A Christmas gift guide to father-and-son gaming part1

Video games aren’t just a wonderful present for children, they’re also a wonderful opportunity to bond.

Playing side-by-side with your son or daughter gives you a chance to interact in ways typically off-limits to parents. You can see you child lead, make decisions, problem solve and team up together to defeat the bad guys. It’s also, I’ve found, a lot of fun.

Here’s a rundown of the 10 games my 9-year-old son and I played most together this year. Everyone has their own parenting styles, so make sure you research the games before you give any of these a try.

10. Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light (Rated Teen, PC, PS3, Xbox 360): This action-adventure title turns the classic franchise into a top-down cooperative game of problem solving and blowing away the bad guys.

9. Minecraft (unrated, PC): While this indie mega hit is still in development, gamers can already drop in to build and play. In the game, players spend the day chipping away at the landscape to dig out homes and construct monuments and then the nights trying to survive the blocky enemies that invade. You can also set up a private server to explore and build with your child.

8. Split Second (Rated E10, PC, PS3, Xbox 360): This Disney-published racing game has players tearing around race tracks built on giant movie sets. The tracks are packed with major events like explosions, building collapses and falling overpasses, all of which can be triggered by players as they race. The split-screen cooperative mode makes it a blast to play offline with your child.

7. Toy Soldiers (Rated Teen, Xbox 360): The biggest draw for Toy Soldiers is its wonderful diorama graphics which deliver a playfield of plastic landscapes and toy soldiers. In the game, players need to defend their base from attacking German or British soldiers. A split-screen mode allows you to both play with your child at the same time.

6. Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Rated E, Wii): This second adventure returns Super Mario to space in a spaceship shaped like Mario’s head. The ship travels to different galaxies, delivering a slew of levels for Mario to explore. A second player can help Mario by controlling an orange Luma which can grab enemies, attack them and shoot Star Bits.