Couples who game together, stay together

Mr_Snuffle

I know this is a topic that comes up quite often, but I shall ask it again anyway.

I've recently managed to convince my girlfriend to give some co-op gaming a go. She's finds the whole gaming thing intimidating, so I don't want to scare her off for good. The best co-op game I could come up with was Halo 2, but that was a little much for her. She did okay, but I could tell she wasn't having that much fun with it. I need something simpler. Something more accessible to a non-gamer.

She doesn't like excessive violence, anything more than Halo is probably of no interest to her. She likes to avoid twitch based games too. I don't want anything competitive, I want something where we work together.

I had a great time playing with her, and I'd like to make it a regular thing, I just need suggestions on what to play.

I have the following systems

Snes
Genesis
Dreamcast
Wii
360
PS2

I was thinking of giving Zelda Four Swords a go, but please, give me your best couple gaming suggestions.

Daedalus

Double Dash?

WyndhamPrice

World of Warcraft.

Sixfortyfive

Toejam & Earl (Genesis / VC)

corcorigan

I've noticed the one game girlfriends always win at is Mario Kart.

:x

UncleSporky

Sixfortyfive wrote:

Toejam & Earl (Genesis / VC)

Yes. I know that my mom and sisters loved this game, primarily because they could just explore the levels looking for presents. Plus the fact that it's co-op, you can belly bump/high five to equalize the health between the two of you, if one person dies all the way they can jam on the buttons to bug the other person into giving them one of their lives, and you can help each other out (or screw each other over) by opening presents with both people onscreen. Nothing says love like a pair of rocket skates.

Jam Warrior

Mr_Snuffle wrote:

I was thinking of giving Zelda Four Swords a go.

DO IT!

Also Crystal Chronicles, Secret of Mana etc.

Ludious

I know it's not related as it's PC Gaming, but it serves as anecdotal evidence nonetheless.

My wife saw me playing Battlefield 2142 about a week ago. She doesn't really pay attention to a lot of games I buy because she's not normally a twitch gamer.

Needless to say, I was shocked when she made me go out and buy her her own copy of BF2142.

We've been playing together in a squad at least one round a night since then.

It's awesome.

Rook

wasn't there a women's magazine that had a list of great team work games. All I can remember is Splinter Cell and Guitar Hero.

My personal favourite though is Bubble Bobble.

TehSpectre

Back when SOCOM was a good game (SOCOM 2 was the best. 16 player games were way more fun that 32.) my girlfriend fell in love with it. Unfortunately now, the game is even kind of difficult for me with so many more players and the slight learning curve it takes -not to die in 30 seconds-. I would ahve recommeded this if you had an ethernet adapter and if anyone played SOCOM 2 anymore.

Anyway, as far as simplistic co-op games go....you'd be hard pressed to find ones that are easy to just pick up and play if you were a non-gamer. Women usually gravitate more to puzzle games than action shooters, so find one that piques her interest. I would go out to a rental store and allow her to pick out some games she would like to play (with or without you! If she starts to play some games with or without you then she will get better and feel more comfortable playing with you on other games.). I would suggest renting Kameo for the 360 and letting her play it while you watch. If they need help you can, but try and press her to do it herself a few times.

Good luck. It took me a while to get my girlfriend into games, but now she plays most co-op games I can find as well as beating Voodoo Vince and Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy by herself.

-Edit-
Bolded in case you didn't want to read all that.

spookymuffin

corcorigan wrote:

I've noticed the one game girlfriends always win at is Mario Kart.

:x

You must really suck at Mario Kart.

Dublo7

Seperoth wrote:

World of Warcraft.

Tell that to the WoW playing couple who's baby starved to death.

TehSpectre

spookymuffin wrote:

corcorigan wrote:

I've noticed the one game girlfriends always win at is Mario Kart.

:x

You must really suck at Mario Kart.

My Mario Kart is one of the few games my girlfriend can actually win at against me. That and Warioware.

Uncle Long

Elebits.

Anti-Sean

My wife's all-time favorite co-op game was Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II. She got to play a barbarian and beat the shit out of everything that moved, and almost torpedoed an entire semester of grad school in the process.

She likes Excite Truck, but I think she's happier playing that solo than two player. (She's unlocked more tracks and extras than I have so far, and keeps re-doing races just to improve her rank on each track. What kind of monster have I created?!)

Soul Calibur II is her fighting game of choice (and Voldo is her favorite character). I'm tempted to pick up Super Smash Bros. as soon as I get around to getting a GC memory card and some controllers to see how she likes that one.

Oh, we've also been playing the hell out of Lego Star Wars II lately.

Chtulie

SNES Secret of Mana does sound like the perfect game to go for.

