"GTA for kids" has arrived on Xbox Game Pass, and it's a delightful example of how to treat a younger audience with respect

“Kids are quite discerning, actually,” says someone who has never really spent any time with kids, and perhaps doesn’t even know what a child is. My experience with kids has revealed that, no, they aren’t discerning at all. They are happy to watch absolute drivel, demand to be bought ‘toys’ that are little more than sludge, and dress in whatever triple-stained clothes they’ve been wearing for the last week. So, when a game is labelled as an imitation of a huge franchise, but “for kids”, my quality alarm sounds and I expect the worst.

Wobbly LifeDeveloper: RubberBandGamesPublisher: RubberBandGamesPlatform: Played on Xbox Series XAvailability: Out now on PC (Steam) and Xbox Series S/X/Xbox One, Game Pass, PS4/PS5, and Nintendo Switch

Enter Wobbly Life, launched into early access on Steam five years ago, and a year later on Xbox. It’s technically a “GTA for kids”, yes, if you simply don’t want to use many words due to being chronically lazy or rushed – but this would actually be doing a quite wonderful game a massive injustice. It’s essentially an open, knockabout world of activities and exploration, playable by up to four players cooperatively, with a focus squarely on physics, laughs and fun.

As a ‘gamer’ parent (I do know quite a lot about video games, contrary to what people on message boards might say) to an 11-year-old and a four-year-old, I’m immediately narked when a game designed for kids fails to give that audience an ounce of respect. Yes, games for young players should be simpler to grasp, but that’s no excuse to make them buggy, dull, tiresome messes. A lot of these games feel like they are exploiting loved brands for a quick buck, but Wobbly Life couldn’t be trying harder to offer an experience that keeps on delivering.

Over the five years since its initial early access release Wobbly Life has seen update after update, adding new areas, new jobs, new missions, new vehicles, new activities… new pretty much everything. Now on its 1.0 release, on Game Pass (as well as all major platforms), I honestly don’t think there is a better game for kids to mess around with. Part job sim, part life sim, part go into space sim (thanks to the latest update), you might one moment be taking a job delivering newspapers via a nifty truck equipped with a paper shooter, then buying that new house you’ve always dreamed of, then jetting off into space to see what adventures await.