Forget about 7 Favourite Games, my son’s just got his first and it isn’t what you might think

I’m not sure what your favourite game is (unless I follow you and you’ve taken part in the #7favoritegames Twitter thing), but mine is probably one of Resident Evil 4, PGR2, and Shadow of the Colossus. I could pick seven, but these three are games that have stayed with me and I’ll forever look back on as true classics. Resi 4 rewrote the rulebook for modern action games (apart from the ‘no moving and shooting’ rule, which everyone else ignored), Shadow of the Colossus is just unlike anything else I’ve ever played and is wonderful, and PGR2 is just f***ing great. Deal with it. Also deal with the fact I’ve written an article about my son. I’m one of those people now.

My son, who is 2 years and 10 months old has just discovered his favourite game. It’s not a game that’s on your personal list, but he thinks it’s “pretty cool, daddy”. He plays it almost every day and I usually find him sat on the bed playing it with his mum when I get in from work.

If you’re really passionate about something, no matter what that area of interest is, it’s natural to want your children to share that with you – or, more likely, share it with them. I’ve thought about what games I’d like him to play as a kind of ‘gaming education’, even though reading that back just now has made me hate myself a little bit. Something as diverse and ever-changing as video games shouldn’t be taught. They should be allowed to discover it themselves.

But he’s only two, so his discovery needs to be curated somewhat, so I’m in the clear. I’d obviously want him to experience Super Mario in 2D form, along with numerous other Nintendo titles until he was old enough to work through The Legend of Zelda. Starting with the NES makes sense from a simplicity point of view, but considering most the cartoons he watches are CGI, he might be rather unimpressed by the basic 8-bit visuals. I considered having Sonic the Hedgehog on the list, but really, what would be the point?

Anyway, what I’m labouring towards here is that the gaming master plan is out the window. He’s already started playing games (going by the stats various organisations like to release every year, he’s probably classed as a ‘gamer’ now) and has a clear favourite: Doctor McWheelie. For those of you who are without a toddler, Doc McWheelie is a mechanic who stars in a series of YouTube videos in which she kits out or repairs vehicles in cool ways. It’s a bit like Pimp My Ride but for small children. Although there are no (frankly dumb) conversions where a van has a jacuzzi installed or a motorbike has a UHD flatscreen mounted over the handlebars. In one episode she turns a tank into a tractor, for example. For toddlers this is pretty mindblowing.

I should have known his first gaming experiences would be on the iPad, a device he’s scarily good at using. No matter what he starts watching on YouTube he seems able to end up on a video about a train or a digger, and he’s become a pro at skipping the ads. Being a touchscreen experience, Doctor McWheelie is perfect for him. She drives her car across the screen and he has to press buttons to trigger machines (lifts, cranes, fans, etc) to help get the car from A to B, collecting screws along the way. The game moves slowly, doesn’t require sharp reflexes, and needs almost no explaining.

Doctor McWheelie is a puzzle game that promotes problem solving yet, like we’ve all done at points, he’s taken to finding great joy in sending the main character (poor, innocent Doctor McWheelie) to her child-friendly doom. This might manifest in him deliberately flicking a switch to open the cover of a massive pipe or tipping her car into a vat of lime green unset jelly-like liquid. He’s found his own way to play inside one of the most functional, linear games you could imagine. And he thinks it’s hilarious.

Chances are he won’t remember his fondness of Doctor McWheelie when he’s older, probably too focused on building cool nonsense in Minecraft or playing whatever kids will be playing in a couple of years (probably the latest Farm Simulator if his toy box is anything to go by). But to him right now this game is his Shadow of the Colossus. And I think that’s pretty cool.