Women's Health Mag: Grab your man's joystick

When my wife and I play together, it's usually a fighting game, like King of Fighters 2002 or Street Fighter Alpha 3, or even Soul Calibur. Otherwise it's competitive puzzlers like Bust-A-Move or a racing game like Mario Kart.

Crap, looks like I'm the only female...?

The only reason my bf (of 3 years) has gamed longer than me is because he's older. I grew up on PC games, like Tomb Raider, Wolfenstein, and Doom, whereas he grew up on Nintendo, like Mario, Zelda, and Final Fantasy. Hell, he always says he learned to read because of Final Fantasy.

We've gotten each other into different games. We both love fighting games; I own at Street Fighter and Tekken, he whoops me at Virtual Fighter and sometimes Soul Calibur. We love Super Smash Brothers (and totally can't wait for it to come out on the Wii), played Zelda: Twilight Princess together (Midna is fucking hot, btw). I got him into DDR, and he got me into FFXI Online (lol, he's doing a Promy right now).

At the moment I'm finishing up Okami, he's watched me for all the Jak and Daxters, along with all the Insomniac Spyros (once Spyro hit PS2 it sucked); I've seen him through Tales of Symphonia and Dragon Quest VIII.

Isn't it kinda "duh" to find a person who has the same hobby/interests as you?

My girlfriend plays alot of games. She has a DS Lite,PS2,Xbox and Xbox 360. She loves the RPGS ,fighing games, and simulation games like the Sims and Nintendogs. She plays just about everything,except that she hates shooters (both 3rd and 1st person).

Meowzers: I am also female.

And while it may seem "duh" to find someone with the same hobbies, I think it could get boring. In fact, I think I've decided that I would specifically prefer to date a guy who WASN'T as big of a gamer nerd as me -- preferably not a gamer at all, in fact. I just got so tired of being constantly nagged about how "you need to play this game and that game and blah blah blah" just because I was a gamer. I'd rather be with someone with different interests than me... I figure it would be a good way to branch out and maybe get into some other hobbies that they are interested in.

me and my girlfriend like to play dynasty warriors or even burnout revenge. having a girlfriend who is a gamer is the best thing that has happened to me since my first zelda game ha

@31:
then a lot of people in this world would be without a girlfriend im sure. i think youre just a bit bitter since u yourself probably dont have one LOL pwnt.

I am yet another female gamer -

I love RPG's... I played WoW for 9 months but stopped because my grades were slipping. I also play the 360 arcade games, PS2, DSlite, Nintendo, and the Wii, not to mention all of the PC games such as TitanQuest, GuildWars, Age of Empires and other strategygames, but I'm like #48 in that I don't like to play shooters. I prefer the hack-n-slash style.

My fiance is also a gamer - in fact, he is a game programmer (see datarealms.com), so we get along great. Our lives don't totally revolve around games, however - we like to get out and do things together. I make him go to the gym with me, and he takes me hiking... we match pretty well I think. It's not a hobby thing - though it helps to have some similar ones - it's more of a personality match.

I find that girls tend to prefer games that are simple, like Bomberman or Mario Party, and games that you can play as a team.

This works well because if they aren't very good, you can go ahead and help them out, but as they get better, you can back off more and more.

Music games usually work quite well for musical people, and even non-musicians who wish they were musical. Dance Dance Revolution is a big hit with the ladies. Even if they don't want to play themselves, they don't mind watching YOU play it. ;)

I'm a University student, but have people over all the time. I'm also a huge gamer, and have since gotten many people to play games who never have before, both guys and girls, so I try and find new ways to get people into them, and try and narrow down who likes what.

i camped outside of target overnight with my boyfriend to get a wii... sometimes, i wonder if i actually play more video games than he does. it must be great for him though, he can buy me video games for christmas and i'll actually be quite thrilled.

as for playing together, since we both usually have our ds lites on us, sometimes when we're waiting for a movie we'll play two-player mario or something, but usually "gaming together" involves me saying "this boss in castlevania is really hard, beat him for me." sure, i could've done it myself, but he does it quicker than i do.

My girlfriend and I have been playing video games together since the beginning of our relationship. Just to name a few, we play Halo 2, Splinter Cell (Chaos Theory & Double Agent), Midnight Club 3, Guitar Hero 1 & 2, Donkey Konga 2, All sorts of DS games, and now Wii games, too.

I must be the only guy on the internet who has a g/f who DOESN'T love the Wii. Which is odd, since she's the one who preordered and paid for it. She played about 3 minutes of Monkey Ball, and 5 minutes of Wii Play. She refused to touch Zelda until we bought component cables, and now that we've got them, she just can't seem to get around to it.

