Some researchers believe that girls are not as interested in action and adventure games as boys are, but are more into casual games, for example card games (think Solitaire, Hearts or FreeCell), brainteasers or turn-based games.
Boys seem to prefer games where the struggle with the game turns into a one-on-one fight to produce a winner, whereas girls seem to like games with more of a social connection (like The Sims or Farmville), or with multiple story lines and outcomes.
It is a sad fact that most games are developed by males for a male audience.
The Problem with Spin-offs Even if it was a movie your daughter loved, the spin-off might be a dud.
When a big budget kids movie is made, the tie-in is usually a rush job that has not been planned properly.
The game sometimes attempts to follow the film story too closely, leading to a boring one-dimensional tour through some of the more popular scenes.
And of course if game makers run out of ideas, the result is a collection of bad mini-games that do not logically tie together well.
Not that all min-games collections are bad though.
(Sesame Street's Once Upon a Monster is a notable exception and also an excellent girl's game to consider) Keep it Educational But Still Entertaining Children learn quicker if they're playing and having fun.
Math, normally a boring subject for my 8 year old daughter suddenly became very interesting when she had to calculate how much money she still had to make to buy a bird house in the game Viva Pinata.
In the same game she also realized that she could turn cheap plant seeds into grown plants that could be sold for a profit.
This is a concept that will hopefully serve her well in later life.
So how do I pick a game? Here are some game categories that I have seen from experience that are surefire winners with younger girls:
- Dress-up (Barbie Jet, Set & Style)
- Dance (Dance Central series, Just Dance: Disney Party)
- Pets (Fantastic Pets, Kinectimals)
- Princess (Disney Princess: Enchanted Journey, Disney Princess: My Fairytale Adventure)
- Life Simulation (Viva Pinata Series, The Sims, Farmville)
- Brainteasers (Brain Challenge, Big Brain Academy)
- Party (Mario Party series)
- Cooking (Cooking Mama)