It's 2d, so it's very easy to get grips with.
(3d, even if it plays 2d, still feels more complex by a whole magnitude to a lapsed or non-gamer)

It might be an rpg underneath but it's action based interface keeps the numbers well hidden.
(slower paced, yet easy to grasp with depth to be explored rather then taught)

The action interface is very simple and elegant. If you wish, you can play with just the d-pad and one button and let the other handle the complex stuff. But once you're comfortable with that, you can explore a little more in what the character can do.
(she doesn't need to be as good as you from the get go, you can work functionally together from the moment the second character is introduced)

Also, thanks to the rpg base you don't need pure skill to finish the game. If a boss, enemy or sequence is too hard, you don't have to try and try again but you can also grind a little to beat it instead.
(to non-gamers, dying in a game is still a big form of punishment)

Furthermore it's charming, neat, and in a way there'll be three of you playing together, you, her and an npc so you get both the co-op experience with a little singleplayer experience thrown in.

And finally: she can select a female character, which you might find to big deal to. In fact, in this game the female character is the general purpose character rather then the weak magic user (for experts only) you'd usually find in this type of game.

Heir

My wife is terrible at twitch based games, as she clams up when things get intense.

However, she loved WoW when we played it together. We'd get a couple of other friends that we have to play together. She was a healer, which she really liked to manage. All in all a good game that isn't terribly hard for players who don't care for twitch-based gaming.

BTP

Let me go all math-like on this.

Constants: Gaming with girlfriend, co-op.
Variable: SNES
Solution: KIRBY SUPERSTAR!

And get some form of a Bust-A-Move game. It may not have co-op, but she'll love it.

Polago

I'm surprised Wii Sports hasn't been mentioned, playing tennis with both players on the same side vs the comps. We Katamari's cooperative mode was also lots of fun when played in co-op, and worth a good laugh.

Topher587

Lego Star Wars is a great choice. There are no "lives" and if she wants to stop playing to go do something else, she can drop out and come back in later.

Delzhand

WoW is not a good game for couples. You might be playing in the same room, but you won't be playing together for long, especially if one of you has already been playing the game for a while.

Four Swords and Crystal Chronicles are both great games, if you have the hardware for them. Wii sports is cool, too. My wife has a higher bowling score than me.

Substance6

I have found success with getting my girl to game.

You have a Wii, do you have Trauma Center? Give her the nun-chuck and let her be the "nurse" while you play with the Wii-mote. It's really fun and frantic, and once you get used to it can get really fun. Switch it around, you be the nurse, etc. Expect a lot of "HEY! COME ON! KNIFE! GEL! WE TOTALLY DIED BECAUSE YOU PICKED THE WRONG UTENSIL, ETC!" followed by "NO WAY! YOU MADE A BAD CUT AND YOU KILLED HIM!"

But the yelling isn't ANGRY yelling, it's bonding yelling. It's really fun.

Also, my girlfriend saw me posing dead bodies in Oblivion (I was bored, everyone does it) and she accused me of playing with virtual dolls. I offered her the controller, quickly got her acquainted with the controls and took a nap on the couch while she played. I woke up 1 and a half hours later, and she was excited.

She lured people into my house, murdered them, then took their bodies and arranged them at the dining room table. The fact that she figured out how to lure people, let alone murder them without being caught and then pose their bodies into a macabre portrayal of an Orc dinner, it was surprising to say the least.

I find my girlfriend likes games where there aren't any clear objectives or time limits. They're just stressful and make her feel like she isn't very good at playing, so Oblivion fits the bill. She also likes playing the New Super Mario Bros. versus mode, but not any of the minigames. Give it a go.

LCDXX

Soul Calibur 2
Lumines
Animal Crossing (GC and DS)
Anything on DS (Rocket Slime, Brain Age, Bust-A-Move, etc.)
Final Fantasy series
Anything on Wii

All of the above have an amazing affect on my wife. It's like she turns into a drooling fangirl in their presence.

Descendant X

Substance6 wrote:

I have found success with getting my girl to game.

You have a Wii, do you have Trauma Center? Give her the nun-chuck and let her be the "nurse" while you play with the Wii-mote. It's really fun and frantic, and once you get used to it can get really fun. Switch it around, you be the nurse, etc. Expect a lot of "HEY! COME ON! KNIFE! GEL! WE TOTALLY DIED BECAUSE YOU PICKED THE WRONG UTENSIL, ETC!" followed by "NO WAY! YOU MADE A BAD CUT AND YOU KILLED HIM!"

But the yelling isn't ANGRY yelling, it's bonding yelling. It's really fun.

Also, my girlfriend saw me posing dead bodies in Oblivion (I was bored, everyone does it) and she accused me of playing with virtual dolls. I offered her the controller, quickly got her acquainted with the controls and took a nap on the couch while she played. I woke up 1 and a half hours later, and she was excited.