She's not what I'd call a hardcore gamer. She went nuts for Animal Crossing (on the DS.. didn't like the GCN version) and Phantasy Star Online (she doesn't "get" Universe, even though I myself prefer it), and Baldur's Gate. Baldur's Gate is a sweet game for 2 player if your girl's into fantasy at all.

I think she just has fond memories of Nintendo from when she had a NES as a child... That, and she likes to have the latest thing. Whether she uses it or not.

I've looked for countless games to play with my girlfriend. She usually enjoys playing the retro games from XBLA, which are usually one player.

The most recent actual game I've gotten her to play with me without losing her attention in 5 minutes is "Marvel: Ultimate Alliance".

She loves that fricken game.

I'm gonna stick my gay experience into this one as a bit of proof there is no difference between a gay and strait relationship (Aside from the obvious).

Yea, my BF and I love playing games together, though we don't always have the same tastes, or same income for getting games =P

EG; he wants to play War Rock with me (online shooter that free. Korean made and kinda riffs BF2), however, I have BF2 to play instead, which is the same things but much more refined. So I gotta choose the hassle of downloading War Rock and playing with my BF online (distance relationship right now), or just hanging with him online in other ways.

I haven't downloaded War Rock yet, but I probably will soon. Anyway, it is great to game with your loved one. Sharing interests always helps.

Gay or strait, I recommend doing it to any one here. Show off some of those achievement points, fellas =3

My girlfriend and I game.. sometimes. She was a little iffy with the Wii, but she enjoys it. She likes Wii Sports and she is looking forward to Mario Party 8 (march 2007 on the Wii [nintendo.com -> master game list]) and Wii Play. I got her a pink DS lite for christmas and she loves it. She "borrowed" brain age, big brain academy, New Super mario brothers, Tetris DS..

She also loves Guitar hero, but I still don't have a PS2.. but at least she'll play a few rounds of mariokart till she feels dizzy. Right now mario party 2 has been keeping her busy. lastly, she loves the mario games on the NES.

She's kinda picky and likes the easy games, but that's fine with me.

We'll I've never had a girlfriend that liked video games, though I have a friend, thats a girl, that likes Counter Strike. And i know others that like Warcraft 3, and another one that can beat me at Tekken...Embarrassing..

Yeah, my girlfriend and I play video games together. It's one of my favorite things about us, though I try not to overwhelm her with my love for games. I remember when I was first getting to know her 3 years ago and I learned that she was a huge fan of top-down RPGs such as Baldur's Gate 2 and Icewind Dale. This was a huge draw for me, seeing as how BG2 is one of my favorite video games of all time. She also really likes old school adventure games (of the LucasArts variety).

These days we play N64, Playstation, Xbox 360, and Wii together. Lately we've been playing a lot of Call of Duty 3 (she's just getting into FPSs, which is awesome), Viva Pinata and Wii Sports. I think the fact that we play games together is great for our relationship. It gives us something to do together and bond over. I don't know what would happen if we didn't share the same types of interests. For example, my sister's boyfriend is also an avid gamer and my sister is not. This is causing a bit of tension in their relationship.

Plenty of girls on Joystiq, they wouldn't usually make it obvious though, it's pretty much irrelevant except in discussions like this one.

People I know think I'm an obsessive gamer, my boyfriend is pretty much the same, don't think I'd date anyone that doesn't understand :) Though he won't play PS2 or DS games which means he misses out on a lot of classics.
Nothing beats playing games together. He's really really good aswell, so that improves my game, having someone to "spar" with. We love going to LAN parties together.

My wife and I have both been playing games together for a while. It got really serious and competitive when unreal tournamet 2004 came out but we are now both heavily involved in Battlefield 2 for several hours a week.

My boy and I play a little bit of everything. He kicks my ass in Smash Bros, I kick his ass in Halo, we co-op superhero games. We play a lot of soul calibur. Advance Wars is our newest game of choice. Also there's a lot of separate but together gaming, He'll play FF12 while I play something on my DS, or we each lie in bed playing different DS games. And the classic, we can always fall back on Tetris.

Both me and my boyfriend got together because of video games. It was the first time for either of us to actually date a gamer.

While we play together all the time, there are some games that we just can't play without ending up in an argument. For example; Lego Star Wars II. Since we're both gamers (and the friendly fire doesn't help) we both wanted to lead and go in separate directions.

Games like Call of Duty 2 or 3 multi-player or Gears of War Co-Op we seem to do really well with.

