8 video games to play with your partner on Valentine’s Day
Spending quality time with your significant other doesn’t mean you have to leave video games behind.
A lot of time-sucking, attention-grabbing games are going to come out in 2019. In fact, several of those time-sucking, attention-grabbing games are coming out in the latter half of February (Far Cry: New Dawn, Metro Exodus, Anthem, just to name a few). Why not use the opportunity of Valentine’s Day to assure your partner that you truly do love and care about them before you spend countless hours away from them playing video games?
Of course, a great way to do that is to spend time with your partner. But that doesn’t mean you have to stay away from games to do that. Playing games with your friends and loved ones is a fantastic way to bond with them, but just make sure you’re playing the right ones. Just as Monopoly has ruined many a family board game night, the wrong game can drive your partner angrily away from you and playing games forever.
Luckily, this list of games has been carefully vetted to veer away from stressful, head-to-head competition and toward fun, cooperative ventures. Many of these games also don’t require your partner to necessarily be “good” at games, with easy to learn controls and little to no tricky mechanics. In no time, you and your partner will be having yourselves a perfect Valentine’s Day, and perhaps your partner will even start to enjoy those things called games.
1. Super Mario Party
There are several reasons why this game would be a great, safe choice for Valentine’s Day. The Mario Party franchise is very well known, and the format is one that anyone would recognize: a board game. Controls are very easy to learn, and often more dependent on movement than on any sort of mechanical skill. And simply put, the game is a whole bundle of fun.
The new one for the Nintendo Switch is especially good, with a lot more than just the main board game mode. There are tons of minigames that you and your partner can play once you tire of party mode. The only thing to watch out for is if either you or your partner fall into a streak of bad luck — low dice rolls, lots of unfortunate chance events or Bowser picking on you. It happens and it’s easy to devolve into a foul mood. Make sure you show why you’re a great partner by being supportive or by staying calm and reminding yourself it’s just a game.
2. Stardew Valley
What is more chill than running your own cute little farm? Running a cute little farm with your partner. Stardew Valley‘s multiplayer makes an already great game better by allowing two people to plant, harvest, raise chickens, fish and flirt with townspeople. There’s absolutely nothing competitive about this game. The two of you are a team, working from sun up to sun down to have your pixellated farm make you tons of money.
To be able to play together, you will need two of whatever platform you’ll use to play the game, whether that be two laptops or two Switches. But once you get set up, and once your partner learns how easy it is to play, brace yourself for a farming addiction.
3. No Man’s Sky
Looking for a place where you can be alone with your partner? Look no further than space. Since No Man’s Sky added in multiplayer capabilities, groups of people have been teaming up to explore all the universe has to offer. The great thing about No Man’s Sky is that it can be as complicated as you want to make it. Sure, there are huge amounts of materials to mine and blueprints to craft. But if your partner isn’t at that level, don’t force it. Just fly around in your ships, hop from planet to planet and spend the evening strolling on the banks of beautiful alien oceans.
4. Portal 2
For a game that takes cooperation to the next level, consider Portal 2. You and your partner will play two robots who have the ability to create portals that transport you to different areas of each level. As games like this are wont to do, levels go from pretty easy to very complex, with the levels themselves adding new game mechanics that you have to take into account when creating your portals. You may get frustrated on your way to finding your way to the end, but challenging your problem solving skills makes for sweet victory at the end, sweeter still that you’ve reached it with your partner.
5. Tricky Towers
If you want a game to play with your partner that involves a little more head to head competition, Tricky Towers is a great option. Like a wacky version of Tetris, you’ll compete in several rounds of block building action, each with different objectives and ways to sabotage each other. Be careful, however, if either one of you are the overly competitive type, as some games can be rage inducing.
6. Pokemon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! or Let’s Go, Eevee!
With no complicated battle system or hand-eye coordination really needed to play, the Pokemon games are a classic title easy for newcomers to pick up. The newest installments for the Switch are even more welcoming to new gamers. They also allow for a second person to join the main character on the journey at any time, dropping in to help with everything from battling to catching Pokemon. Your partner can be a Pokemon trainer right along with you, and perhaps he or she will get so motivated that they try their own solo Pokemon adventure.
7. A Way Out
If your partner is up for a more intense gaming experience, A Way Out is the couch co-op game for you. In this narrative-driven title, each of you takes control of a prison inmate and you have to work together to make your harrowing prison break. The game presents a wide variety of situations — at one point you may each be doing your own thing on a split screen, but the next part of the game may bring you literally back together as your characters have to shimmy up between two buildings while pushing against the other’s back for leverage. With exciting action and dynamic puzzles, playing A Way Out will essentially feel like a movie night, but just a movie that the two fo you control.
8. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Smash is the ultimate multiplayer game. Maybe that’s why they added the word ultimate into the title of the most recent one. (Note: That’s not why.) However, if your partner isn’t used to fighting games, Smash can be very overwhelming. There are a lot of buttons to push and all the buttons do different things, and then pushing the buttons in different orders do entirely different things. It’s a lot to handle, so if you do want to play Smash with a partner not used to video games, you need to be very good at explaining controls and very patient — or you can always just tell your partner to button mash.
dark. Next. Has esports gone too far with the Farming Simulator?
Once you’ve managed to convince your partner to give Smash a try, the rest is easy. Smash has both free-for-all and team brawl modes, which means you and your partner can always be on the same team and work together to send Bowser flying into space. Team brawl is also great for when your partner wants to give head-to-head competition with you a try, but they need a strong NPC on their side to help balance things out. However you want to play it, Smash is the only fighting any couple should be doing on Valentine’s Day.