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Two-Player Games for Mixed Skill Level Players?
koreth asks: "What are some good two-player games that a newbie can successfully play with a more seasoned gamer? I want to find a good console or PC game I can play with my girlfriend, who has only recently started gaming. Something cooperative would be great, but head-to-head is fine too. All the games we've tried are made for players of roughly the same skill level -- so either I end up dumbing my gameplay way down (no fun for me) or blowing her out of the water without much effort (no fun for her). Is there any game out there that gives two players tasks of varying difficulty to keep both of them engrossed, at the same time?"
You're probably best off going coop games. If you're going PC games, any MMOG would probably do the trick. There's a decently steep learning curve, but you can help each other out quite effectively. WoW is a really easy game to teach newbies: as a very casual gamer, my wife picked up on it pretty quickly.
If you're not limiting yourself to PC, a Gamecube would be a good place to go. There are plenty of games for the veteran and the hardcore alike. Of course all I can think of is the NES days with coop games like Guerrilla War, the Double Dragon series, TMNT games, etc etc. Classic NES games are hard to beat. Easy to learn, but still a whole lot of fun! When I game with my wife, the NES probably gets used the most.
Your task will be killing her and her tasks will be running away, struggling with the keyboard and dying.
Most fighting games have a handicap system that essentially alters the damage dealt. Turn your damage way down, and hers way up, and then tweak them as she learns the system. I can particularly recommend Super Smash Brothers Melee for this, as it even has an auto-handicap system.
Look for games that allow handicaps to be set. Like the latest AoE, if you are both into RTS.. Handicap yourself to death..challenging for you and ultimately brings you both to approximately the same level of skill after playing around with the handicap values a bit..
Infinite time means everything that can happen, will. You being you is absolutely incidental. You do not exist.
Theres this game I play with my girlfriend, but it's not a video game.... try it
Purple, because ice cream has no bones.
Another one, though I haven't played for years, that I would suggest would be Super Bomber Man or a sequel - easy to pick up and fun.
And the person above who suggested a MMO has an excellent point, though depends how casual you want the gaming to be as they generally require a large investment of time.
I can't stress enough the sheer multiplayer bliss that can be found in the first Super Monkey Ball. It's a game that gets played a lot whenever my family gets together.
Particularly the minigame "Monkey Target." No matter your skill level, you can have loads of fun; the game is competitive, but in a way that doesn't make it less fun if you get completely obliterated by your opponent. The sounds, colors, and animations make it easy to laugh about doing poorly, to the point where you don't even care who wins or loses. It's a lot of fun, either way.
Plus, the cute graphics will probably make it easy for your girlfriend to get into.
My wife and I are currently playing Dungeon Siege together. It is simple enough that any one with point and click experience and basic math skills can excel at it, but entertaining enough to keep you clicking forward.
-Rick
"Most people in the U.S. wouldn't know they live in a tyrannical state if it walked up and grabbed their junk." - MyFirs
the ancient oriental game of Go has has an excellent handicap system that keeps the game interesting, no matter how wide the skill difference.
need a free COBOL editor for Windows?
'Cause if it does, I feel I should quote C-3P0:
I suggest a new strategy, R2: let the wookie win.
Seriously though, if you are up for 'lets work together', and don't mind sharing the controller/keyboard, I would recommend something more puzzle & adventure oriented. Could be a point 'n click, but it doesn't have to be. I mean, some of the older Tomb Raiders were good in this respect (puzzles); just remember to look at other parts of the screen once in a while or your plan may backfire. Let's face it, FPS' are more reaction time and fine motor control -- which can be fun -- but I have a sneaking suspicion your better half will appreciate something more cerebral.
If you really do want a truly 2 player game, I would recommend something coop. If you have Half Life and more than one computer (and what self-respecting geek doesn't?), then give Sven Co-op a try. Play through Half Life co-operatively. There is also a huge map pack avaliable with decent maps; not all of which are quick-blast-everything-that-moves. Other choices include other coop games, such as Halo 2. I'm sure you can think of others without too much effort; eg sports games, racing games usually have > 1 player mode built-in, at least for consoles.
