5 Kid-Friendly Music Video Games That Aren’t Rock Band or Guitar Hero

Kicking out the kid-friendly jams with Wii Music.

I'd probably heard The Donnas' "New Kid In School" 500 times before my kids decided it was their new favorite track in Rock Band 2. It wasn't until my 5-year-old started belting out the song's lyrics, though, that I realized there was a naughty word in the second verse. Now, I'm hardly a prude when it comes to T-rated games, but there's something about hearing a kindergartener sing, "Better start kissing some ass!" that makes you understand why parental advisory ratings exist.

While such moments are rare, they prove why edgier music games like Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero World Tour aren't always appropriate for family game night. So, for any parent looking for a safe-but-fun alternative this holiday season, here's a round-up of some of the more kid-friendly music titles out there — at least one of which may surprise you.

Wii Music (buy it at Dick Smith Electronics)
Rated: G
System: Wii
Unlike most music games, which force you to hit notes (or just hit, period) at precise moments in order to get ahead, Wii Music is almost totally free-form: Using the Wii Remote, Nunchuk and Balance Board, you can tweak tempos, add flourishes or otherwise alter the arrangements of up to 50 different songs using a veritable orchestra's worth of instruments. And unlike, well, every other game featured in this post, there are no mistakes in Wii Music — in fact, the more you can improvise to create happy accidents, the more enjoyable the game becomes. It's easy enough that a 3-year-old could start jamming, but the possibilities (you can create and share your own improvs over Wi-Fi, for instance) are big enough that Mum and Dad will never get bored.

Rock University Presents: The Naked Brothers Band The Video Game (pre-order it at Games Warehouse)
Rating TBC
Systems: Wii, DS, PS2, PC
Given the Naked Brothers Band's popularity, this game could've been a Rock Band killer for the junior set. Unfortunately, things turned out a little differently in execution. The Naked Brothers Band The Video Game was built on a good idea (join Nickelodeon's flagship kid rockers on a world tour) and a fan-enticing soundtrack, but the lack of real instruments makes the game feel lacking: The Wii version has you gesturing in thin air to play the band's six different instruments, while the PS2 version requires various joystick combos. (Those two editions at least include an external mic for singing along, which the DS version lacks.) That said, my kids are huge fans of the Naked Brothers Band, and my 5-year-old amazingly had less of a learning curve with this game than he did with Guitar Hero or any other title requiring "real" fake instruments. That may be because, given the audience's age, the room for error on The Naked Brothers Band The Video Game is remarkably wide.

Boogie SuperStar (buy it at Game Zoo)
Rated:PG
System: Wii
What teen pop sensation worth his or her weight in gold albums can't dance and sing at the same time? In Boogie SuperStar — the follow-up to last year's Boogie — kids can release their inner Fergie, Maroon 5, Fall Out Boy or Natasha Bedingfield (just some of the stars who've lent tracks to the game), singing into the included microphone while using the Wii Remote and Nunchuk to bust their best dance moves. Though it's a great game to play solo, the competition gets a lot more fun as you add up to four friends to compete for pop-star bragging rights in the American Idol-style "Boogie Star Show." Oh, and budget-minded parents, take note: If you have a mic, you can save $10 on the bundle pictured here and just get the core game.

Disney Sing It (pre-order it at Games Warehouse)
Rating TBC
Systems: Wii, Xbox 360, PS2, PS3
With a true karaoke-style experience that lets kids sing along to actual music videos from Hannah Montana, the Jonas Brothers, Aly and AJ, and other Disney stars, Disney Sing It offers kids eye candy to match its ear candy. The game packs 35 songs in all — including tunes from Camp Rock and High School Musical — and kids can compete solo as well as in duet, head-to-head and team modes. The game also stresses hitting the right notes, with High School Musical star Olesya Rulin popping up as a personal vocal coach. As with Boogie SuperStar, you can buy the bundle (which includes a Logitech mic) or save a few bucks and use your existing microphone with the core game.

Guitar Hero On Tour: Decades (not yet in Australia, but here is the full track list.)
Rating TBC
System: DS
It makes sense that handheld gaming's most kid-friendly console would get the most kid-friendly entry in the Guitar Hero series. Decades follows up last year's Guitar Hero On Tour, which reduced the full guitar experience to a pick stylus and a fist-sized four-button "fretboard" that plugs into your DS Lite's Game Boy Advance slot. Although there are some cool features (you can blow into the DS' mic to extinguish a pyro blast gone wrong, for instance) and a welcome sharing mode that lets you stream tunes across both versions of On Tour, the game's basic mechanics haven't changed much this time. The experience, however, has: You can customise your character based on his or her era and then shred along to 28 classic songs from the '70s to today (hence the "Decades"), with artists ranging from Queen to R.E.M. to Paramore. It is yet to be rated by Australian censors, but rest assured there are no truly naughty words to be found.