She lured people into my house, murdered them, then took their bodies and arranged them at the dining room table. The fact that she figured out how to lure people, let alone murder them without being caught and then pose their bodies into a macabre portrayal of an Orc dinner, it was surprising to say the least.

Try not to look surprised when you come home and there are a bunch of dead strangers sitting at your dining room table around a nice roast beef dinner.

She's practicing for the real thing...

EDIT: I've got my wife playing Guild Wars, which is quite impressive. She logged more hours this week than I did. Pity we only have one copy of the game...

mabuice

I'll second the LEGO Star Wars and Baldur's Gate series. LEGO Star Wars is in particular extremely stress free (i.e. infinite lives).

Along the same lines, the Marvel Comics co-op games are also good. X-Men Legends 1 and 2 as well as Marvel Ultimate Alliance. My wife and I have played through all of them as soon as they come out.

ben0207

Dublo7 wrote:

Seperoth wrote:

World of Warcraft.

Tell that to the WoW playing couple who's baby starved to death.

What. The. Fuck.

Substance6

Descendant X wrote:

Substance6 wrote:

etc

Try not to look surprised when you come home and there are a bunch of dead strangers sitting at your dining room table around a nice roast beef dinner.

She's practicing for the real thing...

EDIT: I've got my wife playing Guild Wars, which is quite impressive. She logged more hours this week than I did. Pity we only have one copy of the game...

oh god oh god there is a leg sticking out of the closet

Oh, wait!
It's just the nephew we were taking care of while his parents were out. I guess we forgot to feed him, with all the gaming. Well, at least he won't go to waste. Someone is joining use for dinner!

Xagarath

On the PS2, there's also Kuri Kuri Mix (known as the Adventures of Cookie and Cream in the US). Charming, happy co-opetartive puzzle-platfomer where you play insane rabbits.

Gradius V has co-op but that's more of a hardcore player's choice.

PatboyX

ill second the doubles tennis in wii sports and the katamari co-op.
my chick doesnt really play games but we have fun with that one.

shrouded

I agree with most of the suggestions here. I tried something similar with my wife, and many of the co-op choices that seemed great to me (Halo 2, etc.) were horrible for her. If she seems to be intimidated, you need to look for games that don't require too much independent cooridnation on the controller (i.e. moving & shooting with 2 sticks in Halo), or something where you are so great at it that she feels like she'll never be able to be on equal footing with you.

WoW has never worked for us (it requires too great a time investment from her), but I know couples that play it together religiously. Our great recent success has been with Rayman for the Wii. It is fun, intuitive, and can be played in small bursts so it isn't intimidating. The mixture of co-op and versus play is enough for us to switch back and forth to enjoy it without being adversarial. I can't recommend it highly enough for your situation.

Oddly enough, the other game we enjoyed together recently was Resident Evil 4. We played in chunks at night, with the lights off. I was almost a chauffer, running the controller while she suggested directions, helped with the puzzles, and shared in the suspense. It started out as a "you should watch this for a few minutes" experience, and ended up with her taking the controls for short periods of time before she couldn't keep up with the shooting and handed it back.

Good luck--

Lunker

PolaGo wrote:

I'm surprised Wii Sports hasn't been mentioned, playing tennis with both players on the same side vs the comps. We Katamari's cooperative mode was also lots of fun when played in co-op, and worth a good laugh.

Wii Sports Tennis is far and away the most successful co-op gaming experience I've ever had with my wife. It's one of the few games she actually wants to play (she'll actually ask me to play with her, instead of me goading her into playing with me), and since you can focus entirely on swinging the racket as hard as you can, it's something she and I are on equal terms with. I never have to handicap my playing to make her feel better.

Plus, once you start playing Pro-level players, that shit gets hard. Anyone whining about a lack of difficulty in the game never bothered to play it for more than 15 minutes. But she and I are a killer doubles team.

mausmalone

Soul Calibur 2 .... fast, fun, easy to pick up, + bishonen guys.

EDIT: Also, too bad you don't have an N64 ... 'cause Pokemon Puzzle League is something me & my girlfriend used to play together a lot. In it's stead, I'd recommend Puyo Pop Fever on the Dreamcast or Gamecube(Wii).

RainbowDespair

My main problem is that she thinks I'm so much better at videogames than her that it intimidates her. She's also not very competitive as far as games go and prefers to just do things that amuse her. So basically, I suggest games for her and she plays them by herself (Burnout being her favorite). Sometimes I watch her play, sometimes she watches me play. Not ideal, but it prevents fighting and since both of us play, neither of us gets annoyed with the other's hobby.

