Long flights and road trips are a lot easier when kids have something that can keep them busy for more than an hour or two. Portable systems make that easier than ever, but not every game is a great fit for travel. Short titles can run out of content before the trip is over, while games that lean heavily on online features become a bit of a hassle to play once the Wi-Fi disappears.
The games on this list were picked with those limitations in mind. Most offer dozens of hours of playtime, enormous replay value, or both, and their main single-player experiences can be played without a constant internet connection. Some are huge RPGs that can keep kids busy for an entire vacation, while others use farming, building, strategy, collecting, or repeatable runs to give kids plenty to do even after they’ve been playing for hours.
A little preparation is still important before leaving home. Download any games, updates, and DLC ahead of time, launch digital games at least once, and make sure Virtual Game Cards are loaded onto the device your kids will bring along on the trip. Some games have optional online multiplayer, cloud saves, subscription-based DLC, or other features that won’t work without an internet connection, but don’t worry because we’ve pointed out those quirks below where relevant.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons Can Last the Entire Vacation
Animal Crossing: New Horizons puts players in charge of a nearly empty island that gradually turns into whatever kind of home they want to build. Kids can catch bugs and fish, collect fossils, decorate their houses, terraform the landscape, grow plants, and get to know the animal residents who move in over time. There’s no traditional campaign pushing everyone toward the same ending, which means an island can remain a work in progress for months or even years.
The open-ended structure makes Animal Crossing particularly good for long trips. The main game works without an internet connection, but visiting other players online and a few other online features won’t be available in airplane mode. Happy Home Paradise deserves a special mention here because players accessing the DLC through a Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack membership do require an internet connection when launching it. However, a separately purchased copy can be used offline once it has been loaded onto the system.
Why Kids Will Love Animal Crossing: New Horizons
There’s always something to do in this game, whether that means finding a missing museum specimen, decorating a room, or hunting for the perfect villager. Kids who like creating things can keep reshaping their island long after a more traditional game would have rolled the credits.
- ESRB Rating: E for Everyone
- Content Descriptors: Comic Mischief, Mild Fantasy Violence
- Platforms: Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2
- Players: 1-4 on one system; up to 8 via local wireless on Nintendo Switch
Stardew Valley Makes a Few Hours Disappear Very Quickly
Stardew Valley hands players an overgrown farm and leaves most of the important decisions up to them. Players can engage in a wide range of activities from planting crops and raising animals to catching fish, mining ore, interacting with villagers, and more. Progress comes gradually as better tools, larger buildings, new areas, and stronger relationships open up. Each in-game day is short enough to create a natural stopping point, which works beautifully when a flight is landing or the family has reached the next rest stop.
At the same time, a full farm can easily keep kids occupied for dozens of hours, and starting over with a different layout or strategy gives Stardew Valley even more mileage. The single-player farm doesn’t need an internet connection, and the original Switch version even supports two-player split-screen for kids who want to play on the road together. The newer Switch 2 edition expands local split-screen to four players, albeit having four kids huddle together a small screen while on the road could be a bit tricky.
Why Kids Will Love Stardew Valley
Kids can spend one session trying to make money and the next completely ignoring the farm in favor of exploring caves or making friends around town. That freedom gives Stardew Valley the kind of staying power that makes a ten-hour flight feel much shorter.
- ESRB Rating: E10+ for Everyone 10+
- Content Descriptors: Fantasy Violence, Mild Blood, Mild Language, Simulated Gambling, Use of Alcohol and Tobacco
- Platforms: PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, iOS, Android
- Players: 1-2 local on Nintendo Switch; up to 4 local on Nintendo Switch 2; online multiplayer available
Minecraft Gives Kids More Than One Trip’s Worth of Things to Do
Minecraft can be a survival game, a construction set, an exploration game, or some combination of all three. Survival Mode has players gathering resources, building shelters, crafting better equipment, and dealing with hostile creatures that emerge after dark. Creative Mode, on the other hand, removes most restrictions and gives players an enormous supply of blocks to do with them as they please. There is technically a path toward defeating the Ender Dragon, but Minecraft is anything but a linear game and players don’t need to rush to the endgame.
Minecraft is one of the best open-world games for a long trip because there is almost no realistic chance of running out of things to do halfway through the journey. Kids can work on the same survival world for hundreds of hours or start a new Creative project whenever they want something different. Existing worlds work offline, while Realms, servers, the Marketplace, and cross-platform multiplayer need an internet connection. On Switch, up to four people can play together on the same system, while nearby systems can connect through local wireless without relying on normal online multiplayer.
