Learning how to use a controller.

NES has a pretty simple controller. Any game should be fine. I was playing NES at that age with no problems.

Just let him play and he will be kicking your arse in a week or two.

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Just let him play and he will be kicking your arse in a week or two.

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This is probably true.

I was quite sad to see that my copy of Mario kart was no longer with my collection when I picked up my games from my parents house. I have no idea why.

I was fortunate enough to get a snes classic last week though, which has Mario kart. However my wife says we can't open that until Christmas.

Idk. You could download an old Pokémon rom and map a controller to the computer. It literally only progresses as fast as he can press the buttons

I would start him off first with something where he doesn't need to really worry about dying too much. I started mine off with simple beat-em-ups like the TMNT arcade game with 100+ credits.

If using an emulator like MAME isn't an option for you, let him play something like Contra with the 30 lives code. You and him won't get far but he'll eventually pick it up.

Alternatively, you could get him playing something turn-based like one of the Pokemon games. That way, he'll learn the controls and button layout but his deaths will have very little to do with pressing the incorrect button or direction.

I did a combination of all of the above over time and both my son and daughter (7 and 6) are decent at using a gamepad. However, early Mario games are still pretty tough for someone just starting out due to instant death pits.

Original Mario Bros is probably the best game to learn that muscle memory.

It's what trained an entire generation of gamers to do it.

Mega Man, contra, and Zelda are also essential

I would think some of the old kirby games would be good for that

Bible adventures tbh