whatever happened to Logo, with it's turtle that draws lines like an etch-a-sketch?
graphics are fun to work with as a beginner, just to enjoy the thrill of bossing your machine around. Beginners aren't really concerned with practical problems like log parsing or data validation.
Carnage Heart was one of the best older playstation games I had ever played. In it you built custom Mech robots with different body types, weapons, and CPUs. The really cool part was the ability to customize the A.I. by combining together various commands or chips on this grid system. You would build and program a mech warrior (called an OKE in the game) and then throw him into a battle to see how he does. Programming was an essential part of the game and a great introduction to Boolean logic and algorithms. This game is in a class of its own and I have yet to see its equal - and desperately would like to.