Why Kids Will Love Minecraft
Minecraft gives kids a goal when they want one and gets out of the way when they would rather build something ridiculous instead. A single save can grow from a wooden shack into an entire city before the family has taken enough trips to exhaust it.
- ESRB Rating: E10+ for Everyone 10+
- Content Descriptors: Fantasy Violence
- Platforms: PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, iOS, Android
- Players: 1-4 on one Switch; 2-8 local wireless; online multiplayer available
Terraria Packs a Huge Adventure Into a Tiny World of Blocks
Terraria may look similar to Minecraft at first glance, but it quickly heads in a very different direction. Kids can spend hours on end digging through enormous underground networks, crafting all sorts of wacky equipment, exploring dangerous biomes, and fighting a long succession of bosses. To keep things interesting, the game throws new things at players at regular intervals, including new ores, enemies, weapons, and areas.
The Switch version of Terraria is a particularly good road-trip option because an individual world can soak up dozens of hours while the game itself takes up very little storage space. The Switch version can be played entirely solo without internet, with only the multiplayer component requiring online connectivity. Parents should note that Terraria is rated T and gets darker than its colorful pixel art may suggest. Blood, monster dismemberment, and some suggestive jokes are the main things contributing to the T rating.
Why Kids Will Love Terraria
Digging a little deeper almost always reveals another cave, treasure chest, enemy, or resource that wasn’t there before. Kids who enjoy collecting gear and discovering secrets can keep finding reasons to return to the world even after defeating many of its bosses.
- ESRB Rating: T for Teen
- Content Descriptors: Alcohol Reference, Blood and Gore, Cartoon Violence, Mild Suggestive Themes
- Platforms: PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, iOS, Android
- Players: 1 offline on Nintendo Switch; up to 8 online
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Turns Travel Time Into Exploration Time
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom features an enormous version of Hyrule for Link to explore, along with islands floating above it and a vast underground region beneath it. The main quest revolves around finding Zelda and dealing with Ganondorf’s return, but there’s no sense of urgency here. Similar to other open-world games, TotK allows players to wander off to solve shrines, explore caves, help strangers, hunt for armor, and experiment with machines built from whatever parts happen to be nearby.
Kids will be hard-pressed to beat Tears of the Kingdom during a single flight or road trip unless they make a determined effort to stick to the main quest and ignore most of the other content. The game is completely single-player and the original Switch release has no interactive online elements to worry about. Players using the Switch 2 upgrade through a Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack subscription should verify the upgrade before traveling, but the base Switch game itself doesn’t require a connection.
Why Kids Will Love The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
Hyrule rewards curiosity constantly, whether Link is climbing a mountain, dropping into a mysterious hole, or gluing together an absurd machine just to see whether it works. There are enough distractions between the major quests that two kids could play for the same number of hours and have completely different stories to tell.
- ESRB Rating: E10+ for Everyone 10+
- Content Descriptors: Fantasy Violence, Mild Suggestive Themes
- Platforms: Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2
- Players: 1
Pokémon Legends: Arceus Makes Filling the Pokédex the Main Adventure
Pokémon Legends: Arceus takes the usual Pokémon formula and puts far more emphasis on exploring and studying the creatures themselves. The gameplay revolves around travelling through large wilderness areas in ancient Hisui, catching Pokémon directly in the field, gathering materials, completing research tasks, and gradually filling out the region’s first Pokédex. Battles are still important, but sneaking through tall grass and figuring out how to approach a skittish or aggressive Pokémon is equally important.
The research system makes Arceus especially easy to play in travel-sized chunks. Players can spend half an hour completing tasks for one species, then head back to Jubilife Village, save, and put the Switch away without feeling as though they stopped in the middle of something huge. The game itself is completely playable offline from start to finish. Trading is the main multiplayer feature players lose without an internet connection, but nearby devices can still trade through local wireless when available.
Why Kids Will Love Pokémon Legends: Arceus
Seeing Pokémon roaming around the landscape makes completing the Pokédex feel much more like an expedition than filling in a checklist. Kids who enjoy collecting everything can keep chasing rare species and research goals well after the main story has moved on.
