My son is going to be 5, and is a total computer nut. He loves Mario but his favorite thing to do on the pc is Unreal Tournament 2004 *with low gore settings* he's had a computer since he was 14 months old.... He had a PS2 and left it sitting when he was 3, and he only played the Spongebob game on it... Any advice? Other than not letting my child play UT2k4 LOL And yes, he's social and goes to pre-k LOL

I was thinking Gamecube, because he has the nintendo DS, and gameboy micro and loves them both.. as I understand there's a dock or something you can buy where you can play your gameboy games and what not on the gamecube?

The Wii is an awesome kids console i'd say especially with the new controllers so they have to acctualy get up and move around when playing most games which is extremely good fun (i own one i know lol can't stay away from boxing )

Not to mention the Wii is gonna wear him out quickly and he is gonna do more nap times

Yeah, I definitely suggest the Wii. It's a good family console, since it's easy to learn to use. Since it can download classic games, he can even play old games like Super Mario Bros (what I started on at 2). The Wii can play Gamecube games as well, provided you have a Cube controller, so it's basically like getting a Gamecube with improved graphics and awesome controls. As he grows up and learns more about it, there's other games for it that are for better gamers. Not as many yet, but soon there will be. Right now the majority of the games on it are multiplayer and good for parties/beginning gamers.

Thank you so much for the quick feedback, I kept going back and forth, mostly because I am out of the gaming loop lol His birthday is the 9th and I think the Wii sounds like it would work for him as well as my sisters five kiddos. I was concerned about his age and the price of the Wii-- if it would hold up to six kids, but it sounds like the better deal. Any must have games? Your input is MUCH appreciated.

Eh, only four people can play it at one time at any given time... but it can easily keep anyone occupied. It comes bundled with Wii Sports, which has Bowling, Baseball, Boxing, Tennis and Golf. Baseball and Boxing are 2 players and the others are 4. Rayman: Raving Rabbids is a good party game as well, Mario Party 8 and Wario Ware: Smooth Moves would do nicely.

Thanks for all the info guys Due to my grandmother getting sick/dying/funeral all a few days before my sons birthday I couldn't run shipment checks on the numerous stores in two different towns to track down a wii...
Freakishly enough, it worked out- I am constantly in best buy and always buy the replacement plan- I got the 100 dollar gameboy micro for my son when he was three for christmas I believe, and he dropped it and cracked the screen about a month ago. I took it back the day before his birthday due to them being phased out- I ended up being able to swap it for a gamecube- only having to purchase the fourteen dollar replacement plan on the GC, sorry tons of pointless back-story... but the Wii is in the closet for christmas, so Thanks again for all of your help It's a huge bonus to know the GC games will play in the wii...... he's a huge nintendo fan so in the end it all worked out
ALWAYS, always, purchase the replacement plan LOL

wii is good but doesnt have much online play and it doesnt have as many good games as x-box360 has

must buy games:super mario galaxy,super smash bros brawl when it comes out soon

no i dont think it is bad for your son to be playing Unreal Tournament 2004

i was playing quake when i was like 6 online with my dad, i think its good for kids to realise the gore that happens :b .

but i turned out to be a computer nerd but thats how it is, and thats not always a bad thing

The Wii only has so few games because come the 19th, it'll only have been out for a year. The 360 has had... two? Or is it three? I think that it's going to have a ton of good games come 2008... Mario Kart Wii and Super Smash Bros Brawl top off the list.

I'm with yo, I don't think that it's bad for anyone of any age to play any game, I think that it's more a problem with separating reality from fiction, Just because you run around in a video game killing people and blowing stuff up doesnt mean you should in real life. If people could understand that, I don't think there would be much need for worry over game ratings and all.

You're right about turning out to be a computer nerd not being a bad thing, too. When you can honestly say you know more about a computer's functions than your computer teacher, you've got it made. Computers are where the money's at these days, anyway.

I'm a little late in here in all of this, but the Wii is an excellent choice. Nintendo tends to gear their games towards a younger audience, and not only can it play Gamecube games, but with the purchase of Wii points and a classic controller, you can download games from the Nintendo Entertainment System, the Super Nintendo, the Sega Genesis, the N64, and another console that I'd never heard of before thus I don't remember.

To answer a question from your first post, yes, there is an adapter to allow you to play Gameboy games on the Gamecube. However, since he already has/had a gameboy/DS, then I don't recommend it.

Just be careful about adult content, and pay attention to the ESRB notes on the back. "Blood and Gore" and "Violence" will not harm him at all. However, "Language," "Strong Language," and "Sexual Themes" are things you might want to steer against, for obvious reasons. There are just some things that should be waited upon to learn.

The gameboy player is a hard to find thing nowadays, since it didn't catch on too well. I didn't like it very much, since you had to have a frame around the game and you couldn't do two player on it just by using two controllers, so I traded it in.

The one you can't remember for the Virtual Console is the TurboGrafix 64. It's basically only known for ToeJam and Earl.

Again, I had never heard of it before.

You should get him a wii because it plays both gamecube and wii games

I would definitely recommend the Wii, which provides me with hours of endless entertainment. Not to mention the constantly growing Virtual Console, and the tons of games due for release this year.

I like the Wii better then the gamecube