Girlfriend Friendly DS Games

Soggychicken

Buying my girl a DS for Christmas. Please recommend some games to get her. Preferably it has multiplayer so we can play together and bonus points for wi-fi.

I'm not sure what her gaming preference is but she seemed to had fun when I showed her the New Super Mario game. She also liked guitar hero the one time that she played it.

Right now I'm considering mario kart, mario party, and elite beat agent.

DarkPrimus

Mario Kart and Elite Beat Agents are both winners, single-player and multi-player wise.

Hopefully you have both, but if you're only getting one for yourself as well, get EBA.

2 Marcus 2 Ravens

Soggychicken wrote: »

Buying my girl a DS for Christmas. Please recommend some games to get her. Preferably it has multiplayer so we can play together and bonus points for wi-fi.

I'm not sure what her gaming preference is but she seemed to had fun when I showed her the New Super Mario game. She also liked guitar hero the one time that she played it.

Right now I'm considering mario kart, mario party, and elite beat agent.

Well does she regularily play games? Or am I supposed to go at this with the typical, "I'm a nerd, and my girlfriend isn't. I want to make her a nerd so she doesn't think I'm lame. What kinds of games could I get her that aren't very nerdish?"
To that my answer would be, get some JRPG import titles.

UncleSporky

New Super Mario Bros (single card local)
Mario Kart (single card local, wifi)
Elite Beat Agents (single card local)
Zelda Phantom Hourglass (single card local, wifi)
Super Princess Peach (no multi) - only if she wouldn't be offended by PMS stereotypes, it really is pretty fun

My #1 recommendation: Animal Crossing (wifi)
You can both live in the same town, send each other gifts, leave notes for each other, it's the perfect girlfriend game. Also infinitely replayable.

Lave II

If ever there was a platform where you didn't need to specify your sex it's the DS. But in Capatlistic Pagan Winterval Spirit here's my GFs "Top Plays"

Elite Beat Agents - Hmm, Rhythmy.
More Brain Training - Primarily for the Piano bits, as she can play.
Phoenix Wright Games - We spent a holiday, on the beach both working through the game simultaneously.
Zoo Keeper - A massively good game, purely because of time attack. 6 minutes of awesome.

Are her Top 4, but then are pretty much mine too (Though I would swap MBT for NSMBs).

Also, Mario Party DS is really tempting her - As she's a huge boardgame fan.

Soggychicken

Well does she regularily play games? Or am I supposed to go at this with the typical, "I'm a nerd, and my girlfriend isn't. I want to make her a nerd so she doesn't think I'm lame. What kinds of games could I get her that aren't very nerdish?"
To that my answer would be, get some JRPG import titles.

Hell I admit I'm a nerd but I can't stand JRPGs. She doesn't game regularly but she's not one of those who thinks playing video games is gross either.

Never thought about Zoo Keeper and Animal Crossing before. Please keep posting what has worked with your significant others. Thanks!

2 Marcus 2 Ravens

Soggychicken wrote: »

Well does she regularily play games? Or am I supposed to go at this with the typical, "I'm a nerd, and my girlfriend isn't. I want to make her a nerd so she doesn't think I'm lame. What kinds of games could I get her that aren't very nerdish?"
To that my answer would be, get some JRPG import titles.

Hell I admit I'm a nerd but I can't stand JRPGs. She doesn't game regularly but she's not one of those who thinks playing video games is gross either.

Never thought about Zoo Keeper and Animal Crossing before. Please keep posting what has worked with your significant others. Thanks!

I was kidding about the JRPG thing, you know, like a joke.
My significant other would be a bad example. She can barely play Mario, but tears ass at Battlefront. But from my other friends with boobs, I'd go with Yoshi's Island or one of those brain game things. Or pretty much anything else mentioned here.

Lindsay Lohan

Yeah - my wife loves Zoo Keeper. Clubhouse Games is a pretty safe bet too - lots of fun multiplayer and you only need one cart. Wifey also likes Theme Park, but we were addicts to that game back in college on the PC so there's probably a wee bit of nostalgia there. The Brain Age/Big Brain Academy are both pretty popular too.