- ESRB Rating: E for Everyone
- Content Descriptors: Mild Fantasy Violence
- Platforms: Nintendo Switch
- Players: 1; trading supports 2 players locally or online
Pokémon Pokopia Can Keep Switch 2 Owners Building for Hours
Pokémon Pokopia swaps trainers and traditional gym battles for something closer to a life simulation. Players control a Ditto trying to restore a deserted region by gathering materials, creating habitats, completing requests, and encouraging Pokémon to return. Different creatures teach Ditto abilities that help reshape the environment, so progress gradually opens up new ways to build and explore throughout the course of the game.
A game built around rebuilding and decorating is a natural fit for long stretches away from home. Pokopia works as a single-player game without constant internet access, however, local wireless allows nearby Switch 2 systems to play together. Online co-op, online GameShare, Mystery Gifts, and certain downloadable extras do require a connection. Players should make sure to claim or download anything they want before leaving. Pokopia is exclusive to Switch 2, making it one of the few games on this list that won’t work on an original Switch or Switch Lite.
Why Kids Will Love Pokémon Pokopia
Kids who love Pokémon games get to spend time with the creatures without every activity revolving around battles. Building a place where new Pokémon can move in provides a steady stream of small rewards that can keep a child occupied through a very long journey.
- ESRB Rating: E for Everyone
- Content Descriptors: None
- Platforms: Nintendo Switch 2
- Players: 1 on one system; 2-4 local wireless; up to 4 online
Dragon Quest XI S Is Big Enough for More Than One Long Flight
Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age is a traditional role-playing game built on an enormous scale. The story follows a young hero known as the Luminary as he gathers a party and travels across Erdrea, fighting monsters, visiting new towns, and slowly uncovering why his supposed destiny has made him a target. Battles are turn-based, leaving players plenty of time to choose attacks and abilities without needing quick reflexes.
The campaign of Dragon Quest XI S stretches across dozens of hours even without accounting for optional quests and later challenges. Dragon Quest XI S can be completed without an internet connection, so there’s no multiplayer system, server requirement, or live-service feature waiting to cause trouble after takeoff. The newer Switch 2 release is separate from the original Switch version and doesn’t share save data with it, so players should make sure they’re bringing the version containing the save they actually want to continue.
Why Kids Will Love Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age
The party keeps growing throughout the journey, and each new region brings its own monsters, towns, stories, and secrets. Older kids who enjoy long fantasy adventures can spend an entire vacation with the Luminary and still return home with plenty left to see.
- ESRB Rating: T for Teen
- Content Descriptors: Crude Humor, Fantasy Violence, Mild Blood, Simulated Gambling, Suggestive Themes, Use of Alcohol
- Platforms: PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2
- Players: 1
Dragon Quest Builders 2 Turns the Whole Trip Into One Giant Building Project
Dragon Quest Builders 2 combines an action RPG with the freedom of a block-building game. The story constantly introduces new building ideas and recipes, but players are free to spend as much time as they wish tinkering with homes, farms, kitchens, and whatever other structures they decide their island needs. The campaign alone can keep kids busy through a long journey, and the building side gives Dragon Quest Builders 2 plenty of life afterward.
Everything important to the story works in offline single-player, while multiplayer is an optional extra for up to four people using local wireless or online play. That makes it easy to ignore connectivity entirely during a flight or a long road trip. The Switch version supports handheld mode, but large settlements can become demanding on the older hardware, so Switch 2 owners may have the smoother portable experience even when running the original Switch game through backward compatibility.
Why Kids Will Love Dragon Quest Builders 2
Every new island gives players another excuse to build something larger or stranger than the last time. Kids who like Minecraft-style creativity but want a stronger story telling them where to go next can expect a good mix of freedom and direction.
- ESRB Rating: E10+ for Everyone 10+
- Content Descriptors: Alcohol Reference, Comic Mischief, Fantasy Violence, Mild Blood, Mild Language, Suggestive Themes
- Platforms: PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch
- Players: 1 offline; 2-4 local wireless or online on Nintendo Switch
Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time Always Has Another Job to Try
Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time lets players switch between 14 different Lives, which function as professions ranging from fishing and cooking to blacksmithing, woodcutting, and monster hunting. A larger story surrounding a mysterious island ties everything together, but there’s no requirement to spend the whole game pushing forward through quests. Players who don’t like fighting can spend much of their time gathering materials, crafting furniture, improving another profession, or reshaping the island instead.
The main story already offers plenty to work through, while leveling multiple Lives and chasing side activities can extend playthroughs even further.