Personally, I'd go for the one that gets you the most thanks-for-thinking-of-me-honey... points.
If all you have is a grenade, pretty soon every problem looks like a foxhole -- MightyYar
DDR lets each player select their own difficulty level.
There's a open source knock off called step mania that's more feature-rich. Thousands of songs for step mania are available on the net, and you can add your own.
LEGO Star Wars is a very fun co-op game . . . it even allows you to drop in/out at any point, which is great if the phone rings, the oven timer goes off, etc. It's not terribly long, but the sequel will be out soon. :-)
On the PC side, WarCraft III might be a good idea -- you can play against AI opponants, and select various handicaps for each player if desired.
Puzzle games are a lot of fun to play together, too -- my wife and I have played Bookworm together and had quite the good time.
...beating each other with live cats.
It's a little tricky setting up a game, but if you put about three ounces of rum in waterdish, they're easy to catch. That said, it's more fun to do it with sober cats... their claws have a higher chance of being extended at any given point in time.
Now, if you start to get the knack of the game before she does, just drug her cat more. Her cat won't be as painful, but she'll be able to swing it harder without it trying to claw her eyes out.
After a few rounds, you'll both be laughing, exhausted, and covered in each others' blood.
Oh, and if you're both knocked unconcious, the cats will eat you. They'll start with with your tongues, btw.
My wife and I play a lot of Mario Party together. It has some tweakable handicapping anda pretty short learning curve. We usually play against 2 other computer controlled players. That sets up a nice dynamic where we can be competitive with each other but cooperative in screwing over the computer controlled players.
Another great Japanese game is "Ribbit King"- http://www.ribbitking.com/about.htm sort of a weird golf game where you launch frogs off of a catapult to ultimately get the frog into the hole. You score points for getting teh frog to cover larger distances and interact with the dense kooky environment. It has a lot of charm goofiness and just the right amount of skill to be fun and never frustrating.
deathmatch or Coop- I think it's great for this..
if you REALLY KNOW YOUR MAPS, find some custom ones,
if you really need to, restrict yourself to weapons BELOW 5, give here whataver she can locate to use...
my wife really warmed up to it kinda quickly....
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
Guild Wars can give you the best of both online and offline gaming. Just you and your GF (plus AI henchmen) as you don't want other players to intrude on the two of you, no subscription fees, and none of the griefing you get in other MMOGs.
... on other things. :P
Plus, a huge and wonderfully detailed world for the two of you to explore and to battle against, with no xp grinding, nor any of the other traditional MMOG timesinks that make some other popular worlds so tedious. The time saved can then be used
Recommended.
"The question of whether machines can think is no more interesting than [] whether submarines can swim" - Dijkstra
Get "Katamari Damacy", and "We 3 Katamari". They are both really fun and have great music. The first one has a better story and intro and the second one has the co-op play you are looking for. So if you are in a pinch just get the second one, but if you can splurge a bit get them both. (:
World of Warcraft is a remarkably good couples' game. My wife and I play it whenever we get a chance and she's just as addicted to it as I am. I know a bunch of female WoWers -- it seems to appeal to women (even ones that don't like computer games) far more than most games.
On top of that, it's a cooperative game which requires no particular amount of skill.
ZFS: because love is never having to say fsck
Look no further than:
.html) if you can find it for the old original PlayStation. That game had very interesting cooperative properties where certain shots would change characteristics and trajectory if they hit your friend's ship so sometimes it would be strategic to try to stay vertically aligned together (or overlay each other) to benefit from these special shots.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puzzle_Fighter
This game strikes an amazing balance by being both compelling for serious competition and entertaining for casual play. David Sirlin has a relevant article (http://sirlin.net/archive/slippery-slope-and-perp etual-comeback/) describing "perpetual comeback" as it pertains to Puzzle Fighter and why it makes that game so very fun.
Are you still looking further?
Well then...
