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Lots of other great suggestions. But I do think the consensus is multiplayer games with coop.
Konami beat ‘em ups like TMNT, The Simpson, Xmen would be great.
I’m also going to throw in Party games or kart racers, CTR and Mario Kart of Mario Party or Crash Bash would also be great
That said Pokémon might be a nice option too though not sure how you’d play that together.
Or edutainment like Gizmos and Gadgets or Jumpstart
Sonic 2.
Controlling Tails can be good fun if you’re very young and don’t fully know what you’re doing!
Can be hard keeping both characters on screen at times though.
Actually Sonic 3 is a slight improvement in this regard once you get the hang of things - Tails can be more helpful, and carry Sonic to higher ledges
Super Mario World, Battletoads
Gta 1.
Goof Troop, for SNES.
Magical Quest 2 & 3 are very good for that. They already know the characters, and the games are beautiful and pretty good gameplay-wise.
You play together and if the child loses all his/her lives, he/she can steal yours. For difficult sections or bosses, you can do it alone.
There are new costumes regularly so the child wants to continue to discover the next costume, and its associated powers.
Magical Quest 2 is easier than 3, so I think it’s better to start with this one. You can either play as Mickey or Minnie.
In Magical Quest 3, you can either play as Mickey or Donald. Donald is meant to be played by the child because his gameplay is a bit different (with his soldier costume which is wooden barrel, preventing him to sink while Mickey has a silver armor which kills him if he goes into water with it). It’s not that difficult to play as Mickey (my nephew did not want to play as Donald and we had no major issues).
"Toejam and Earl: Panic on Funkotron" (Genesis) has a very well designed "little kid mode" in the options, and it's still really fun.
Edit: Example regarding violence - you get to throw jars at humans to trap them for transport back to earth. And you need to watch out for bowling balls falling out of trees.
Kirby Superstar (SNES) is great for this, I play it with my 5-year-old. The second player plays as the "helper" character, and when they die, Kirby can create them again. It effectively plays like a "buddy mode." That game is also one of my all-time favorites just for what it is, so I'm a bit biased.
Sonic 2. Make him be tails. As is tradition.
Honestly? This is a great, low stakes way of letting him get the feel for the game without feeling like he's not "helping".
This is the way.
And in case OP doesn't know: the same can be done with Sonic 3 and then with Sonic and Knuckles.
But also, I second starting with Sonic 2. The controls are a bit simpler, and it's a classic.
Oh, and sorry for so many responses, but I figure that posting these separately will let the votes give you some idea where to start.
The votes I've seen so far very much reflect the order I would try these games out with a five year old gamer.
Bubble Bobble is one of my favourite retro multiplayer games since it has both players playing simultaneously (not each take a turn/hand off the controller) but might still be a bit difficult for a 5 year old 🤔
Edit: Tetris & Dr. Mario for the SNES might also work
Dr Mario? My 3 yo wanted me to play Dr Mario while looking around in the n64 thing on switch. The game totally crushed me. Maybe 5 year olds are better at it than 40 year olds 😂
I second Dr Mario. When I first went off to kindergarten, my mom and little brother would play Dr Mario together. It’s perfect for that age range, simple to play and control, with an option for two-player mode.
Nah. I played the crap outta Bubble Bobble around that age. Some of my best early memories involve playing Bubble Bobble on NES with my parents after dinner every night. Had all the level codes jotted down on a sheet of notebook paper, including all the lettered levels.
This is a great idea. I was also just thinking of using cheats to enable invincibility for player 2, that way they can save you and not worry about dying.
from a sega childhood my top:
My kid loved to play toejam with me
These are great! All with little to no violence, too.
I will say (for OP), Micromachines needs more patience than some 5 year olds will have, since the controls and speed aren't very forgiving until learned. So I might not start with Micromachines for a young gamer.
Fun-N-Games (Genesis/Megadrive) is mostly single player, but has many mini games accessibile to young gamers.
Hard to beat Super Mario Brothers. I tried other classics, bunch of arcade games, but my son never liked them. Ms. Pac-Man might work. The big hit with us was Wii sports.
Wii sports is retro..........
cries
Nearly as old as Super Mario Bros. at release.
.....what.....no. That can't be.......
does math
..........STOP USING NUMBERS AGAINST ME!!!
Are you saying that Wii Sports is nearly as old now as Super Mario Bros was when Wii sports released? Because Wii Sports came out in 2006?
Because SMB came out in 1985 and …
…
Jesus Christ.
I'm sorry
TMNT Turtles in Time on SNES. Its a fun game and kids can button mash, and turtles are still relevant today. Puzzle games like tetris can be good for using the brain. There were a ton of puzzle games in the snes era, like bust a move (puzzle bobble), yoshi's cookie, puyo puyo (kirby's avalanche), and many more.
I would mostly avoid NES because it looks really dated, aside from a handful of the real classics like Super Mario Bros 1 & 3.
Those beat em ups are a great way to spend time together. As long as you can keep continuing, you barely need to pay attention and it gives you something to talk about.
World of Illusion (Genesis)
Mega Bomberman (Megadrive) and Super Mega Bomberman (SNES) both have multiplayer mode where players can team up against bots, and the bots have adjustable difficulty (different bot skins have different AI).
Edit: Re violence - you blow each other and bot players up with bombs. Players that die disovle the way Pac-Man does.
I was going to recommend Bomberman. Super Bomberman 4 on SNES in particular is very fun, you can grab not only bombs but opponents too, and there are cool mounts with special powers. A bit chaotic in some arenas, but the classics are still there of you want them, and then when everyone gets better ot wants a quick laugh, you can go for the crazier ones.
You both can play Goof Troop. It's a Co-op game with Goofy and Max as protagonists, it's very funny.
It's single player, but too good to miss: "Richard Scary's Busy Town" (Genesis) is a fantastic open ended set of mini-games that are fun and accessibible to almost all skill levels of gamer.
Sonic the Hedgehog 2. Little one can be Tails and play coop.
Ms. Pac-Man (Genesis) is fully co-op throughout, and has adjustable difficulty by choosing smaller maps.
Dashin' Desperados (Genesis/Mega Drive) is a racing platformer, where the adult can control the difficultly by slowing down or backtracking.
Edit: Cartoon violence - you can freeze each-other, light each-others shoes on fire, and stuff like that. And everyone recovers in cartoon timing, of course.
Balloon Fight (NES)
With that avatar, I wonder why you might suggest that ;-)
Super Baseball Simulator (SNES) is competitive, but can be really chill if the adult player throws easy pitches, and the super powers are hilarious.
Battle City
Man this beings back good memories.
Mortal Kombat is pretty tame I hear.
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Turtles in time
I would say that most retro games can be enjoyed by a 5-year-old (having once upon a time been a 5-year-old playing some of them myself), but the first one that comes to mind is Donkey Kong Country.
My 4 year old raging at mine Cart madnessis a particular find memory of mine
Super Mario by far IMO, basically all of the games.
5yo is probably still too young to understand Zelda.
I'm still too young to understand Zelda 2, and I played it when it came out!