The game works offline and its two-player Family Co-op mode can be used on one system without connecting to the internet. Larger four-player sessions use local wireless or online play. There are Switch, Switch 2, and mobile versions of the game available, but cross-save uses an Epic Games account, so anyone planning to swap between devices should sync everything before leaving home rather than counting on airport Wi-Fi.
Why Kids Will Love Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time
Kids can change direction whenever one activity starts getting old, which is ideal when they have a lot of hours to fill. Becoming a better cook, miner, wizard, carpenter, or angler gives the game a long list of smaller goals alongside its much bigger adventure.
- ESRB Rating: E10+ for Everyone 10+
- Content Descriptors: Fantasy Violence
- Platforms: PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, iOS, Android
- Players: 1-2 on one system; 1-4 local wireless or online
Fire Emblem: Three Houses Has Enough Content For An Entire Vacation
Fire Emblem: Three Houses puts players in charge of a class at the Officers Academy, where teaching students and getting to know them between battles is just as important as what happens on the battlefield. Once war reaches the continent of Fódlan, those same students become soldiers in a series of turn-based strategy campaigns where positioning, character classes, weapons, and relationships can all affect how a fight plays out. The choice between the Black Eagles, Blue Lions, and Golden Deer leads to substantially different stories, giving the game quite a lot of replay value.
Playing through all the sides of the conflict can push the total playtime to well beyond 100 hours, so there’s little danger of exhausting Three Houses halfway through a trip. The entire campaign is completely playable offline. Network features are optional and any Expansion Pass content should simply be downloaded before leaving home. Parents should keep the T rating in mind, since later parts of the story deal with war, death, blood, and some suggestive material.
Why Kids Will Love Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Older kids and teens can get attached to the students they train before watching those characters grow into much more capable fighters. Choosing another house on a later playthrough reveals parts of the story the first campaign never showed.
- ESRB Rating: T for Teen
- Content Descriptors: Blood, Suggestive Themes, Violence
- Platforms: Nintendo Switch
- Players: 1
Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Is an RPG for the Really Long Haul
Xenoblade Chronicles 3 follows six young soldiers from two opposing nations who discover that the war consuming their lives is not what it seems. The party travels across the enormous world of Aionios, taking on quests, discovering settlements, fighting monsters, and unlocking a large collection of character classes that can be swapped between party members. Combat takes place in real time, but much of the strategy comes from choosing abilities, arranging the party, and deciding when characters should combine into their powerful Ouroboros forms.
This is one of the longest games on the entire list, making it better suited for a week-long vacation than a single afternoon drive. Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is a single-player game that doesn’t rely on an internet connection, with Nintendo Switch Online used only for features such as cloud saves. The optional Expansion Pass adds even more story content, but players who own it should make sure everything has been downloaded and updated before hitting the road. A dedicated Switch 2 edition is scheduled for December 3, 2026 but until then, the existing Switch version is the one to bring along.
Why Kids Will Love Xenoblade Chronicles 3
The enormous world makes wandering off the main path feel worthwhile, especially when a detour leads to a new Hero and another class to experiment with. Teens who get invested in the characters could spend an entire vacation following Noah, Mio, and the rest of the party across Aionios.
- ESRB Rating: T for Teen
- Content Descriptors: Language, Mild Blood, Suggestive Themes, Violence
- Platforms: Nintendo Switch
- Players: 1
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door Breaks the Journey Into Perfect-Sized Chapters
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door sends Mario to the rough port town of Rogueport after Princess Peach discovers a mysterious treasure map. Finding the treasure means collecting seven Crystal Stars, with each part of the search taking Mario to a completely different place and introducing another companion with special abilities. Battles are turn-based but include timed button presses that strengthen attacks and blocks, while Mario’s strange paper transformations let him squeeze through gaps, roll himself up, and even fold into a paper airplane.
The chapter-based structure fits a long trip particularly well. A normal playthrough is long enough to cover several flights or days in the car, and optional Trouble Center quests plus the Pit of 100 Trials add even more content. The Switch remake is entirely single-player and only uses Nintendo’s online services for cloud saves. There are no multiplayer servers or account-dependent features to worry about once the game is installed and updated.
Why Kids Will Love Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
Every chapter feels like its own small adventure, from solving a mystery aboard a train to fighting through a wrestling tournament. The funny dialogue and constantly changing locations keep the long RPG from feeling like an enormous uninterrupted quest.
