This looks promising! Let me give it a test run. Thanks!

the Putt Putt series. Got my son's foot in the door. Why is flat out in appropriate? Things explode, scatter and drivers go flying. All kinds of things that tickle the funny bone of children.

How about Bob the builder?
https://www.amazon.com/Bob-Builder-Builds-Park-PC/dp/B00006J04L

I tried getting him to watch Bob the Builder on YouTube a while back. He couldn't get into it. Thanks, though.

my 4-year old started playing stardew valley and minecraft when he was 3. took a bit of coaching from me and his brothers, but he enjoys building houses in creative mode and exploring the town (and mines) of stardew valley.

while i don't encourage letting a 3-year-old play the wild hunt, he has seen me fighting beasts as geralt multiple times to that wicked thumping soundtrack.

so now when he wants to roughhouse he'll say "lets fight dad! im geralt, your batman" and put his little fists up.

id say asbeau has the right idea though. you + him + toys + outside = amazing memories that he will relay to you when he's older - and when he does it will blow your mind. i remember digging in the backyard as a kid hunting for treasure, swinging from branches pretending to be indiana jones, playing in the shrubs near my house with neighborhood kids... man, those are some magical memories. everything felt new, and had this mystical charm that most adults seem to forget or miss entirely.

The LEGO games.

At that age, both my kids really enjoyed the creature creator section of Spore (outside the main game).

My youngest started Minecraft at 3.

Probably harder to find, but they also played the I-Spy games around that age.

"Get Out of the Shackles"

My parents loved playing that with me when I was a kid.

(General statement)
Standards vary from child to child, obviously, as well as the values parents want to instill in their children. I was watching The Princess Bride with my (12-15 y.o.) students, and some were disgusted by the kissing scenes, while one asked me to stop the movie at the ROUS scene. Given that this is Indonesia, and kissing scenes are censored in theatrical releases (the last Jumanji movie, for example), I wasn't surprised.

I don't mind my son watching a healthy kissing scene, like the earliest ones in the film I mentioned above, or playing a game with cartoon violence where those hit get up and keep going (for example, the Mario Kart series). The driver going through the windshield in the Flatout series is a bit much, in my opinion. It's not that I think he's stupid -- a decade teaching ESL has wiped any idea that kids are stupid from my head already -- but that I want to teach him proper respect for the potential consequences of a car crash before playing games like that with him, especially given the way people drive around here.

In a previous reply, I've already noted why we're starting with some PC gaming so early.

(Directed solely at Gekko)
Thanks for the recommendations. I'm looking for something a bit less... tempermental... than recent-gen emulators. The Sonic recommendation is something I'll look into, though I can't say I'm interested in installing the Steam client. Tux was, sadly, a bust; even getting it to work meant turning off the zoom feature on Windows, which is a pain when you use a custom setting.
Thanks! I'll give the creature creator bit a try over the weekend.

I never heard of those first two, but they look like they have potential! All three wishlisted! Thanks!

Haven't played it yet so I don't really know how appropriate it is for children but Chuchel looks funnier for a little kid.

Serious answer: nothing yet.

At age three, a toddler shouldn't be doing anything that involves a screen. Play should still be tactile and imaginative to stimulate motor skill development and cognitive function.

Wait at least a couple more years.

That reminds me of this.