Dr_Keenbean

Animal Crossing
Super Princess Peach
Cooking Mama
NSMB
Nintendogs

These are the games my gf plays regularly.

Fuck I play them all too.

aparrish

Animal Crossing.
Animal Crossing.

... animal crossing.

Beware, though, she may never play anything else.

Greeper

aparrish wrote: »

Animal Crossing.
Animal Crossing.

... animal crossing.

Beware, though, she may never DO anything else.

ben0207

jesus fuck christ

are all of us getting laid at once or something? never seen so many girl threads.

apotheos

aparrish wrote: »

Animal Crossing.
Animal Crossing.

... animal crossing.

Beware, though, she may never play anything else.

My wife and I both agreed that this game is just boring as hell.

Same with often spouse recommended Cooking Mama.

I'd really need to know more about your girl before I could recommend with confidence, but many of the other titles thrown around here are pretty universally good.

Greeper

ben0207 wrote: »

jesus fuck christ

are all of us getting laid at once or something? never seen so many girl threads.

It's summer in the southern hemisphere! The birds are in teh treez, flowerz in full bloom.

You know, you know.

urahonky

That or it's getting close to Christmas and we're trying to get some gifts together. :P

e: All the above mentioned games are really good. My fiancee LOVED Hotel Dusk and Touch Detective. But she's more of a book person, and those games play like it.

Ballman

Also, while Animal Crossing can be a lot of fun for couples (my girlfriend and I got it a couple of months after it came out in early '06 (I think) and we still play it a couple of times a month), you would have to actually be willing to play it with her to help make it fun. I think the majority of people that dislike the game have tried it by yourself. The competition and teamwork that you can use in the game are what make it fun, IMO, not just trying to power-level a friendly town of epic proportions.

Sharpie

My boyfriend got me Phantom Hourglass for Christmas, and I am really enjoying it. I think the difficulty is just right.

Nintendogs is also adorable.

The only game I have ever played multiplayer with my boyfriend is Mario Kart DS, but that's already on your list. I also really like the DS/GBA versions of the older Final Fantasy games, but you said no JRPGs, so that's out I guess. Although Chocobo Tales is immensely cute and very fun, although short.

I played Animal Crossing a lot when I first got it, then I got kinda bored of it. Picking weeds isn't fun. Cooking Mama and EBA are both fun pick-up-and-play titles that you can play for five minutes between class or something.

Lindsay Lohan

You really need to commit to the game to be successful in Animal Crossing. My wife and I both liked it, but couldn't play it daily so it became frustrating as if we did want to play, we'd have to spend far too much time weeding the town and getting yelled at by townsfolk for being gone so long.

Again though, Clubhouse Games.

Hotel Dusk is a great suggestion. Trace Memory is a nice adventure game too - it's quite short but should be really cheap (I got my copy for less than $10). Touch Detective got a bit frustrating for me though - the puzzles were a bit too odd and I had to check gamefaqs a few times, something I never have to do on Graphic Adventures. I was very saddened by this as I LOVED the characters and art style. Has anyone tried the sequel?

urahonky

Herby wrote: »

You really need to commit to the game to be successful in Animal Crossing. My wife and I both liked it, but couldn't play it daily so it became frustrating as if we did want to play, we'd have to spend far too much time weeding the town and getting yelled at by townsfolk for being gone so long.

Again though, Clubhouse Games.

Hotel Dusk is a great suggestion. Trace Memory is a nice adventure game too - it's quite short but should be really cheap (I got my copy for less than $10). Touch Detective got a bit frustrating for me though - the puzzles were a bit too odd and I had to check gamefaqs a few times, something I never have to do on Graphic Adventures. I was very saddened by this as I LOVED the characters and art style. Has anyone tried the sequel?

Heard it was pretty much the same as the first one... But I'm getting it for the fiancé, mainly because she liked the first one so much. She also mentioned it was really hard at times.

Cervetus

ben0207 wrote: »

are all of us getting laid at once or something?

No.

