Pick a game for your kids to play on their Android devices.
Xbox Game Pass has so many games that one person will probably not be able to play them all in one lifetime. It has games for Android gamers, console gamers, RPG fans, FPS enthusiasts, casual gamers, and just about everything in between.
It’s not just the adult gamers who can get something out of a Game Pass subscription. There are plenty of games on Game Pass that are appropriate for younger players as well. Several of them have touch controls, though there are several that require the use of a controller. Luckily, there are several controllers that work well with Game Pass on Android.
These are the games we recommend for parents who want to let their kids play on Game Pass.
Jump to:
- Banjo-Kazooie
- Slime Rancher
- Disneyland Adventures
- Rush: A DisneyPixar Adventure
- Overcooked 2
- Ori & the Blind Forest
- PHOGS!
- Viva Piñata
- New Super Lucky’s Tale
- Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair
Banjo-Kazooie
This game and its sequel, Banjo-Tooie, are the classic kid-friendly titles on Game Pass that are available for Android devices. Originally released on the Nintendo 64 in 1998, Banjo-Kazooie is one of those Rare platformers that stands the test of time and will occupy a kid today as easily as it will one of the 90s kids who played the original.
Both games are available on Game Pass Cloud Gaming as part of the Rare Replay collection. As always, the first game is the one to start with, and the bright colors and simple story make this one of the more kid-friendly 90s platformers available on Game Pass or anywhere else.
Banjo-Kazooie
$15 at Microsoft
Banjo-Kazooie is a classic for a reason. This platformer is an adorable, challenging game that’s suitable for kids and anyone else.
Slime Rancher
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5_d1tJikIM?modestbranding=0&html5=1&rel=0&autoplay=0&wmode=opaque&loop=0&controls=1&autohide=0&showinfo=0&theme=dark&color=red&enablejsapi=1]
Out of all the simulation games out there, this one might just be the cutest ever made. You play as Beatrix Lebeau, who owns a farm on an alien planet, where she’s hacking out a living wrangling slimes. Slimes are twee, smiling balls of jelly who bounce around, make little cooing noises, and literally poop out valuable gems. You couldn’t come up with a more pleasant and kid-friendly game if you tried.
That said, just because it’s not a violent or dark sim game doesn’t mean it’s not intricate. There are lots of customization options for your farm, and, while you can just coast through exploring and harvesting gems (“plorts”) from wild slimes, you can also set up a very efficient and profitable farm. It’d actually be a good game for teaching children about economics, as there’s even an in-game plort market with values that change each day.
Slime Rancher
$20 at Microsoft
Slime Rancher is a farming sim in which you wrangle a bunch of adorable, bouncing jelly-creatures. It’s one of the cutest, most delightful games ever created.
Disneyland Adventures
Disney’s theme parks may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but it’s undoubtedly a very family-friendly place. Disneyland Adventures is essentially an exploration game set inside Disneyland park. Given that many people will have not been able to safely explore the real park, this is a good substitute for kids who wanted to visit the land of the Mouse.
It’s not just an exploration game, as there are several minigames associated with various rides around the park, as well as dozens of quests — though granted, the trade-off is that you can’t go on the rides themselves. It might sound saccharine and simplistic, especially given the company behind it, but if you want something cheerful and Disney for your kids, this will let them explore the park without the very high price tag and crowds.
Disneyland Adventures
$20 at Microsoft
Visit Disneyland Park virtually in this former Kinect title, which lets you hug Disney icons, play ride minigames, and go on quests.
Rush: A DisneyPixar Adventure
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoRfk2P9EpM?modestbranding=0&html5=1&rel=0&autoplay=0&wmode=opaque&loop=0&controls=1&autohide=0&showinfo=0&theme=dark&color=red&enablejsapi=1]
Speaking of Disney, this is a game for kids who love the Disney Pixar movies and want to live in the worlds of those movies, if only for a little while. Like Disneyland Adventures above, it was originally a Kinect title before finding second life without that Xbox peripheral. Now parents and kids can take advantage of the co-op features built into Rush to play in the Pixar lands together.
You play as a customized character who enters the worlds of Ratatouille, The Incredibles, the first three Toy Story films, Up, the first two Cars films, and Finding Dory. You solve various puzzles alongside the familiar characters, which include things like playing with Andy’s toys, swimming with Nemo and Dory, and racing with Lightning McQueen. It might not do much for an adult, but if your kid loves Pixar movies it’ll undoubtedly keep them occupied for a while.
Rush: A DisneyPixar Adventure
$20 at Microsoft
Kids can jump right into the worlds of their favorite Disney and Pixar films, including Toy Story, Cars, and The Incredibles, playing puzzles alongside familiar characters.
Overcooked 2
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZK7veYPEJQ?modestbranding=0&html5=1&rel=0&autoplay=0&wmode=opaque&loop=0&controls=1&autohide=0&showinfo=0&theme=dark&color=red&enablejsapi=1]
Single-player games are great, but suppose you want to play a game with your child? Overcooked 2 is one of the games available on Game Pass that is both fun and simplistic enough for kids and complicated enough for adults. It might also be a good opportunity to help teach kids problem-solving skills — though it’ll be a trial by fire.
