E3 2018: The Best Family Gaming Announcements and Updates

Every year since 1995, a huge conference known as E3 has stood as the world’s most significant video games event. It is a place where the biggest release announcements and gaming news are made public, and every year it seems to grow both in size and prominence.

This week saw E3 2018 take place, and if you go to the biggest headlines from the show, you’ll find a lot of news around mature games with 16-plus and 18-plus PEGI age ratings. Those games tend to have the biggest marketing budgets, so have a knack for building the most hype. You didn’t have to look much further, however, to find a bounty of news about new family friendly and family focused games. So we rounded up some of the most interesting below, with links to their trailers.

It’s worth noting that many of these games have not yet been given age ratings; some may emerge with higher ratings than expected.

Kingdom Hearts III - An authentic Japanese RPG with a family friendly twist, and a cast that sees Disney characters and RPG icons rub shoulders. Tetris Effect - An early icon of universally appealing gaming returns to PS4 and VR, reimagined by abstract music gaming maestro Tetsuya Mizuguchi. Do remember that most VR headsets are not suitable for younger children, regardless of a game’s content. Ori and the Will of the Wisps - A sequel to the gorgeous, artful platformer Ori and the Blind Forest. Forza Horizon 4 - While this open-world racing game is likely made with older players in mind, the series has always carried a low age rating, and is likely to be great for parents to play with – or against – older children in their family. Sea of Thieves: Cursed Sails and Forsaken Shores - Rare's popular 12-plus rated cartoon piracy game is set to be expanded with new challenges, and we can't wait. Super Mario Party – Nintendo's iconic plumber comes back to Switch with a compendium of playful party games designed for social play. Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle Donkey Kong Adventure DLC - An expansion brings the infamous ape to the game that couple Ubisoft's eccentric rabbits and Nintendo's beloved cast together for accessible tactical role-play. Just Dance 2019 - More of the same perhaps, but when the same is 'dancing together as a family' it's hard to complain. Pokeball Plus - A physical Pokéball that can be used with the new 'Let's Go' Pokémon releases (video from IGN).

That's just the tip of the iceberg in terms of family friendly games detailed at E3, of course. So keep checking back in to AskAboutGames for more in the latest and greatest games for your family.