- ESRB Rating: E for Everyone
- Content Descriptors: Mild Fantasy Violence, Mild Suggestive Themes
- Platforms: Nintendo Switch
Pikmin 4 Turns Every Day Into a Small Expedition
Pikmin 4 makes an ordinary-looking backyard feel enormous by shrinking its explorers down to the size of insects. Players command squads of tiny Pikmin with different abilities, using them to carry treasure, fight creatures, solve environmental puzzles, and rescue stranded castaways. Oatchi, the rescue pup, adds another layer by carrying objects, smashing obstacles, transporting Pikmin, and eventually learning a wide range of useful skills.
Surface expeditions are divided into days, while underground caves are broken into individual floors, giving Pikmin 4 plenty of natural places to stop when a rest stop or landing announcement interrupts play. The campaign can run well past 30 hours for kids who hunt down the castaways and treasure, and Dandori challenges add smaller score-based activities on top of that. Everything here works offline and two players can even cooperate on the same Switch, although the second player fills more of a support role and doesn’t get to control a separate explorer.
Why Kids Will Love Pikmin 4
Commanding dozens of tiny creatures makes even carrying a piece of fruit back to base feel like a miniature expedition. New Pikmin types, Oatchi upgrades, caves, and strange creatures keep giving kids another reason to see what’s hiding around the next corner.
- ESRB Rating: E10+ for Everyone 10+
- Content Descriptors: Comic Mischief, Fantasy Violence
- Platforms: Nintendo Switch
- Players: 1-2 local
Sea of Stars Has Enough Adventure for the Trip There and Back
Sea of Stars takes inspiration from classic turn-based RPGs without copying all of their old limitations. Valere and Zale are Solstice Warriors capable of combining sun and moon magic. Their journey eventually grows into an epic fight against the creations of the evil Fleshmancer. Battles reward well-timed button presses and careful use of damage types, while exploration lets the party take part in a variety of fun activities like fishing, cooking, sailing, and more.
The main campaign provides roughly the kind of length you’d want for a typical road trip, while optional exploration and the free Throes of the Watchmaker expansion can stretch things further. The core game is completely playable offline, with Nintendo Switch Online only being relevant for features such as cloud saves. Anyone planning to play the free expansion should download it before leaving since it adds another eight-plus hours of areas, bosses, puzzles, and story content.
Why Kids Will Love Sea of Stars
The story keeps introducing stranger and stranger places, but the battles remain easy to plough through even as the party gains more abilities. Kids who enjoy classic RPG adventures can expect plenty of exploration without having to deal with random battles every few steps.
- ESRB Rating: E10+ for Everyone 10+
- Content Descriptors: Fantasy Violence, Mild Blood, Mild Language
- Platforms: PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, iOS, Android
- Players: 1-3 local
Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar Gives Players Something To Look Forward To Weekly
Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar brings players to Zephyr Town, where a once-famous market has fallen on hard times. Restoring it starts with a small farm, but crops, animals, crafted goods, friendships, and romance gradually turn daily farm work into something much bigger. The weekly bazaar changes the normal farming-game formula by giving players a specific day to set up a stall, sell what they have produced, and attract more visitors to town.
Each in-game day in Grand Bazaar provides a manageable list of jobs, while every bazaar gives the player a larger milestone to work toward. Reaching the end of an in-game year alone can take up dozens of hours, and farming games tend to continue long after the story stops being the main motivation. Grand Bazaar is single-player with no online gameplay requirement, so once the game and any desired DLC are installed, cloud saves are about the only network feature travelers will be missing.
Why Kids Will Love Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar
Kids get the satisfaction of watching both the farm and the bazaar grow because of the work they did themselves. Raising animals, gliding around town, making friends, and deciding what to sell keeps the daily routine from becoming just a cycle of watering crops.
- ESRB Rating: E for Everyone
- Content Descriptors: None
- Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2
- Players: 1
Sid Meier’s Civilization VI Can Make a Six-Hour Flight Feel Short
Sid Meier’s Civilization VI opens up with a small group of settlers and asks players to build an empire that can survive from ancient history all the way to the space age. Cities expand across the map as players research technology, establish governments, negotiate with rival leaders, wage wars, and pursue different victory conditions. One decision tends to create three more, which is exactly how a game about moving units around a map can make a lengthy trip feel surprisingly short.
Civilization VI is turn-based, so kids can put the Switch down whenever they need to without losing a fight or missing an action, and a single campaign can easily outlast a long-haul flight. There might not be a better game on this list for making hours disappear in a flash. The Switch port works offline and doesn’t rely on online multiplayer. In addition, there’s even a hotseat mode that allows multiple people to take turns on the same system. There is a large amount of optional DLC, though, so expansions and civilization packs should be installed before the trip just to be on the safe side.
