Alright, parents. Your kid wants a new gaming console, but you’ve got some questions. Don’t panic just yet. We’re here to address the biggest concerns you have during the harrowing ordeal of buying your child an expensive gaming gadget.
Here, we’re addressing some of the biggest issues that you, as a parent, will have before you buy a console for your kids.
We’ll break down each question on a per-console basis because, let’s be real, your kids probably already have a preference. If you’re just curious about the basics of each console and how they stack up to each other, check out our previous buying guide comparing each of the latest generation of gaming machines.Can the Family Play Together With It?
Most consoles sit in the living room where the whole family can play with it. Not every console is good at sharing, though—especially now that the Switch has entered the scene. We looked at two main aspects when judging how family-friendly a console is: How easy it is to share, and the quality of local multiplayer games.
Xbox One
The Xbox One has a handy feature that lets you link a controller to a player profile. This means when your kids pick up their controller, they’ll automatically be playing their own games and won’t overwrite each other’s progress. This should stave off a few fights. (So if it keeps the peace in your house it’s must-have feature all by itself.) You can also share games with other players on the console. If you buy a game from your account, your kids can play no problem.
When it comes to family-friendly games, however, the Xbox One doesn’t have much of an advantage. It has many of the same games that are available on other platforms like the Lego series, Minecraft, and Skylanders, but the platform has never been known for family titles. If you’re interested in family-friendly games, the Xbox One has a few to offer, but not much beyond what you could get anywhere else.
PlayStation 4
Like the Xbox One, the PlayStation 4 supports multiple profiles on a single console. You can’t link a controller to a profile, but you can choose who’s playing when you start up the console, similar to how Netflix profiles work. It’s slightly less convenient, but it’s something. As long as each person plays on their own profiles, they shouldn’t overwrite each other’s game saves. You can even share games between accounts on the same console.
Also like the Xbox One, most of the PlayStation 4’s family-friendly games come from third-parties and they’re not exclusive. You can get Minecraft, Skylanders, and most of the same Lego games. You’re better off looking at other factors to determine if the PS4 is right for your family.
Nintendo Switch
When it comes to sharing consoles, the Switch can’t quite decide what it wants to be. You can add multiple profiles to a single Switch and share games, but that only gets you so far when the Switch is also a portable console. Your kids might not overwrite each other’s game saves, but they’ll still complain that their siblings are hogging the console in the back seat on long car rides.
Some games like Mario Kart 8 even make more sense when you have multiple consoles. You can only play with up to four players in local split-screen, but up to eight players can race head-to-head if they each have their own console. Even two-player races make more sense when you have separate consoles. Sure, you can each take half of a Joy-Con controller and play in a peripheral vision-destroying horizontal split-screen, but it’s way more fun if each player has their own full screen and full controller. That’s not to say you have to buy an individual Switch for every kid (that would get expensive), but expect a little friction if you want the whole family to share one Switch.
While it may be more annoying to share a Switch than another console, you make up for it with a ton of exclusive, family friendly games. Super Mario Odyssey, while mostly a single-player game, features a rudimentary co-op mode. The Switch also offers great games like Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Pokken Tournament DX, Splatoon 2, and Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle, on top of the platform-independent mainstays like Minecraft and Skylanders. On the flip side, the Switch has no backwards compatibility and third-party games are still coming down the pipe. You have a smaller library to work with on the Switch overall, but you have a much higher chance of finding unique, family-friendly games on this console than the others.
How Are the Parental Controls?
Your kids are curious and if you don’t keep an eye on what they do with their internet-connected game system, they could stumble across some awful stuff. Each console handles parental controls a little differently. Here’s how they break…
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