Disney Princess: Enchanted Journey
I really saw my eldest daughter's video game literacy grow throughout our time playing this game together. I selected it because I remembered sharing the controls with my younger sister when she was too young to play on her own, and I thought my princess-obsessed daughter might get the same kick out of it. At first, she was interested, but just wanted to watch me play or to point out things on the screen. By the end, she had her hands on the whole controller and was pressing most of the buttons by herself! All I did was provide gentle instruction and hold my big hands over her little ones so I could use the joystick.
Disney Princess: Enchanted Journey was clearly designed for a younger audience, so don't take it as criticism when I say that it is simplistic and repetitive. The structure was perfect for helping my daughter feel comfortable. In this game, the worlds of a few Disney Princesses have been invaded by mischievous creatures called Bogs. You take control of a young girl who is tasked by a magic fairy to visit those worlds and reverse the Bogs' damage. You visit the princesses via portals in a hub-world castle, and each world hosts three chapters to complete before its problems are fully resolved.
While each princess has something different for you help with over the course of her three chapters, like clearing away mirages for Jasmine, or restoring stolen color for Snow White, you generally go about it in the same way every time. The player character has just three basic actions that comprise most of the gameplay. She can jump, fire off attacking spells, and cast environmental spells. The game neatly telegraphs what you need for any given situation, and offers plenty of extra opportunities between required story bits to practice.
While my daughter would often struggle to remember which type of spell to use when we were in a tense situation, all I would need to say is "use your attack magic" or "use your spinning magic" and she would know just the button to press and be right back in the action. Along with her enthusiasm about the controls, she also seemed to love the freedom of choice that the game gave to her. We would generally only play one chapter per play session, and each chapter is undeniably linear, but she still had the opportunity to choose which princess to help, and that was a thrill for her young mind.
While she wasn't quite ready to handle this game on her own, I was blown away by how much she has begun to understand about how to use a controller and about the clues that games use to tell you things indirectly. She hardly held the controller when we played through Blue's Big Musical, and now she was hands-on for almost the entire game. I have a few more childhood classics up my sleeve to try out with her, but I'm already worried that she'll be playing without me soon. No matter what happens next, though, I'll always treasure my memories of her snuggling up in my lap to save some princesses.
The game is available for Steam here (as of 11/19/25): https://store.steampowered.com/app/322130/Disney_Princess_Enchanted_Journey/
