Games Your Girlfriend Will (probably) Play With You

In honor of V-day, I've decided to post my thoughts on a VERY difficult topic: what on Earth can you do to get your girlfriend to game with you? Especially if she hasn't picked up a controller since she was 5 years old, playing Super Mario Bros. on her older sibling's NES? Well, I'm dating a girl gamer -- but one that hates competitive gaming and prefers JRPGs and puzzlers, which works fine for me. Here are a few suggestions to get your "non gamer" girl to give your "childish" hobby a shot...

Warning: HALOZ!111!, Gears of War, etc. are not on this list. Sorry. I'm not saying girls don't play those games (quite the contrary, in fact - I know a few that do), I'm simply saying non-gamers would most likely be intimidated by them, and therefore not find them entertaining. I prefer fighting games (as compared to shooters) and my girl won't EVER touch one of those..the controls are simply too chaotic for someone who didn't grow up with the genre to grasp. D, DF, F + P doesn't mean much to a non-gamer, after all...

1.) Rock Band (PS3/Xbox360) - the ultimate party game, need I say more? You can create a band member and pick an instrument. Guitar, drums, or even the microphone. The difficulty curve allows individual band members to play to their skill level, and even failing a song or two doesn't seem to ruin the fun. The appeal of this game is its cooperative nature...that, and it's large catalogue of songs that don't suck.

2.) Dance Dance Revolution (PS1/PS2/Wii/Xbox/Xbox360) - Burn calories while playing games! How great is that? The downsides are that you require a decent pad in order to play well (one that won't slide all over the place and cause you to lose your footing), and that the various mixes require a lot of playtime in order to unlock most of the songs. Some of the earlier mixes (the ones on PS1) don't have many tunes that would be familiar to non-DDR fans...so do avoid anything before DDRMAX (PS2).

3.) Wii Sports (Wii) - Everyone knows this one, I'm not even going to bother. Suffice it to say I've seen people who haven't touched a controller in YEARS play tennis like pros.

4.) Super Mario Kart (SNES/N64/GCN/Wii*) - A racing game? SRSLY? Normally racing games are a bit complicated for non-gamers, but nothing's more fun than sending a blue shell careening towards the guy in first place. Item balance in the SNES and N64 versions still allowed those with skill to win most of the time, but GCN's Double Dash!! has some game-breaking items which, while annoying to those actually trying to be competitive, actually make the game playable for people who aren't used to racing games. *The Wii version isn't out yet and is apparently scheduled to hit in the second quarter of this year ... though my money's on the Xmas season.

5.) JRPGs (Just about every platform except the original Xbox) - what girl doesn't love an emotional story? Isn't that the reason you get dragged to romantic comedies more often than you like when you'd rather see Samuel L. Jackson cursing out mothaf***in snakes on a mothaf***in plane? Well then, my friend, let me introduce you to a little Japanese conglomerate called Square-Enix. This multimillion dollar corporation is responsible for churning out games from the Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Kingdom Hearts and Star Ocean series, among others. They're responsible for some of gaming's finest storylines (although there have been arguments that they have stagnated as of late, so I'm going to include games from other genres)...

Some suggestions:

Tearjerkers: Final Fantasy X, Final Fantasy VII, Valkyrie Profile 1 and 2, Tales of (series), Lost Odyssey - These games all have strong characters and emotional moments that can (and HAVE) made grown men cry. They'll hook you both and keep you playing well into the morning hours.

Playful and Interesting: Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2 - Disney and Final Fantasy? In the SAME game? These games have strong storylines and good gameplay to give you and your girl something you can play together.

More Complex Plotlines (careful with these): Xenosaga series, Suikoden series, Shadow Hearts series, Star Ocean series - these games have great plots and somewhat strong characters, and can fall into either of the above categories, but suffer a near fatal flaw... the storylines are exceptionally complex and may end up being a little difficult to get into at first.

Hopefully you've found the list helpful. Back to your regularly scheduled V-day.