Game system? Wii U? Xbox? Help!

[SnuggleBuggles]

My kids are happy with Minecraft on the computer so no desire for them to hog the tv to play.

[rlu]

FWIW our wii gets played still. More often on the weekend or during vacations. DS really enjoys the sports resort games.

We've been avoiding minecraft but his friend is into it and DS will play it at their house (which is fine with me).

[KrisM]

Everything I've read says that the Xbox holds better longevity for kids as they age. We're primarily looking at an Xbox for Minecraft and Mario so it has us covered. Ds1 has been saving his $ for about 6 months and we've agreed to match him 50%. I like the idea of the Wii, but for so many people we know they just don't get used.

What Mario games are on Xbox? I was thinking they are only Nintendo.

[Simon]

Sorry, you're right, I was mixing up Mario and Sonic.

[KrisM]

Bummer. I was hoping I missed something! Sonic looks a lot fun and the graphics look better on the Xbox, from watching on YouTube.

[nfceagles]

Re minecraft PC v Minecraft Xbox, everything I've read suggests that PC is the superior version and my kids love it, but it seems all their friends play on the Xbox so they can't play online with their friends.

[oneplustwo]

I think it can be a very individual decision. We got the Wii a long time ago, and our kids, two boys close to 11 years and one girl close to 13 years, still love it. Wii and Wii U are extremely family friendly. They're probably not for serious gamers, but that's not us. My kids still love Wii sports resort, Wii fit, anything Mario or Sonic, Donkey Kong and other lesser known games like Fishing Resort, which is one they could play for hours . . . . Wii totally fits our family, and my DSs' friends are fine playing it with them so I don't feel like we have a "lesser" system.

[KrisM]

Another question - what is the advantage of a game system over buying PC games or Steam games? We have pcs already that play games, so it seems like it would be less expensive to use those for game play. It looks like a lot of the Sonic games are pc compatible no more than they are on xbox or wii.

[SnuggleBuggles]

Screen size
more people (usually up to 4) can play together
the computer won't have motion sensing for games like Just Dance, Lego games and many, many others. You might not even have a remote control to use, just one person and the keyboard or mouse.
loads more titles to choose from

[KrisM]

Screen size
more people (usually up to 4) can play together
the computer won't have motion sensing for games like Just Dance, Lego games and many, many others. You might not even have a remote control to use, just one person and the keyboard or mouse.
loads more titles to choose from

Thanks. They have the Lego Movie game on Steam and it plays fine. I didn't know you get motion sensing with it on the other systems. That would mean I need a Kinect if we go with the Xbox?

Right now they mostly just play with each other and cousins when they do Minecraft on our server.

So, for all of them to play a Wii or Xbox, what additional things do you need?