Parkingtigers

I second, err, tenth, Animal Crossing. My ex-girlfriend and I loved this game. At first I thought it was dull as hell, never played it. Then she started playing, and she played it for hours at a time so I had to get a copy so I could have my own village. Rather than having two people in one town, it is MUCH more fun to have a village each, and to visit each other's town. That means at the start you can trade fruits, have villagers move between towns, and unlock things like the largest Tom Nook store and the lost kitten story. You still get to cooperate, but there is a bit of competition to go with it. Plus if you are ever apart you can play via the internet.

I'm not with my crazy ex anymore, and it was a long time before I could play Animal Crossing afterwards as there were so many memories of her associated with it. I still have letters from her in the game, and the first letter I opened after a couple of months of not playing was from Tom Nook, and it contained a piece of furniture that I had ordered for her. Damn near drove me to tears. When a couple of her ex-villagers moved out shortly afterwards, I felt like I had lost a bit more of her.

So yeah, get Animal Crossing. Once you are in deep enough it'll devour your soul, one way or another.

LunaticPuma

This thread needs more Tetris DS.

I also second clubhouse games and NSMB.

Those are about the only 3 games my wife plays on her pink DS though she's not a huge gamer.

Lindsay Lohan

My wife also loves strategy/sim games, she plays Theme Park and Zoo Tycoon fairly regularly. Now if EA would just give us Theme Hospital DS!

Anti-Sean

NSMB was one of the lures that piqued my wife's interest in the DS, but Puzzle Quest is what ultimately forced a black DS Lite into her supple, Bejeweled-addicted hands. I had to go buy a second copy of Puzzle Quest for myself two days later; if memory serves, she actually growled and bared her teeth at me when I merely hinted at the possibility of maybe borrowing the cartridge from her so I could play for a few minutes. If your girlfriend is into puzzle games at all, I can't recommend it enough. Even if it doesn't act as a gateway drug into RPGs for her, it might at least give her a greater appreciation for/understanding of the genre.

coelacanth

YES to recommendation for Puzzle Quest...it allows plenty of one player action fr your own fun or you can duel against a partner with the character you've built.

Another great 2 player puzzler is Puyo Pop Fever.

My bf and I also like to play co-op Bubble Bobble, Tetris, and Mario Kart against each other.

themocaw

Doki Doki Majou Shiza-whatever? (a.k.a. That Witch Touching Game?)

. . .



I will obviously die alone.

Unknown

This content has been removed.

Ballman

I'll second Meteos. My girlfriend actually gets disappointed because we don't play multiplayer on it anymore than we do.

I'm hesitant to recommend Disney Meteos, as it has some fundamental differences, but I know that Target is putting them on clearance around here by the truckload, so it might be cheap to pick up two copies for multiplayer (assuming that the Disney version still has it; I haven't checked).

slash000

NSMB
Tetris DS
Planet Puzzle League
Mario Kart DS
Yoshi's Island DS
EBA
Sonic Rush/Adventure

Dirk2112

My girlfriend has over a dozen DS games. The only ones she plays are Brain Age 1, Big Brain Academy, and Cake Mania.

I bought her New Super Mario brothers last Xmas and she is only on the second world. She probably has spent 2 hours playing that game tops. I also bought her Brain Age and I noticed she has a stamp every day since she got it. I wouldn't be surprised if she sunk over 200 hours into that game. O_o

Hlubocky

My girlfriend was first introduced to the DS by New Super Mario Bros. I think it brought back some memories, though I wouldn't call her a gamer by any stretch of the imagination. I suggested after beating NSMB that she try Super Princess Peach, but she didn't like it very much. A few weeks back I suggested she try the new Zelda game on a lark. I had played the first few levels and thought it might be a little challenging, but she kept at it and beat the whole game. Now she is asking about the Wii version.

Red Knight

another vote for puzzle quest. my gf stole my ds for months which was okay because i had the psp version for myself. introduced her to real rpgs too which is nice, except that shes playing mass effect now and is ahead of me in the story.

animal crossing and nintendogs had a similar usage pattern where my ds went missing for weeks at a time.

Soggychicken

She is not especially interested in cute things, so I don't know now well nintendogs will fly. I guess I can lend her my copy of puzzle quest and tetris and see if she likes them.

Thanks, lots of great advice here. It seems like a lot of people have been in the same situation before.