Best Xbox 360 Games for Kids
by Chad Sapieha, Christopher Healy, Jeffrey L. Wilson and Jeana Lee Tahnk
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We’ve got a roundup of this year’s best Xbox 360 games for kids of all ages, including details on the new Xbox Kinect platform. Here’s how to choose the best video game console for your kids!
Each product we feature has been independently selected and reviewed by our editorial team. If you make a purchase using the links included, we may earn commission.
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Kinect Disneyland Adventures
Kinect takes you on a Disneyland Adventure without ever leaving your house. This game lets kids explore everything Disneyland has to offer, like the most popular attractions, the characters and even the souvenir shop. In addition, gamers can participate in challenges and adventures throughout the theme park using nothing more than their bodies and movement. Appropriate for: The whole family ESRB Rating: Rating Pending
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Body and Brain Connection
This game was developed by an actual neuroscientist in Japan and it shows. There are many challenging physical and mental challenges that will help keep your kids’ minds active as they game away. In addition to using body movements, the challenges includes math, logic, memory and physical reflexes activities. Appropriate for: The whole family ESRB Rating: E for Everyone
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Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster
Sesame Street goes virtual and lets kids enjoy the TV universe in a storybook format on the small screen. All of our friends from Sesame Street—Elmo, Cookie Monster, Oscar the Grouch and more—gather to help each other overcome their problems, in true Street fashion. The game features ‘chapters’ of play, introduces a couple new characters, and reconnects kids with old friends, too. Appropriate for: The whole family ESRB Rating: Rating Pending
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Kinect Sports: Season 2
The updated Season 2 offers six new sports to play: tennis, golf, American football, baseball, skiing and darts. It's a fun family competition that lets you be the controller! Appropriate for: The whole family ESRB Rating: Everyone
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FIFA Soccer 12
Soccer players will enjoy playing the game off the field too with the newest version of the FIFA Soccer franchise. Players come to life and have movements that look so real thanks to a new feature called Precision Dribbling. This, in addition to the sights and sounds of the stadium will make you wonder if you’re watching a televised match. Appropriate for: The whole family ESRB Rating: Rating Pendi
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Kinectimals – Now with Bears
Designed for Xbox 360's youngest players, this Kinect-exclusive game has kids using their hands to interact with more than 20 different animals and most recently updated with cuddly bear cubs. Players will see the outline of their hands appear on screen as they pet and scratch beautiful, high-definition lion and tiger cubs that react warmly and fondly to the stimulus, rolling around on the ground and even smiling. Players can also train cats by having them copy what they do, such as jump and spin around. It's an astonishingly intuitive experience, even for very young children.
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Puss in Boots
The characters from the popular DreamWorks movie continue their antics in this game that features Puss In Boots swashbuckling away. Help Puss live up to his hero status by using nimble movements and fancy sword-work to catch the Golden Goose. Appropriate for: The whole family ESRB Rating: E for Everyone
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Happy Feet 2
The slap-happy gang of penguins from Happy Feet is back in an updated version that relies on rhythm and movement to rescue penguin nation. The Antarctic is brought to life in this fun game that will get gamers moving and penguins dancing. Appropriate for: The whole family ESRB Rating: Rating Pending
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LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7
This game is the progression from LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4 and is based on the last three books and four movies in the franchise. Using little LEGO figurines, gamers are transported to the world of Harry Potter, complete with wizards, magic and mystery. New faces are introduced in the ultimate battle between good and evil.
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Sonic Generations
Sonic battles a new adversary in Sonic Generations, a mysterious power that takes Sonic back in time to revisit characters, even a younger version of himself. Sonic enlists the help of his friends to battle against this new superpower using his trademark moves throughout the eras like Spin Dash, Spin Attack and Sonic Boost. Appropriate for: The whole family ESRB Rating: Rating Pending
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Forza Motorsport 4
If your kids like racecars and driving simulation, Forza Motorsport 4 is a great gaming choice. Using the Kinect, gamers can experience the thrill of the race track by maneuvering their bodies to propel the cars to victory. The high-quality graphics and real-life sounds will make you feel like you’re right there by the checkered flag. Appropriate for: The whole family ESRB Rating: E for Everyone
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Bejeweled 3
One of the biggest and most recognizable games comes in an updated version to Xbox 360. There are eight different modes of play Appropriate for: The whole family ESRB Rating: Rating Pending
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Carnival Games: Monkey See Monkey Do
Get into the swing of things at the batting cages, or have the whole family flinging rings together. Carnival Games is a fun way to experience the joys of the carnival, without the crowds and sticky fingers from cotton candy. Appropriate for: The whole family ESRB Rating: E for Everyone
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Kinect Adventures