Another example of perpetual comeback is the fighting system in Battle Arena Toshinden (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_Arena_Toshind en) where each character has usually two special moves (in addition to their normal repertoire) that they can only perform once their health gets very low (i.e., they are about to be knocked-out). These moves (sometimes referred to as "desperation moves") usually do a great deal of damage and can easily turn the tide of a round or just win the round outright so they add cool intensity to the conclusion of many matches (even when one player is notably superior because they need to be extra careful to avoid getting hit by one or more of these "come-back" moves). These moves can be difficult to perform for those uninitiated to the common fireball and yoga-flame joystick movements they typically require but they totally have the best risk-vs.-reward benefit when a player is learning the game. I'd recommend studying and practicing the execution of those moves first to new players. Additionally, some characters have very easy ones like (if I remember correctly) Ellis and Sophia only need to press back, forward, back, forward + Triangle to do theirs. Choose an easy and fast character to start with until you learn enough to venture out.
Of course there are some fun cooperative experiences (like Halo or MMOs) but if your partner shows an affinity for, and appreciation of, games requiring increasing reflexive (a.k.a. "twitch") skill, I would highly recommend the plethora of http://shmups.com/ out there. Ikaruga (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ikaruga) must be mentioned as one of the greatest here. All threatening bullets and beams are either white (with blue highlights) or black (with red highlights). Similarly, each players' ship can flip over to alternate between those colors as well. When you're the same color as bullets, you absorb them into your shield and they store in a meter which can be unleashed as homing shots. When you are the opposite color of enemy ships, your shots do double-damage (but you're vulnerable to their bullets because they are the same color as them). It makes for awesome tension because the whole screen can be completely covered in bullets but at least half of it is always survivable space if you're the same color as the bullets occupying that space. Check out "bullet-eater" mode too. You can beat lots of levels without firing a shot (i.e., by just alternating to the right colors and dodging terrain features).
Another great one is Raiden Project (http://gamespot.com/ps/action/raidenproject/index
There are lots of great cooperative Shmups but the only directly competitive one I have yet encountered is astonishingly fun. It is called Twinkle Star Sprites (http://en.wiki
It's got a great co-op mode, doesn't rely on both players being skilled, but has some parts that need you to work together and communicate on...
It's available for consoles and the PC, and is a really fun game. (:
Whoever stated that signature sizes should be limited to one hundred and twenty characters can just go ahead and kiss my
"You don't want to frag your significant other, you want to frag the NPC that layed a hand on her."
:) If I'd managed to get my Horde rogue to 60 while I was still with my last boyfriend, his Alliance priest would have been going down.
Speak for yourself
I've ganked/fragged previous boyfriends in online games too, and been ganked/fragged by them too -- I find it more fun than cooperating, actually, because I get to show off, be as vicious as I want, and ideally become a better player while I'm at it.
Any of the Mario Party series is ideal, since a lot of the games just rely on bashing on the buttons or doing something that dosen't necessarily take the hand-eye coordination of an experienced gamer. And if you find that you're kicking the crap out of her anyway, you can play it co-op.
WarioWare is also good, because the games are so random that even an experienced gamer doesn't have a huge advantage.
It's great :)
Any version of Tekken.
You can learn all the moves, and get uber good at it, and have really high end matches that feel intellectual and thought out ... and then still get ur ass whipped by an unpredictable button masher.
You know, there's really NO POINT to play a game that pits you against
your girlfriend. Really, relationships are about cooperation, and there's
a lot to benefit from an adrenaline experience if you're both on the
same side. Show her things and help her up, stay away from
the smack-down.
Anyway, a few games from different genres...
Katamari Damacy 1 is a really fun off-kilter game, but the 2-player mode is
not that fun. I don't know about We Love Katamari (the 2nd in the series), but
I think they fixed the multiplayer. It's quirky, simple to pick up and addictive.
I think Dungeon Siege & DS2 are pretty good cooperative games for RPG-type
games. Fighting is relatively easy and you can help each other. It's an
attractive game too. Go out of your way to share the loot.
For shooter games, Serious Sam and Serious Sam 2 are really
fun cooperative games. They might be more guy games. I've
had lots of fun attacking 300-foot-tall monsters with my friends.