Lunker

Also:

DigDug2000

Lunker wrote:

PolaGo wrote:

I'm surprised Wii Sports hasn't been mentioned, playing tennis with both players on the same side vs the comps. We Katamari's cooperative mode was also lots of fun when played in co-op, and worth a good laugh.

Wii Sports Tennis is far and away the most successful co-op gaming experience I've ever had with my wife. It's one of the few games she actually wants to play (she'll actually ask me to play with her, instead of me goading her into playing with me), and since you can focus entirely on swinging the racket as hard as you can, it's something she and I are on equal terms with. I never have to handicap my playing to make her feel better.

Plus, once you start playing Pro-level players, that shit gets hard. Anyone whining about a lack of difficulty in the game never bothered to play it for more than 15 minutes. But she and I are a killer doubles team.

Heh. I see the poster has a Wii, so I'm guessing Wii Sports isn't in the recommendations anyway, but I just got mine yesterday so I'm in the mood to talk about this.

After pissing my girlfriend off by not "checking in on her enough" while I was playing Zelda, we played a shitload of Wii Sports last night. She kicks my ass in bowling and seems to love every minute of it. I'm so happy to have her playing ANYTHING with me, that I don't really mind. It's the first time we've really enjoyed playing together at all. I'm just not sure how I'm ever going to get through Zelda now.

Rabid_Llama

My girlfriend and I play together all the time. She pretty much always kicks my ass at Mario Kart and Mario Party. We played through Twilight Princess together (all 60 hours to 100% it) by trading off the controller. Recently we have been playing Metal Slug: Anthology together and that has been a blast.

I got her a DSlite for christmas and she absolutely loves it. It's so bad, we will be playing NSMB at a restaurant while waiting for our table and one of us will start yelling obscenities. We get a lot of weird looks when that happens. I lent her Phoenix Wright and Ouendan and she loved both (she really likes anime so this really isn't all that surprising).

Being nerds is a big part of our relationship. She is more the anime type and I am more the gamer, but that just means we get to share each others hobbies. We also both really like graphic novels.

Wow, I was re-reading this post and I am a total fucking nerd.

LCDXX

Rabid_Llama wrote:

My girlfriend and I play together all the time. She pretty much always kicks my ass at Mario Kart and Mario Party. We played through Twilight Princess together (all 60 hours to 100% it) by trading off the controller. Recently we have been playing Metal Slug: Anthology together and that has been a blast.

I got her a DSlite for christmas and she absolutely loves it. It's so bad, we will be playing NSMB at a restaurant while waiting for our table and one of us will start yelling obscenities. We get a lot of weird looks when that happens. I lent her Phoenix Wright and Ouendan and she loved both (she really likes anime so this really isn't all that surprising).

Being nerds is a big part of our relationship. She is more the anime type and I am more the gamer, but that just means we get to share each others hobbies. We also both really like graphic novels.

Wow, I was re-reading this post and I am a total fucking nerd.

Hi5!

My wife is more of a scrap-booking, knitting, book nerd. I'm the hardcore gamer junky - although admittedly, I have little tolerance for anime (but I cherish many anime-inspired games, go fig). Somewhere, we meet in the middle... then we bust out DDR.

Artoria

you want to look at non hardcore games for getting a girl into gaming. I know this is stereotyping but you can't take a girl who has always been indifferent to just disliking fames and throw here into something like Metal Gear Solid 3 or Half Life 2 and expect her to like it. you need to pull out party games and such.

I found Rayman the Raving Rabbids to be a good choice for this on the Wii. the game play is simple yet fun and she will get a big kick out of the Rabbids. At least that worked for my wife who has always not been into gaming at all. she cna't get enough of that game now.

Other good choices are

Mario Kart Double Dash.
Super Smash Bros Melee (go easy on her)
Naruto gekitou Ninja Taisen 4 (go easy on her)
Both Bust a Groove games.
DDR
Quiz games.

Renzo

Alien Hominid? Castle Crashers will probably be good for this, too.

JihadJesus

I want to try to get my wife into a little casual gaming with me, too. She loves the old Mario and DKC games, but can't stand anything with a 3D camera, so I'm rather at a loss. I tried Wind Waker, hoping the auto-camera and nice animated style would help engage her. Not even close. And RE4? Ha. She looked in just as I popped a Ganado's head with the rifle, and that was the end of that.

I'm going to try Viewtiful Joe and Super Monkey Ball 2 next. Hopefull the 2.5D style of VJ will help ease her into 3D. I know it's probably hard as hell for a non-gamer, but I really don't think that will bother her that much - she EXPECTS to die many, many times anyway. And some of the minigames in SMB might work for her, too. Any other suggestions?

splenda

I'll third LEGO STAR WARS AND LEGO STAR WARS TWO!!!

My gf hates games that require more than 2 buttons, but this is the exception.

Also, Top Spin was fun for her.