If you decide to invest in Kinect, this is probably what you'll play first, as it comes bundled in the box. A collection of activities meant to show off the hands-free capabilities, it lets up to two players leap, duck, and lean to the side to avoid obstacles in a gauntlet, hit balls rebounding off a wall with their hands, and shuffle around the deck of a large raft to steer it down raging rapids. It's an undeniably fun -- and surprisingly active and exhausting -- experience. Just make sure to clear the living room of furniture; some of these mini-games require a lot of space. Note: Players need the xBox 360 Kinect peripheral for this game. Appropriate for: Younger and older kids ESRB Rating: Everyone
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Lego Harry Potter, Years 1-4
A marriage of J.K. Rowlings's books and everyone's favorite Danish building blocks, this adventure game has players wandering Hogwarts castle. They'll work through all of the important events from Harry's first four years of wizard training while having fun on the side mixing potions and building steps out of Lego. Fans of the books will recognize more than 100 minor characters from the series wandering the school's halls and mezzanines, many of whom didn't appear in the films. Younger kids can have fun with this game too, as long as they play with someone old enough to handle the game's often tricky puzzles. (Also available for Wii, PlayStation 3, Windows PC, Nintendo DS, and PSP.) Appropriate for: Older kids ESRB Rating: Everyone 10+
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Toy Story 3: The Video Game
Games based on movies are often no more than studio cash grabs, but not this clever spinoff. It has the expected story mode that lets players work through the film's plot, switching between characters to solve a variety of puzzles. But the real draw is "Toy Box" mode, which allows a pair of players to explore an open world sprung from the toys' imagination. Players will race cars around barn yards, control army men as they parachute to specific targets, and shrink themselves with special goop. Dozens of hours of fun experimentation can be found here. (Also available for Wii, PlayStation 3, and Windows PCs.) Appropriate for: Older kids ESRB Rating: Everyone 10+
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Kinectimals
Designed for Xbox 360's youngest players, this Kinect-exclusive game has kids using their hands to interact with more than 20 different animals. Players will see the outline of their hands appear on screen as they pet and scratch beautiful, high-definition lion and tiger cubs that react warmly and fondly to the stimulus, rolling around on the ground and even smiling. Players can also train cats by having them copy what they do, such as jump and spin around. It's an astonishingly intuitive experience, even for very young children. Note: Players need the xBox 360 Kinect peripheral for this game. Appropriate for: Younger kids ESRB Rating: Everyone
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Kinect Sports
A collection of sports games for Microsoft's movement-based control platform, Kinect Sports includes beach volleyball, bowling, table tennis, boxing, soccer, and track-and-field events including hurdles, discus, javelin, sprinting, and long jump. In each event players emulate what a real athlete would do, swinging an arm underhand to throw a bowling ball, jumping to clear a hurdle, and making a throwing motion to toss a javelin. The boxing game might be intense for younger kids, but everything else is fair game for the whole family. Note: Players need the xBox 360 Kinect peripheral for this game. Appropriate for: Younger and older kids ESRB Rating: Everyone 10+
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Sonic Free Riders
This hoverboard-style racing game has players balancing on pretend boards in front of the Kinect camera as Sonic zooms through colorful environments. Along the way players encounter obstacles that require specific movement types -- they may have to flail their arms to swim through water or jump to make Sonic leap over a gap -- and grab objects they can toss using a natural throwing motion. It turns out to be surprisingly good exercise. Note: Players need the xBox 360 Kinect peripheral for this game. Appropriate for: Younger and older kids ESRB Rating: Everyone
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Lego Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues
The tongue-in-cheek humor of the Lego video games lends itself nicely to the already wry Indiana Jones franchise. In this eminently enjoyable game, players run, jump, drive and swing through all four Indy movies. Appropriate for: Older Kids ESRB Rating: E10+ for Everyone 10+
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Axel & Pixel
Characters that look like cardboard cutouts moving against photorealistic scenery make for a uniquely breathtaking visual style in this point-and-click adventure about an artist and his dog who get lost inside landscape painting. The world inside the painting is beautifully surreal and filled with obstacles. By simply clicking the cursor over any element of the scene - a rock, a mirror, a snowball - you make Axel interact with it, often setting off a Rube Goldberg-like chain of events that helps him pass on to the next area. Incredibly imaginative stuff. Appropriate for: Older Kids (and younger kids with a lot of patience) ESRB Rating: E for Everyone
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Spongebob Truth Square
The best SpongeBob video game yet lets fans relive the greatest moments from the little yellow guy's first ten years on the air - but with evil robots. The plot has SpongeBob walking down memory lane while his brain has been infected with microscopic nanobots (hence the robots in his memories). Appropriate for: Younger and Older Kids ESRB Rating: E for Everyone
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Madagascar Escape Africa 2
Based on the upcoming sequel to the hit Dreamworks flick, Escape 2 Africa puts gamers in control of Alex, Marty, Gloria, and the rest of the adorable cast as they attempt to survive the wilds of Africa. 12 distinct levels are loaded with a variety of quests and mini-games (soccer, driving, swimming, and more) that'll please fans of the movie series. Appropriate for: Younger kids ESRB Rating: E 10+ for Everyone 10 and up
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You're In The Movies
Powered by the Xbox Live Vision Cam, You're in the Movies lets the entire family green screen their antics in a series of mini-games, and drop their moves into hilarious scenes that parodies cheesy action, sci-fi, and kung-fu flicks. Even better, you can download and share the cinematic creations with family and friends. Appropriate for: The whole family ESRB Rating: E for Everyone