Why Kids Will Love Sid Meier’s Civilization VI
Older kids who enjoy planning can watch a tiny settlement turn into a sprawling civilization because of hundreds of decisions they made along the way. Starting over as a different leader can completely change which technologies, resources, and victory conditions seem most important.
- ESRB Rating: E10+ for Everyone 10+
- Content Descriptors: Drug Reference, Language, Mild Violence, Suggestive Themes
- Platforms: PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, iOS, Android
- Players: 1; local hotseat multiplayer available on Nintendo Switch
Slay the Spire Makes Starting Over Part of the Fun
Slay the Spire combines elements of card games and roguelikes, sending players up a tower filled with monsters, treasure, random events, shops, and branching paths. Every attack, defensive move, and special ability comes from cards drawn from a custom-built deck, so finding a powerful new card is only helpful if it works with everything already there. Losing sends the player back to the bottom, but new strategies and unlocks make the next climb feel different every single time.
Individual runs are much shorter compared to some of the other games on this list, but that’s exactly why Slay the Spire works so well for travel. Everything important happens offline, with Nintendo’s network features limited to things like cloud saves and online scoreboards. The Switch version supports touchscreen controls, making it possible to play without holding the device like a traditional handheld when space is tight.
Why Kids Will Love Slay the Spire
Building a deck that suddenly starts producing ridiculous combinations is enormously satisfying, particularly after several failed attempts. Since the tower changes every time, kids never know exactly which cards, enemies, or relics the next run will offer.
- ESRB Rating: E10+ for Everyone 10+
- Content Descriptors: Fantasy Violence, Mild Blood, Tobacco Reference
- Platforms: PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, iOS, Android
- Players: 1
Dave the Diver Gives Kids Two Games to Bounce Between
Dave the Diver splits his time between exploring the mysterious Blue Hole and running a sushi restaurant with his friend Bancho. During the day, Dave dives for fish, searches for resources, upgrades equipment, and gradually ventures into deeper and more dangerous parts of the ocean. At night, those catches become ingredients as players choose a menu, serve customers, hire staff, and earn money for the next round of upgrades.
The day-and-night loop makes Dave the Diver easy to play in manageable chunks while still offering enough story and side content for a long trip. This is a completely single-player game with no interactive online elements, so the restaurant and diving progression work normally without Wi-Fi. There’s quite a bit of optional downloadable content up for grabs, including the DREDGE, Godzilla, Ichiban’s Holiday, and In the Jungle packs. Families interested in any of those should download them beforehand to avoid getting them over public Wi-Fi.
Why Kids Will Love Dave the Diver
Just when diving or restaurant management starts to feel predictable, the game introduces another character, activity, or bizarre problem for Dave to solve. The constant back-and-forth between catching fish and turning them into a successful restaurant gives kids two very different kinds of progression to chase.
- ESRB Rating: E10+ for Everyone 10+
- Content Descriptors: Mild Blood, Mild Language, Mild Suggestive Themes, Mild Violence, Simulated Gambling, Use of Alcohol
- Platforms: PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2
- Players: 1
Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics Is Basically a Travel Game Cabinet
Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics collects board games, card games, tabletop sports, puzzles, and small arcade-style activities from around the world. Chess, checkers, mancala, mahjong, blackjack, bowling, darts, billiards, toy baseball, and dozens of others all sit in the same package, with tutorials available for players who have never encountered a particular game before. There’s no big campaign tying everything together, but learning and mastering 51 separate games can definitely take a long time.
Many games support multiple people on a single Switch by sharing controllers or using the touchscreen, and local wireless can connect nearby systems without normal internet access. There is one important airplane caveat to keep in mind with this one, as Nintendo says Flight Mode must be turned off for local wireless communication. In other words, same-system multiplayer is the safer option when airline rules restrict wireless connections.
Why Kids Will Love Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics
If one game gets boring, there are another 50 waiting a few taps away. Clubhouse Games is especially great for siblings because they can jump from a quick card game to bowling, tanks, chess, or darts without carrying a box full of travel games.
- ESRB Rating: E for Everyone
- Content Descriptors: Mild Cartoon Violence, Simulated Gambling
- Platforms: Nintendo Switch
- Players: 1-4 local; 2-4 local wireless or online, depending on the game
