Suggested games box and games for 11, 12 year old nieces

[simon43]

As it is almost New Year, I'm being pestered by my young Thai nieces to buy some sort of games box/games/extras etc that plugs into the TV.

It is a few years since I played games on the TV. Let me try to remember - oh yes...

ping .........

pong ........

ping .........

pong ........

ping .... well, you get the idea

So please help me to choose a games box/controller that:

- Works in Thailand (I'll buy it here in Phuket)

- Can play games that are suitable for 11, 12 year old girls (I have no idea - suggestions??)

- Will not be discarded/broken after 1 day

- Is able to play new games etc

- plays educational software? Learning English??

(I do not want to buy them a computer ==> virus-ridden after t5 minutes of use).

By 'games', I'm not sure what I mean. Games that need an external joystick (racing cars??).

Please help me out here so I don't buy some rubbish which will cause my nieces to - heavens above - lose face because the 'old guy' doesn't have a clue

[kurnell]

I bought a Wii for my girls 3 years ago and they didn't like it (probably too young at 2 and 5), so bought it out again this year and had it jailbroken with 20+ games installed. They played it enthusiastically for an hour then went back to their ipad.

[harrry]

With Microsoft Surface RT being sold now for just over 6000 baht I would forget games consoles. GIve them the RT. It has the full microsoft office for their schoolwork and on top of that it has XBox live so you can have the full experience of a games box too.

I know people can criticise the RT bit but I now have one and am impressed at just what it can do. True it is not a computer like the big box sitting next to me.

[IMHO]

Wii-U, no question.

Forget PS4 and Xbox-one - both of those systems have only one game girls of that age would play (Just Dance - which is also available on Wii-U) - the rest are all blood, guts, guns, cars and/or swearing - well, except for Minecraft, but you can play that on *anything* (no need for a console).

http://www.geek.com/games/how-nintendo-turned-around-the-wii-u-1609920/

As for education titles, I'm not familiar with any that specifically target teaching English, but all these console games have English controls, menus and soundtrack, so they'll probably pick up at least some English as a result. Definitely don't buy them Grand Theft Auto V though - that's not the type of English you want them learning, LOL..