Top 5: Games to Play with a Significant Other

Valentine's Day is drawing near. Love is in the air, tinged with just a hint of desperation and too much focus on buying cheap gifts and chocolate at the grocery store to assuage a gnawing need for mindless calendar-based consumption... Or maybe it's just time to sit down for a good gaming session with a cute game and a cute person to play it with.

Here's my list for the Top 5 Games to Play with that Someone Special.

5. Guacamelee! 

Colorful, fun, adventurous, co-op, and scratching an itch to beat things up and make chicken jokes. That's what I call a good Valentine's Day game. My husband and I first played it when it was free for a while on the Playstation store, and we found we worked well together in co-op. Work in tandem to explore the cool level designs and melee your way to the top.

4. Diablo 3

Diablo works well as a co-op RPG, especially if one person is a little bit better at not-dying than the other. Team up to fight evil and grind through levels and magical items. The story isn't too intense to follow, and I enjoy the many layers of difficulty to Diablo 3. A no-frills playthrough can evolve into a deeper exploration of the expansions or harder difficulty levels.

3. Guitar Hero/Dance Dance Revolution/any singing or dancing or music game

Games like this work on two levels. For a casual or new relationship, it's just kind of fun to play a somewhat silly motion- or rhythm-based game. For a longer and more committed relationship, it's a good opportunity to relax together for quick game sessions or compete to get the highest score.

2. Super Mario Odyssey! 

Another co-op option, especially if one half of the couple is just a little bit better at platformers or just not dying. Mario is always a crowd pleaser for couples with wide gaps in video game interest. Multi-level difficulty is easy to manage as well. For example, one person might control the magic hat, the other controls the Mario, and we all get to have fun. This is another great game for exploration or just playing in small, manageable chunks.

1. Katamari Forever! 

Really, this could be any Katamari game, but my husband and I especially love passing the controller back and forth to try to get the best time or the highest score on a level. Roll up a big, round katamari ball as the Prince of All Cosmos cleaning up after your somewhat distant and gigantic king dad. I especially love playing this with another person because one of you will get to see all the weird side characters and strange things picked up during the katamari process while the player is focusing on their task. As a bonus, the music is intensely groovy. Sometimes I replay the level just to hear the songs.

Honorable Mentions

• Mario Kart (just don't get too competitive and ruin the evening)
• Pokemon Go (for those romantic, Pokemon-hunting walks)
• Animal Crossing: New Leaf (visit each other's towns!)
• The Wolf Among Us (interactive storytelling and great art style - make decisions together!)
• Stardew Valley (especially multiplayer when it's available, especially if you can get married in the game!)