Ten video games that families can play together

This year’s E3 event was different. Usually a place where video game makers show off and hype their upcoming titles which are typically about death, violence, and destruction, this year’s event saw some of the biggest child friendly titles such as Nintendo’s Super Mario Kart, Activision’s Skylanders, Disney Infinity, introduced to the gamers present.Game developers are looking to capture families into a gaming frenzy as these games can be enjoyed by just anybody in the family. Here are 10 games that parents might actually feel happy about to let their kids play and possibly even join them. Some are available now, and some are soon to be released.

#10 Cave! Cave! Deus Videt

Platform: Windows, Mac OS, Linux

This game is more or less a visual novel that takes you through the story of Hoodie, a misfit teenager visiting the Museo Nacional in Lisbon who disappears while staring at a painting by Hieronymous Bosch. But wait, it gets weirder. This is not like Call of Duty or even Entwined. The game-play, if you could call it that, consists mostly of choosing answers to questions posed by the characters. Along the way, though, you end up learning a lot about the seminal Dutch surrealist and his work “The Temptation of St. Anthony.” Witty, with haunting music and an extremely spare visual style, Cave! is as strange and compelling as the painter’s own works.

#9 Juju

Platform: Windows

The story starts with shaman panda Jambee being captured by an evil spirit, and now his roguish son Juju must get him back with the help of his clumsy lizard sidekick, Peyo. It’s a platform game, designed by Flying Hog Studios, the same team that got us the decidedly less gentle Shadow Warrior. Together, Juju and Peyo run, jump, tumble, and slither through a series of highly colorful landscapes to save the world from an ancient evil. It’s cute, kid-friendly, and full of surprises.

#8 Toto Temple Deluxe

Platform: Ouya

The concept of the game is completely silly, even for video game standards. Four Pac-man-like characters compete to see who can carry a goat on his head the longest, while the other three do their best to ram into him and steal the animal for themselves. This platform game isn’t a side-scroller, but it offers multiple levels and a variety of combat environments and a single-player mode is also available. But why it features on this list is because it is foolishly fun. You’ll likely find yourself standing in front of the screen, yelling at your fellow goat stealers and actually pushing them in real life.

#7 So Many Me

Platform: Ouya

There are certain things that are unusual about this side-scrolling platform game. The first is that it’s designed for an Android-based gaming system that plugs into your TV set called Ouya although other versions for Windows, Mac, and Linux will also be available. The other thing is that you get a lot of help solving puzzles from other versions of you (hence the name). The in-game avatar, Filo, must save the world from a malicious evil with the help of up to 10 identical clones, which can turn into objects that you can use to overcome obstacles. The tone is quirky, and even the evil characters look adorable.

#6 Stone Soup

Platform: iOS

This game takes the centuries-old folktale and presents it through a new kind of interactive storytelling. In this version of the game, a group of city-dwelling animals come together to make soup, whose primary ingredient is a stone. As your child follows the story on her iPad, the parent also interacts with it using her iPhone or iPod Touch by tipping the handheld device to make salt pour into the soup on the iPad, or through other tasks. Stone Soup is the first of its kind and independent game designer, Anna Lotko has labelled it “storyloops”, which basically means interactive stories designed to be used on two devices, allowing a parent and child or two siblings to experience the story together and so spend some more family time together.

#5 Sims 4

Platform: Windows

The Sims 4 brings together revolutionary Sims with powerful creative tools and all-new emotion-based game-play, for a fresh new Sims experience. The Sims 4 is the most intelligent, relatable and personal life simulation ever as it is built on the foundation of brand new technologies that Maxis calls SmartSim. For the first time, player choices shape not just a single moment, but have consequences in the entire life journey of the Sims.

Sims 4 would have perhaps become the ultimate family game if not for their WooHoo feature. Have fun explaining that to your children!

Buy the game here

#4 Never Alone

Platform: Xbox One, PS4, PC

Never Alone focuses on a young girl named Nuna and an arctic fox aiding her on her adventure. During a particularly oppressive winter, Nuna and her four-legged compatriot must depend on each other and brave the elements to survive.

Their journey plays out over the course of an eight-stage puzzle platform that can be tackled cooperatively or by switching between the characters in accordance with how quick the fox can scale up the sides of cliffs that Nuna can't reach herself or knock loose structures to create climbable platforms.

#3 Little Big Planet 3

Platform: PS4

PlayStation’s most imaginative franchise is back with Little Big Planet 3 and a new cast of playable plush heroes in the biggest handcrafted adventure game yet. The introduction of three all-new hand-stitched heroes will completely change the way you play as you can now bound over walls as the quick and agile OddSock, glide through the skies as the majestic Swoop or transform Toggle between Big Toggle, a heavy strongman; and Little Toggle, a light speedster. All the new characters, Sackboy for instance, are fully customizable and there will be plenty of peculiar new costumes to collect in the game so you can express your own individuality.

Buy the game here

#2 Splatoon

Platform: Wii U

Splatter enemies and claim your turf as the ink-spewing, squid-like characters called Inklings in Nintendo's third-person action shooter game. Violence for kids? Not really! You’re firing globs of paint, not bullets. Challenge your friends in chaotic four-on-four matches, in which the goal is to get your ink on as many places as possible and claim your turf, all while strategically submerging yourself in your team's colors and blasting your enemies. You can even move faster by diving into a nearby pool of ink to transform your character into a squid, allowing it to swim underwater much faster than it can walk.

#1 Entwined

Platform: Sony PlayStation 4, PS3, PS Vita

It’s an abstract action/arcade game about two souls who are in love but that can’t be together. In this visually mesmerizing game you control two characters at the same time and fly through a series of changing psychedelic landscapes. The souls belong to a bird and a fish and using the right and left joysticks, you guide them through nine lifetimes, collecting bits of energy along the way. The souls come closer as you collect more energy. This story was inspired by an ancient Chinese myth, and the theme of reincarnation plays out in their level structure. Once you play the game correctly and complete it, this $10 digital download ends with the souls joining together to form a stunning dragon. Entwined truly stands head and shoulder apart from the rest with its hypnotic, visually stunning graphics and an amazing ambient soundtrack.