When visiting a video game store, it’s easy to feel lost in the many available products. If you’re new to gaming, it looks like a sea of color, and you will likely feel overwhelmed. When this happens, all the games start to look the same.

If you’re an adult trying to buy a game for a young person, you will appreciate some guidance. The following advice is meant to give you a practical plan.

1. Do some research before you buy.

First, you will want to find out which game system your youngster plays. HINT: If you don’t own a game system already, you may want to check out this post on selecting a gaming system that’s right for you.

Here is a list of some of the most popular systems, so you can look up the meaning of all those strange letters.

DS = Nintendo’s DS System; related ones includ DS Lite, and DSi
EA Sports = Entertainment Arts System
GCN (or NGC) = Nintendo GameCube
PC = Personal Computer
PS2 = Sony PlayStation 2 System, successor to PlayStation
PS3 = Sony Playstation 3 System, successor to PlayStation 2
PSP = Sony PlayStation Portable System
Wii = Nintendo’s Wii System, successor to GameCube
XBOX 360 = Microsoft’s XBOX 360 System, successor to Xbox

If possible, find out what video games your youngster already has. Then you can keep those off your shopping list. You can also ask your kid which games they may have tried and enjoyed, but don’t own yet. These little interviews can be quite helpful in letting you purchase video games your kids will really enjoy!

So, how do you find what games are available? There’s plenty of information available about video games online. The retail “brick and mortar” stores also have websites. They will have a link to the games section, often via a menu with selections according to the different gaming systems. Use the abbreviations above to find the links on the websites to see what video games are available for a particular gaming system. If you can’t find that kind of link, try using the site’s internal search engine to search on the gaming system of interest.

2. Investigate available games for your youngster’s gaming system.

Here is where you need to use discernment to make a list of video games appropriate for your youngster’s age and interests. Fortunately we have some help with this task. There is a rating system used to label each game with an age-appropriate abbreviation. Here is a brief reference for this Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) system, showing the label abbreviation, and the meaning.

C = Appropriate for Early childhood
E = Appropriate for Everyone
E 10+ = Appropriate for Everyone aged 10 and older
T = Appropriate for Teens
M = Appropriate for Mature Adults
AO = Adults Only

It’s up to you whether you will try to find a video game that is educational, or that has no (or limited) violence or profanity. Appropriate games will be ones that fit your kid’s age, and your own standards. It can be a bit difficult to find games that don’t involve at least some form of violence, so if you want detailed reviews of a game you may have to use a search engine and do some digging.

One thing to keep in mind about video games is that you can look at the artwork associated with the games, but this will not tell you everything about the game. As they say, you can’t judge a book by its cover. However, you can often get a pretty good idea about the game. For example, if the illustration on the cover of a game shows warriors fighting with swords, the game will likely involve violence.

Eliminating a game from your list can sometimes be done by looking at the artwork. However, don’t make your final decision to buy based only on the artwork. Take some time to learn a little more about a game before you buy. Once you have a game title to research, it’s easy to use a search engine to find detailed reviews of the game online.

3. Now that you have a temporary shopping list, the next step is to choose specific titles.

Here are some ideas to help you narrow down your search. After all, it can be overwhelming to choose a video game if you find the number of games available for your kid’s system is huge. After you’ve eliminated games your kid already has, think about what KIND of games he or she enjoys. This might help you narrow down your list to shooter games, or role-paying fantasy games, or car games, for example.

Another way to narrow down your list is to look for games related to a recent movie release or a popular cartoon character. If there is a recent movie or cartoon character your kid loves, look for a game that is related.

A great way to ensure your kid will enjoy your gift is to rent a few games first. Give your youngster enough time to try out each game, then sit down and get feedback on them. Select one(s) to buy based on the level of enjoyment of the rented games. That gives you a sure way to select a winner!

4. Buying games.

You can buy video games online (for example, on the websites of the game stores), or you can visit your local games center.

One advantage of visiting a store in your area is that you can ask questions and get some potentially helpful answers from the people at the store. Remember, you don’t have to ask only the staff at the store. You can talk to customers and ask what they recommend. Maybe you will meet some other parents of young gamers, and they will share ideas with you.

Have fun getting games that your young gamers will love!

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