It doesn't matter about skill, because the better players just help protect
the beginners and there is plenty of work to go around. Weapons
and ammo that appear always have multiple copies, so there's no
fighting over stuff.
It's too bad that cooperative games are not as popular as they should
be. I think it's because it requires extra effort and tweaking that most
publishers don't bother with.
Maybe if review sites put "cooperative play" or "family play" on their
checklists, it might help with the situation.
More or less any RTS will do it. They pretty much all give the option of having any configuration of players. So if you want you set her up with a couple of AI helpers and try take them all down. Alternatively you do what I did when I started playing Total Annihilation.
Me and a friend both faught on the same team he had more experience so he was on defence. Meanwhile behind the lines I was building any ol base I wanted, which taught me what buildings there were and what they all did. Shortly after that I started building all manner of offensive units and structures.
Only took a couple of games for us to start building seperate self sustaining bases. Although even if it takes longer experienced players typically love to be on the front line defence in TA. (It gets seriously hectic and weve had a kill counter go up by over 300 units in a matter of seconds.)
Im fairly sure you can do that kind of thing with any RTS but TA is cheap to buy has a spare CD for multiplayer games and is still arguably the greatest muliplayer RTS ever created.
Hey there, I went through this same problem with my girlfriend before. She's a pro now, and we owe it to Serious Sam's co-op play. I will list my humble reasonings below: 1) Dying doesn't matter There are unlimited lives, so there's really no penalty for getting killed over and over again. 2) HORDES of enemies If she can get proficient at killing this many baddies at once, there's nothing she won't be able to overcome. 3) Wonky physics Levels turn upside down, gravity pulls you from side to side, etc. Learn to expect the unexpected. I would personally recommend either Serious Sam, or Serious Sam: Second Encounter (not to be confused with Serious Sam 2). Serious Sam 2 was fun, but did not have any of the above listed elements to it (at least, not at the point I've currently played it through to). Since the game is an FPS it's a great place to start for the more hardcore action-oriented games you are likely to be into. An added bonus (at least for me) is that the game is a little bit older now, so if you have unequal computers, both are likely to handle this just fine.
Why not play a card or board game or something else altogether?
It is very easy to "mod" a RL game so that you can even the playing field. Examples follow:
- "Risk" like games: Different distribution levels of armies.
- "Go" like games: One player starts with more pieces on the board.
- "Monopoly" like games: Start one player with a few properties.
I could go on, but you get the point (I hope.)There are also some games that lend themselves better to n00bs like Cribbage... I can't count the number of times I've been beaten by people who just started playing, and I've been playing it for almost 20 years.
There are two types of people in the world: those who divide people into two types and those who don't.
Serious Sam 2 is mindless co-op fun that does not require much upstairs to enjoy or get into. Something more engrossing is City of Hereos (or City of Villains). It's a MMORPG that was primarily built for the casual gamer, and is pretty easy to get into.
Monkey Island.
City of Heroes has a very nice system that basically makes it nearly impossible for you to not be able to team with one other person. ;)
And it is so genre relevant that it isn't funny.
After all, what would Batman be without his Robin or Batgirl? A sidekick is your friend indeed!
No! It's a *SIG*. Keep the Special Interest Groups away! (Con joke!)
I can't believe no one had mentioned final fantasy III/VI! It'd be perfect! It has a great storyline, Edgar owns in the beginning just long enough to get over the learning curve, and you guys can pick which characters are controlled by whom and customize to your liking.
I believe the 2 player game you are looking for is sex. Try not to blow her out of the water (unless she's still into that, haven't seen her in a while).
One of the best SNES games of all time (so you need an emulator and the ROM) is Kirby's Avalanche. The great thing about this game is the handicap system that really does allow for your girlfriend to feel like she's beating the crap out of you while you're having fun actually playing as hard as you can to keep up. Perfect balance there.
You might also want to try out one of the karaoke games that are available. It might seem weird at first, but they're usually hard enough to make the "game" part fun.
