Best DS games for 3 year old

[puffkin]

Once again, foiled by the DIS search....couldn't find anything through there

Anyway, we just bought a used Nintendo DS for my 3 1/2 year old for Christmas. Now I am looking for games for it. Obviously he can't read yet, so would want something that he could play without reading. Mario Kart for the DS seems like a logical choice, but any others??

He is quite good at Mario Kart on the Wii. He has also played bowling, various baseball games, Carnival, and ChickenShoot on the Wii. He is extremely interested in his cousins DS's and my mom's. I looked into the Leapsters, but they just didn't seem that interesting for him since he is used to playing the Wii.

TIA for any suggestions. Just want to add in advance that the DS is mainly for when we go places and we need to keep him entertained/quiet. Being that he is in daycare/preschool full time at a wonderful facility, he gets plenty of educational experiences through out the day. I don't have any problems having him play a game "just for fun" and to veg a little

 

[kwitcherkicken99]

DS(3) plays Disney Friends and Phineas and Ferb. We have Mario something (has mini games plus the regular Mario game) but he sits in my lap while I play.

 

[cassandrap83]

Diego Dinosaur
Diego Jungle
Dora Snow Princess
Dora Mermaid

These are the most age appropriate. Once he masters these, you cold look for others.

 

[Dannielle_1]

My DS is 3 3/4. He messes around with a lot of different games, but his favorites are:

Mario Party 8
Carnival Games
Labyrinth
n+
Retro Atari
gba* - Super Mario World (Super Mario Advance 2)
gba* - WarioLand 4

*Game Boy Advance games I got used at GameStop

On some of the games, I've started them to get some stuff unlocked and then let him have free reign on. Others, I've just let him do his thing. Surprisingly, it is fairly intuitive for him, he just figures it out. I got him his DS for his 3rd birthday and he has figured quite a bit out. I will say it is wonderful in the grocery store!!!

Part of the reason I got the DS for DS is that I wanted something that I could use too. So he enjoys watching me play for a bit and he picks up how to play some games that way.

We also have a wii (bought for me) and DS has gotten pretty good on that as well. His favorite games on the Wii are Super Mario Galaxy, Mario Kart, Sports Resort & Monkey Ball.

ETA: We have one of the Diego games, Crayola Adventure, and a Magic Storybook game. The get very little play time. He likes the real deal. Now if they could make Super Mario Galaxy with some learning tasks involved I would be eternally grateful to the game designer. (Though DS does know all his numbers up to 100 - thanks to needing to collect 100 stars in some of the levels - there's some learning in those games ).

 

[lovemygrowingfamily]

My ds at age 4 liked John Deere Harvest and smart boys playroom.He also loved new super mario brothers and loved the mini games.

My dd 3 1/2 has the smart girls games and plays ds's smart boys too.

We use ours for dr visits and if we are in the car longer than 1 hour.

 

[Ephany]

I've heard good things about the Smart Boys ds line (Smart Boys: Game Room, Smart Boys: Toy Club etc). Just type 'smart boys ds' into amazon and a variety of games comes up. There's also a Crayola Treasure Adventure game that gets good reviews for the younger age group.

 

[puffkin]

Thanks guys for the ideas. I will probably just go to gamestop and see if I can find a few of the things you all mentioned that are used. No sense paying a fortune for a 3 year old!

Just realized I have a Game Boy Advance stashed away somewhere. I know I have a super mario brothers game for that. I will have to dig that out and see if he likes playing it! Duh!!!!