Tabletop, DnD, board games, and minecraft. Also Animal Crossing.
3rd International Volunteer Brigade (Hexbear gaming discord)
Rules
Roughly what age is this child?
Don't sleep on handhelds - the GBA had a pretty solid library.
The three Fire Emblem games on GBA (Binding Blade [Japan-only, but has a solid fantran out], Blazing Blade ["Fire Emblem" outside of Japan], and Sacred Stones) are all great and relatively easy to get into. I'd recommend the SNES/SFC ones maybe for an older teen, but they'd be tricky for a younger player.
Oh I forgot to mention but I have nearly the entire library for Gameboy, Gameboy Color, and GBA as well, including the hacked fan translation of Mother 3.
The kid is 12, so as much as I'd like to throw San Andreas on this thing, I would like to avoid being strangled by his mother.
Yeah, you can library dump a bunch of the classic consoles, so I'm trying to rack my brain for special stuff that has a heavier file size or cool Japan-only games that have a fan translation or don't require language skills.
Can Chibi Robo run on that handheld? It's GCN, so kinda in the iffy area for handheld emulators.
The kid is 12, so as much as I'd like to throw San Andreas on this thing, I would like to avoid being strangled by his mother.
Yeah, that's the age where they have to figure out how to get a hold of it if they really want to play it lol.
Yes, there are so many good games for GBA and even GBC and they're small so you can go for the whole library approach like NES/SNES.
I don't know that much about the Playstation, having also never had one growing up, but the top shelf classics that come immediately to mind are Final Fantasy VII and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. There are also tons of kid friendly mascot platformers like Crash and Spyro
Even the original GB had bangers, like Donkey Kong '94
The original Pokemon R/B/Y games were technically GB games, even though Yellow did do some colors if you played it on a GBC. Metroid 2 was also a GB game.
Link's Awakening, too, but the DX version was a little better
Edit: Totally forgot about Kaeru no tame no Kane wo Naru "For the Frog the Bell Tolls" - it's a strange Japan-only GB game that's roughly a more puzzle based Link's Awakening. There's a fan translation out for it.
You can't go wrong with the ratchet and clank games, imo
Spyro is a PS1 classic
I'll probably think of more, I'll edit when I do
Edit: Okami
Whether it runs Android or Linux, put Doom on it with all the WADs
Make sure you have Gunstar Heroes, Alien Soldier, and Dynamite Headdy on Genesis. Get the translation of the JP version of Dynamite Headdy because the US version was made brutally difficult for no reason.
Klonoa and Tomba! for PS1
Whether it runs Android or Linux, put Doom on it with all the WADs
thatcher's techbase
Yeah again the age of the kid would help a lot but as far as PS1, Spiderman, Parappa The Rappa, Spyro the Dragon, Crash Bandicoot 1 & 2, Grand Turismo 2, Ridge Racer 4, Tekken 3, Twisted Metal 2, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Metal Gear Solid
If they're old enough to be interested in RPGs it's never to soon to start them on the eco-terrorist path with FF7, Star Ocean 2, Legend of Dragoon, Chrono Cross, Xenogears, FF9, Vagrant Story, Breath of Fire 3
Depends on the child's age, but some safer ones for younger kids might be:
PS1 - Ape Escape, Mega Man X4, Mega Man Legends 1 & 2, Parappa the Rapper, Um Jammer Lammy, Tomba!, Klonoa, Spyro, Crash Bandicoot, Harvest Moon Back to Nature
Depending if cartoon-ish horror is okay, then MediEvil 1 & 2
PS2 - Dark Cloud, Kingdom Hearts 1 & 2, Klonoa 2, Parappa 2, Super Monkey Ball Deluxe
Saturn - Burning Rangers, Guardian Heroes, Saturn Bomberman
GC - Billy Hatcher, Chibi-Robo, Cubivore, also don't sleep on Kirby Air Ride or Wario World. I also liked Lost Kingdoms 1 & 2
metal gear solid / mgs vr missions - ps1
All the tony hawk games -ps1 and 2
Gran turismo- ps1
crash bandicoot, 3 was my fav also the kart game crash team racing is good - ps1
tekken 2 and 3 - ps1
parappa the rapper and um jammer lammy - ps1
Gta 1 and 2 - ps1
Army men air attack - ps1
Air combat / ace combat - ps1 and 2
Twisted metal 2 - ps1
Spyro the dragon - ps1
Worms Armageddon- ps1
crazy taxi - ps2 or dreamcast
Sonic 2, 3, & knuckles - genesis
zombies ate my neighbors - genesis
jurassic park and jurassic park rampage edition (2 different games) - genesis
vector man 2 - genesis
ultimate mortal kombat 3 - snes
Jellyfish: The Healing Friend
GCN:
Pikmin
Metroid Prime 1&2
If PS2 is runnable:
PSP
GCN
Dreamcast
Also a recommendation that you don't have to take- don't dump entire romsets onto the kid because it might overwhelm him. If you do decide to do this at least give him a list of games you think he should try on that console or point him towards something online that tells him the best games on each console so he isn't just lost.
didn't see em:
snes - ogre battle
n64 - ogre battle 64
ps1 - final fantasy tactics
could give em the various ogre tactics games too but maybe do that later, fft is way better
I used to play Ogre Battle 64 and FF7 with my childhood best friend every time I went to his house. Fun times lol
All three of these games still make me feel excited when I think back on them. Absolutely phenomenal.
For Genesis: There's the Sonics (Sonic 1, 2, 3&K), Rocket Knight Adventure, Gunstar Heroes, Contra: Hard Corps (get the JP version since the US version is a lot harder), and Shining Force II.
If there's a way for you to get Neo-Geo, you could add the Metal Slugs (1, 2, 3) plus a whole bunch of fighting games as well. GBA games like Pokemon, Fire Emblem, and Advance Wars are also good.
If it can run PS2, Psychonauts would be awesome
The N64 Kirby side scroller was a lot of fun
Rogue Squadron was a good time if the kid likes Star Wars
Can't go wrong with Ocarina of Time or Paper Mario either. If they like Paper Mario you might be able to get them into classic JRPGs like Chrono Trigger and FF7
You mention you also have GBA games, I dug out my 'legendary' list from when I was a kid and downloaded and ranked a pack of 1100 GBA ROMs over a lonely summer holiday -
Any of the treasure games of those generations. Bahamast lagoon and mother three are available as fan translations you can't get other than emulation. Takes of phantasia and terranigma as well. Jade cocoon for ps1 has some ghibly outsourced work so that is cool. Kalahari. Stretch panic. Mr mosquito. Gba had some killers people slept on killers though. Bangai-o, clockwork night, metal slug, astro boy