficulty or ability necessary to be able to play, something that unfortunately many people confuse. In Latin America, both the PEGI and ESRB systems are used. Both systems offer us practically the same information about age using almost the same color symbology where we find:
- Verde: Available from the indicated age
- Yellow orange: Suggests the presence of parents and is not recommended for a child audience.
- RED: Not mended for less than age or the age recommended in the table.
We can also find a series of icons, which briefly offer us information about game content: violence, foul language, fear, sex, drugs, discrimination, gambling and online games.
Console types
Portable consoles have always been associated with a more childlike audience, due to their ease of use and mainly also due to the type of games that we can find for this type of device, where Nintendo has always been the undisputed king, at least in recent years. If you are looking for a console for the little ones, who have not yet begun to show interest in violent games, the Nintendo 3DS and 2DS range are ideal for introducing the little ones into the world of video games.
If parents also want to use the console, we can choose the Nintendo Switch, the latest console that Nintendo has launched on the market and that also offers us a wide range of games both for all audiences, such as the Mario saga or the classic Rayman, as well as for the adult public and where we can find classics like Duke Nukem, The Legend of Zelda, the NBA saga, Doom ...
But if the child is beginning to show increasing interest for the world of videogames, The Nintendo 3DS and 2DS may fall short from the beginning just like the Nintendo Switch, so in this case, we would have to take into account the PlayStation like the Xbox, in its different modalities. The advantage that these models offer us is that they are not only a tool to play, but they are also an entertainment center for our home with which we can access Netflix, watch Blu-ray movies, listen to our favorite music through from Spotify ...
While it is true that these consoles are not intended solely for an adult audience, the number of games for the little ones is quite small, not to say practically nonexistent, so if we are looking for a console for our children to take their first steps in this world, the best option on the market will be found in the Nintendo range, especially the 3DS and 2DS although not exclusively, since that the Nintendo Switch game catalog offers us more than 200 titles with the PEGI classification for the little ones in the house.
Friends consoles
Another aspect that must be taken into account, leaving aside the fights about whether the PlayStation is better than the Xbox because it has a higher number of processing per second of frames (specifications that in 99% of cases they do not understand) we must take into account which consoles are the ones that friends havewith which our son relates Although it is true that currently many of the games are available on both Xbox and PlayStation, both Sony and Microsoft have a series of proprietary titles, titles with which they want to be the deciding factor of users when selecting one and the other platform.
If our son's friends mostly have the Xbox because a square game allows them to play online, choose to buy the PlayStation because it is cheaper or because we think it will be better when Sony is behind it, it could be a mistake that our son will never forgive us since it will exclude him from the group of friends, as far as video games are concerned.
parental control
Although parents wanted, they cannot always be with their children when they want to play with the console, hence all of them, in addition to other types of electronic devices, include a parental control, in which we can establish the limits that we create convenient for when we are not present.
Parental control of any device, from televisions to video players through smartphones or computer operating systems, offers us a large number of options for manage at all times access to a certain type of games in addition to the information that can be accessed through the Internet.
Being a console intended for a younger audience, the parental control of the Nintendo Switch allows us to set all the limits and manage them through an application for mobile devices, offering us three levels: toddler, child and adolescent, each with pre-established restrictions that we can modify at any time and which are mainly based on the classification of the games that I have explained in the previous section.
The problem that the Nintendo Switch offers us is that we cannot create a user system to individually restrict each one, so that if the console is shared with other family members of different ages, we will need to always have the smartphone at hand to change the settings.
The parental control offered by the Xbox is the most complete on the market, since it allows us to establish limits by age, not by rank, in addition to allowing us to block access to applications, games, music, movies and other content available through the platform.
In addition, thanks to the account system, we can create specific accounts for each user, so as not to have to change the settings every time we want to use the console. It also allows us to block or allow multiplayer games, access to voice, text or video communications to everyone, to a group of friends or to specific individuals.
The parental control system of the PlayStation is not as extensive as the one we can find on the Xbox, but it does offer us the necessary tools to prevent children from accessing content not designed for them through a system of accounts linked to minors. Unlike the parental control of the Xbox, Sony offers us a limit by age ranges, and depending on which we select, it will allow us to play games classified for that age and lower. It also allows us to set a monthly limit amount that the lowest can spend when buying or enjoying extra content, an option that is also available on the Xbox.
Price of games
The prices of the games may be an option to take into account when buying one or another console, if the difference between them is high enough to take it into account, something that unfortunately does not happen. Both on the PlayStation, on the Xbox and the Nintendo Switch, the games that have just arrived on the market, in most cases and depending on the title, they have a price higher than 50 euros at the very least and at best.
When video game platforms began to offer most of their games online, many were those who thought that their price could drop, but this has not been the case, since saving from distribution has become a much higher money investment in previous years +
At the time of writing this article, the Nintendo Switch has only been on the market for a year, so the number of games available is not as large as what we can find for PlayStation or Xbox. Both platforms, offer us regularly the odd offer, at very interesting prices, of games that once had their dose of fame, but over the years they have become outdated for calling them in a mild way.
User interface
Another aspect that we must take into account is the complexity or simplicity of the user interface. Consoles increasingly offer us a greater number of content options, so if the interface is not simple and presents many options, the smallest quickly lose interest.
In this sense, the Nintendo Switch is the one who clearly wins, not only because it offers fewer options, but also because it is focused on a younger audience, the interface is very clear and simple, which will allow children to quickly identify what really interests you about the game.