I want to find a good console or PC game I can play with my girlfriend, who has only recently started gaming.
Lots of people on Slashdot play this game where they have girlfriends. It's fun to pretend!
Title says it all!
My wife (a game newbie) and I love it, and have given it as a gift to other sets of mismatched friends. Seriously, spend the $20 or whatever and give it a shot. She'll love you for it!
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
I think you might want to reconsider your premise: your girlfriend, if she is unwilling to immerse herself in the games, might just not be that interested in video games. You may also ask yourself whether your girlfriend really wants to play, or if she is just acquiescing to your hobbies. If the latter is the case, you might find that her ardor wears off and the games become a burden on your relationship. Finding activities that are genuinely, mutually enjoyable would be a better bet if this is the case. Note that I'm not saying it is: you're the one in the relationship and you must trust your own judgment.
As another alternative, you could try something like Go, a board game with a natural way of leveling the skill barrier by giving one side a handicap. Otherwise, I you could be on a quest for something that doesn't exist.
Will you marry me?
Someone save me from this sanity.
You don't have to stick with the co-op mode forever in Halo 2, either. The multiplayer has a pretty effective handicap function. It's especially useful since the steepest part of the learning curve for most new gamers is mastering orientation and sorting through your options. But if she can kill you in four shots while it takes you seven, it won't matter if she's slower at making decisions and taking shots.
John Hancock wuz here.
I completely disagree with the MMORPG idea. First off, if shes not a gamer, theres no way shell be interested in that. Honestly, there are 2 types that i would suggest: 1. Party Games. All of the mario party games, or Fuzion Frenzy for the XBOX are perfect. My friends gf played that with me, him, and another "girl." my friends GF won one of the minigames >70% of the time, though a few minutes later we learned that she didnt know to use the directional pad as was only using a and b. 2. Oldschool. The NES has 2 buttons. Plus the games are non-gory, which should help. What can i say, Mario's a pimp. Even if you go newer (n64) Nintendo is the way to go. Games like mariokart and waverage offer amamzing gameplay, and waverace's handicap really evens the playing field (too much so for my tastes). My experience with playing games with traditional girls is that they dont mind loosing or coming in second. They dont see it as a competition, but rather just having fun.
You know, several games have Handicap settings. For example, the Super Smash Bros games. Give her the advantage with handicap settings, and maybe put a skilled AI player on her team. Plus, there's the puzzle games that let you set your level. Tetris, Tetris Attack, Dr. Mario, pretty much all of them.
The handicapping feature won't cover the situation. And it requires a level of motor control and spatial awareness basic gamers don't have at all anyway.
Stay far away.
http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
Don't listen to the MMO suggestion, if your girlfriend just started gaming, they'res no way she's going to want to put the commitment necessary into an MMO. If you have a PS2, check out the Katamary games. They're light hearted, fun, and incredibly addictive :)
All of my friends, ecen the non gamers play Worms World Party, it's easy to learn, a blast to play multiplayer, and only requires one PC and will run on very old hardware (100MHZ, 32MB). Being turn based makes it a bit easier on noobs who can't compete with your highly trained reaction times as a gamer. Chicks especially love Worms for the cute factor. It's also playable by people of all ages, so it's something you can play with your kids.
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. It's just that yours is stupid.
One of my friend borrowed my Monkey Island 3 CD and played it through with his girlfriend. They seemed to enjoy the experience a lot. Another good game is Vampire the masquerade: Bloodlines, the guy can do all the fighting and the girl can do all the talking.
I agree. But keep away from the "3D" editions. Stick with standard 2D. Much easier to control and more fun.
The original Half-Life port for PlayStation 2 had an excellent co-op mode which my wife and I played through until the end (I don't think that she's ever finished another game - except maybe Quake 1). AFAIK that's the only format that the co-op levels appeared in. It's really cool, both players have to work 2gether, but a good player can help out a less skilled one without detracting from the fun at all.
One thing to note about this is that if either player dies the mission is failed and you have to go back to the start of the level, so co-operation is far more critical than in something like Halo.
