PixlBit

My friend has a son about that age and they mostly only play the Lego games together. Specifically Star War Legos. They are big fans of tha series and I think you can't die in the game, you just respawn and keep collecting stuff. 

I wish that I could help more.  The only games that come to mind are the Banjo Kazooie games, Burnout games, Lego games, and maybe Torchlight.

If you don't have Minecraft yet, this is the right answer. My son started playing that when he was 8 and is now 10. No signs of stopping now either.

If he already does have Minecraft, then I'll have to think about it some more.

Fable games.  My nephew likes those.  

I'd maybe recommend Skyrim? Pretty easy to pick up, open world, and mature without any overthetop content. Just cause 2 has small blood spurts and thats it, it's a great game that he might love. 

 The burnout games are also great, as well as Skate 3? Some of the missions are a bit difficult, but just skating around the place is great fun for my younger cousin, and some of the funniest things can happen in that game.

Hi, my name is Cary and I write game reviews for a site called GamerDad.com.  We review all kinds of games, but specialize in kid-friendly games!  So let's see if I can help you.

The number one game I would recommend to you if you want 360 titles is Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts.  It's somewhat open world, lets you drive all sorts of cars that you build yourself, and it's probably my second favorite Xbox 360 game ever!

LEGO games are also great.  I just finished reviewing LEGO Marvel Super Heroes, and that would be a good pick.

While I wouldn't recommend Soul Calibur to every kid, if you're OK with your kids playing them, Soul Calibur IV and V are both great and are my number one 360 games.

Another quirky title I like on the 360 is Beautiful Katamari.

I really like Transformers: Fall of Cybertron, but I don't know if that would be too hard.

If your kids love Mario Kart, try the Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing games on 360, too.

And please check out www.gamerdad.com, there's lots of recommendations there, too!  --Cary

Banjo-Kazooie is definitely a solid recommendation, as has been mentioned above, especially if he already likes both Mario Kart and Minecraft. Sits somewhere between those two experiences and the classic B-K platformers.

This is kind of a weird suggestion, but maybe he'd like Earth Defense Force 2017. It's a fun one for co-op and kind of adult, but pretty PG in terms of its depiction of stuff.

Great suggestions, everyone. Definitely a few things I didn't think about. Thank you! If I remember, I'll post after Christmas about how well he received them.

Hmm, not sure I can recommend alot of 360 games, but both original  Banjo-Kazooie games, they aren't hard and have plenty of humor. Banjo-Kazooie Nut's and Bolt's may get aloy of flack, but that game is perfect. It gives you missions to do but it lets you figure out how to approach them because you can build your own vehicles. 

The Lego games might be cool, my 10 year old bro and I recently beat the first Lego Batman in co-op mode, it's fun and has vehicles. I tink Lego Batman 2 has an open world, not sure though. But I tjink any Lego game will do as long as your children like the property Lego is using.

Spiderman Shattered Dimensions is a good Spidey game, it lets you play as 4 different Spider-men (?) and has plenty of jokes. Also Spiderman Web of Shadows is pretty good, it has an open world and the story ufolds depending on your actions. I think I would recommend Arkham Asylum over City since the game isn't too difficult.

On Transformers, thought you never asked, War for Cybertron and Fall of Cybertron are great games for the Transformers fan. If want something more kid friendly, Try Transformers Prime. It's based on the show of the same name, it's on the Wii, Wii U, DS, and 3DS. If you want an open world Transformers game, the Bayverse Transformers games are good. As long as it's on the PS360, as the Wii versions of those games aren't good.

If you have a Wii, then theres a plethora of fun kid-friendly games there. Kirbys Epic Yarn and Kirby Returns to Dreamland are great games, plus you can co-op in the main mode too. New Super Mario Bros Wii/U are good too as well as the Mario Galaxy games. If they are into fighting games and Nintendo, then Smash Bros is the way to go.