Overcooked 2 has kid-friendly graphics, and you can stick to some of the less-challenging levels if you don’t want your child (or yourself) to get overly frustrated. It made our list of the best family games available on Nintendo Switch, as it’s both fun and a great value. It offers the same great stuff for Game Pass on Android.
Overcooked 2
$15 at Microsoft
This co-op cooking title is relatively simple to play, but difficult to play well. Perfect for both online and local co-op, this game can be played by up to 4 people.
Ori & the Blind Forest
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cklw-Yu3moE?modestbranding=0&html5=1&rel=0&autoplay=0&wmode=opaque&loop=0&controls=1&autohide=0&showinfo=0&theme=dark&color=red&enablejsapi=1]
The Ori games may be more suited to older children, but they’re still great choices for kids who aren’t afraid of a little bit of a challenge. They’re beautiful, colorful, and simple to grasp platformers with beautiful scores and art design. While there is some imagery in them that’ll frighten very young children, and some of the platforming sections might be frustrating, the story and main character are simple and approachable enough to remain child-friendly.
Both Blind Forest and Will of the Wisps made our list of must-play Game Pass games for Android, so they’re both solid titles. Blind Forest is probably slightly more kid-friendly, as it has somewhat simpler mechanics, but either one would be great for a kid aged about 10 or older.
Ori & the Blind Forest
$5 at Microsoft
Ori & the Blind Forest is a fun platformer, beautiful and challenging and suitable for anyone who wants to enjoy its simple story and combat.
PHOGS!
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqqdwFZNlGA?modestbranding=0&html5=1&rel=0&autoplay=0&wmode=opaque&loop=0&controls=1&autohide=0&showinfo=0&theme=dark&color=red&enablejsapi=1]
One of the newer games to come to Game Pass, PHOGS is a puzzle game in which you play as two dogs linked together in one big doggy noodle, who must work together to navigate the world around them. That means that a child and a parent or friend can play the game together.
Everything about this game looks like something kids would like. The dog heroes are adorable and fluffy. The worlds are bright and colorful, being themed around the dog-friendly concepts of food, sleep, and play. The puzzles are complex, but not so difficult that they’ll frustrate younger minds.
PHOGS!
$25 at Microsoft
PHOGS! is a cute, enjoyable puzzler suitable for kids and adults with both local and online co-op. Playing as a dog in a video game has never been so adorable and silly.
Viva Piñata
Going back to the old school of games, Viva Piñata is one of Rare’s most underrated titles. You have to cultivate an island full of Piñatas in order to lure and tame them, in a bizarre mixture of gardening sim, time management, and animal husbandry. The player must capture the various species of pinata, even though they don’t always get along.
Describing it like that makes it sound complicated, but the gameplay is very simple, and the colorful world is very kid-friendly. While capturing a whole pinata food chain sometimes requires players to sacrifice some pinatas in order to capture others, it’s cheerful and non-graphic enough to still be safely within the realm of kid-friendly games.
Viva Piñata
$15 at Microsoft
Rare’s take on a Pokemon game, Viva Piñata lets you grow a garden that will attract lots of colorful piñatas for you to capture. If you’ve ever wanted to play a game in which you can pick out hats for your candy vessels, this is for you.
New Super Lucky’s Tale
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssDRgxuF9fM?modestbranding=0&html5=1&rel=0&autoplay=0&wmode=opaque&loop=0&controls=1&autohide=0&showinfo=0&theme=dark&color=red&enablejsapi=1]
This adorable platformer is described by Microsoft as a “complete reimagining” of the original Super Lucky’s Tale, released on PC and Xbox One in 2017. Lucky Swiftail must help his sister protect the Book of Ages, which offers access to new worlds, from an evil sorcerer.
As far as kid-friendly games go, it doesn’t get more classic than this, a platformer starring an animal hero on a noble quest. This is an expanded version of the original game, with new levels and mechanics added. If you’re looking for a game that’ll give your kid the platformer experience with modern graphics and controls, this is the perfect game.
New Super Lucky’s Tale
$30 at Microsoft
A rebuilt version of the original Super Lucky’s Tale, this New game is a take on the platformers of old. Follow Lucky as he traverses the worlds within the Book of Ages, attempting to thwart evil sorcerer Jinx.
Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoJFUlK15XI?modestbranding=0&html5=1&rel=0&autoplay=0&wmode=opaque&loop=0&controls=1&autohide=0&showinfo=0&theme=dark&color=red&enablejsapi=1]
The Yooka-Laylee games were conceived as a spiritual successor to Banjo-Kazooie, and the first game in the series was a more straight homage to the third-person platformers of yore. However, Impossible Lair is a sidescrolling platformer, setting it apart from its predecessor.
Like Lucky’s Tale above, Impossible Lair gives an old-school-style gameplay experience for gamers with modern graphics and controls. It’s more difficult than other games on this list, but every young gamer needs a white whale to pursue. The gameplay, while a little bit unforgiving, is accessible for young gamers and adults alike.
Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair
$30 at Microsoft
Rejoin Yooka and Laylee for a side-scrolling adventure to save the bees. This is a game that requires fast reflexes and good timing, but it’ll be a great challenge for younger gamers.
