Title, basically. Three Boys, aged 9, 10, and 13, are getting a PS5 for Christmas, and I want to expand their horizon beyond roblox and minecraft.
They're gett8ng one controller each, so bonus points for something they can play together.
PS: I'm not too strict about age restrictions. They know we'll what they are and aren't allowed to say and do, so I'm not very concerned about VoIlEnT videO gAmEs to a reasonable extent.
They do enjoy builders and open world stuff, by the way.
Astro's playroom comes with it, but there's also a full game.
The plucky squire is a really cool concept of a game that I enjoyed as an adult, but is written and presented like a story book (you literally jump out of the book and manipulate pages for some stuff), and it's definitely appropriate for kids both in terms of complexity and the writing.
Building/designing and open world - Terraria is well worth the money.
Couch (split screen) co-op, and people can do their own things and team up to take down the bosses.
Minecraft Dungeons is great for 3 player coop, and so is Teen-age Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredders Revenge. My kids and I have played a ton of those two in particular.
As a gamer dad, there are sadly very few couch coop games that make the third controller worth it. It's good for them each to have one, though, so they can each be responsible for keeping it charged.
Sports games, whichever sports they play. Spider-Man was a big hit, if they can manage to take turns. I've heard good things about It Takes Two, but I haven't bought that one yet.
It Takes Two is a great game, but I would not recommend it for children. The story is about a married couple in the middle of a breakup. Also there is a pretty gruesome scene you can't avoid. (Just look up "It Takes Two Cutie Scene". Obvious spoiler alert though.)
Oh good to know. It's been recommended to me for couch coop, but nobody ever mentioned that it was that heavy. My kids would definitely not enjoy that.
While this isn't a specific game recommendation, I highly recommend getting a dekudeals account and adding the games you are interested in to your wishlist.
You will get alerts when the games go on sale. It has saved us a bunch of money with PS5 games.