All in all, theres nothing like laying in bed with the one you adore on a Sunday and playing video games all day :D

What a great topic! I just had to join in. My girlfriend of 1 year+ and I are both gamers too. I'm actually surprised no one has mentioned THE SIMS yet, she's crazy addicted to that one. In fact, she will play that on the PC when I'm on the 360. Also she loves LOCO ROCCO, and LUMINES (i gave up trying to beat her high score!) on the PSP and Katamari on the PS2. Basically games that are fun but also have simple controls are high on her list! She will also often sit with me and "help out", in games like Splinter Cell, and Prince of Persia, "go for the rope over there!"
As for gaming together, we are loving the XBLA stuff, and somehow she has a great knack for button masher fighters like Soul Calibur 3. Also we're just starting to get into Marvel Ultimate Alliance. God I love her!

My boyfriend and I met when he shyly came up and asked me if that was Animal Crossing: WW I was playing, and if I might want to play with him. Cute, huh? We're both big-time Nintendo fanatics, although I'm currently eyeing a Wii60 combo (Viva Pinata and GoW are enticing me) and my boyfriend has a PS2 and a PSP. At the onset of Twilight Princess, we had a lengthy discussion over whether or not the Wii version or the GC version was more "hardcore." Well, he's got one and I've got the other, and we've found nothing definative yet. XD Neither of us plays much in the way of MMORPGs, but we still do love our PC games. We're both eagerly anticipating Portal and Spore, and oddly enough, he's the big Sims fan and not me. XD

Our current gaming hot topic are Chao from the Sonic Adventure games. We never really play the main games, just the Chao gardens... Heh.

@ #4
also, i couldnt get her off my wii one night for 2 hours LOL.

I don't think this is a problem at all..... :) GIGGITY GIGGITY GOO!

Not much, but she's been known to throw down with Donkey Konga and is always up for some Karaoke Revolution!

I am not lucky enough to have a girlfriend anymore (it's because she wasn't a gamer). But a friend who is getting married has gotten his soon to be wife into gaming. She is very proud of the fact that she is a gamer.

I'm an old school gamer, and my wife never has really gotten into it. She tried when I had my old NES, and I remember one time we were playing RBI Baseball. I tried to take it easy on her, but after I started winning she pinned me to the ground and started kissing me. I heard her pitch the ball while she was kissing me and I still hit a homer -- after that she said she'd never play a video game with me again, and unfortunately she never has.

i just bought mario party 7 for the gamecube so we could play together and we do. it's fun :)

but usually it consists of me watching HIM play...

I am a very lucky man, who has been blessed with a beautiful, nerdy girl. We started off playing through Chrono Trigger, where I discovered that her character selections (Ayla and Frog over my traditional Marle and Lucca) were both significantly more powerful and more fun to play. This has rapidly become a theme when we play together, as I'm leading her on kind of a guided tour of my childhood.

Next up was Earthbound, which she enjoyed greatly, but thought the ending battle was gimmicky -- and rightly so. What really got her, though, was Chrono Cross. She laughed and cried and became extremely attached to certain characters (I am NOT threatened by Norris, I am NOT threatened by Norris), and of course the music means the same amount to her now as it does to me.

Recently, we bought each other matching black DS Lites, which has been wonderful; she has played the Kirby games, while I went off and beat Metroid Prime, but -- as with so many other couples -- Animal Crossing has been wonderful to play together. She plays it more than I do -- it lives with her at her dorm more often than with me in my apartment across town -- but we both hop in fairly frequently. She comes from a visual artist background, and has strong opinions on virtual interior decorating.

Of course, Wii Sports is another good one. But what we're playing right now is Elite Beat Agents. I'm pretty competent at Dance Dance Revolution, so I thought I had an unbeatable advantage in rhythm games, but she beat Jumpin' Jack Flash on Sweatin' fully two days before I could. At the same time, we JUST finished Final Fantasy VI, again breezing through it much faster and more easily than I used to, due to her unorthodox selection of characters (Gau? Who knew?). Oh, and she's also really close to beating FFIV GBA. I don't know if the difficulty's been tweaked a lot from FF4J, but she seems to be annihilating it, even at places that used to kick my ass back when it was FF2 for the SNES.

So, yeah. That's what I play with my girlfriend. Looking back over the list (yes, it's more like an essay, I talk a lot, I know), I remember just how lucky I am to have this girl. What do you guys recommend next? We have, between ourselves, a PS2, a Wii (therefore also a Gamecube), two DS Lites, and a venerable Super Nintendo. Any suggestions?