I would recommend getting the latest Nancy Drew games as the quality has improved. They are up to their 13th game so far.
More info at http://www.herinteractive.com/prod/index.shtml
We also got the Agatha Christie computer game but have not yet played it.
...are both compulsive gamers. When I say compulsive I say it in the lightest possible meaning of the word, but we still tend to sit down in front of our two high-end computers and play computer games once we both get home from work. It is not the only thing we do, but it is the only thing that is relevant to this discussion, and your imaginations can fill in the blanks elsewhere - thank you.
I turned her almost accidentally to gaming and she only recently started a blog with the intent of chronicling her gaming, except she is too wrapped up in The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind at the moment to actually make any updates to the blog. Go figure.
Our favorite genre is RPGs, for Role Playing Games. I prefer games with a deep, rich story and plenty of character development choices. She prefers games that are beautiful. Marriage is like that, you will like different things and you should just roll with it and get along on what you can get along on. That is also where it gets tricky.
Because we are both gamers, and because we love many of the same games we have tried to play them cooperatively. Here are the ones we have tried so far:
Neverwinter Nights (Wintel/Linux)
This was the game that really turned my wife onto gaming, and it was even her first ever contact with the "Dungeons and Dragons" franchise, imagine that. She has played this game and all of its expansions through at least twice, and four times for some. I have not even completed the original campaign. In this game, she is the master and I am the apprentice and my incessant questions about "Who was that?" and "Did you get that quest item?" or "Where does that road go?" became too much for her. We have completely different playing styles and couldn't cooperate.
System Shock 2 (Wintel)
This futuristic first-person RPG has an atmosphere thicker than custard pie and the 2.09 patch introduces a cooperative campaign mode for up to four players. We both love it, we've both played it through, but when we tried to play it together, we ran in different directions. When she was ambushed by a Hybrid from an angle she thought I had covered, I had actually wandered off in search of upgrade modules. It is a tense experience, but it is probably best experienced on your lonesome in a darkened room.
Guild Wars (Wintel)
We had great expectations for the cooperative possibilities in this game, and played through the entire "pre-searing" part of the game together. In this game we did not have the problem of running in different directions, but we were two different player classes. I was the tank warrior and she was the bow-equipped ranger/elementalist mage. She hit targets from a distance while I had to run up to them to attack. This meant she stood still and I ran ahead, and though I never ran far she still got the impression that I was leading the way instead of the ranger.
Icewind Dale II (Wintel)
Another Dungeons and Dragons franchise RPG, but this one was still in 2D art. She liked the 2D art, but decided that the characters "look like LEGOs" and refused to play on account of their miniscule modular ugliness.
Civilization IV (Wintel/?)
My wife not only made first aquaintance with gaming since she met me, but after her introduction to Civilization III, she also made the aquaintance of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. CivIII was her drug of choice and the first time she kept me up all night with a game, it was CivIII. So naturally we were both excited and frightened of the CivIV release. Carpal is painful and fixing it is not exactly free or pleasant. But! The turn-based nature of Civilization IV made this game the best possible cooperative game we have ever tried. Regardless of whether you play simultaneous or individual turns, you always have time to do what you want to and if your partner is ready with his/her turn before you are, you can zoom around the cities you have for some micromanagement.
Just make sure you divide the world between each other before you start. You do not want to get into a diplomatic border dispute with your spouse. And send reinforcements! / Per
/ Per
Ever played it with everything on infinite supply and double damage? It's a terrifying experience. Given half a chance, any opponent will immediately launch the unstoppable Concrete Donkey... so you have to make sure that your worms are spread out and positioned such that nobody can attack them with a Donkey (or similar weapon of mass destruction) without also obliterating members of their own team. And suddenly you have a tense, nervous game of positional play, in which worms attempt to isolate some, and use others as annelid shields, and in which any slip is immediately punished by massive firepower from above.
Alternatively, play Worms with low-power weapons. Play with unlimited Ninja ropes, one jetpack, martial arts, grenades, and the shotgun only. Things get vicious.
Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.