While some of you are gamer girls or know/are dating a gamer girl, there are so many other girls out there that just aren't interested or haven't tried playing anything. There's a game out there for everyone now, but sometimes it's a little hard to figure out what to introduce your friend to so she won't run away screaming.
Mario Kart: Young, old, male, female, everyone loves Mario Kart. It's easy, it works with a lot of players, and there's enough other character choices so everyone can be who they want. I will admit that I personally find the controls for Wii hard (I'm awesome at the N64 one, just can't get the hang of it for Wii), but I think that might just be my own problem.
Maple Story: Everyone loves to hate Maple Story for its kiddish graphics and demeanor, but it's really a lot of fun. They've actually made the game easier to start out in recent months, with more quests and good items and stuff to help the beginner. The game is also very visually appealing, and is playable for people who have issues with 3D graphics because everything is 2D. I've gotten some people to play this one myself, and even when I put it down, I end up coming back. Did I mention it's free?
Defense of the Ancients for Warcraft 3: This might seem like a strange choice, but hear me out on this one. There's lots of different characters that might appeal to the casual gamer, and by using a map with AI and by following a guide for a character, it's pretty easy to start playing and ends up being a lot of fun. I only started playing DotA last year and I was skeptical at first, but it does end up being a lot of fun, and you do get the hang of it after a round or two.
Soul Calibur: I think fighting games make good introductory games because it's possible to get away with button mashing at first and still do fairly decently. The Soul Calibur games would probably be a good choice due to a wide range of characters (there's always at least half a dozen females with decent amounts of clothing) and it's pretty easy to pick up. The games also have something resembling a plot, which also helps. Tip: don't start playing against your friend as Ivy.
What games do you think would be a good introduction to girls who aren't interested in playing video games? Do you agree or disagree with any of these?
Comments (41)
Yay for button mashing! =p
What about Super Smash Bros for the 64? Lol you don't need any kind of skill for it.
Or Gears or Halo. =]
My wife has Soul Caliber!
mario kart and maple story are extremely fun when playing with someone else. the interesting thing with maple story, for me anyway, is that i can't play it when she's not playing... well actually i can but not with my cygnus knight character.
Resident Evil 5 XD kill zombies together! XD
Oh and dont forget Smash bros- although it may be over the top obvious to mention it.
My boyfriend and I have been playing Gears of War 2 lately, primarily. Either that, or he just sits and watches me play FFX. :3
i luv soul calibur
Last one looks lame, WoW is the epitome of lame, never heard of Maple Story but Mario Kart is always a win.
Just because no one threw it out there yet (though I already did on your blog), where's the rhythm games? =3
This is crazy, you can play any game with your girlfriend. You know what I play with my husband? Left 4 Dead 2.
-super smash brothers melee -- but she'll probaby get pwned
-DDR -- introduce her to some exercise............ LMFAO JK
also, no offense but maplestory kind of sucks ass now. people aren't nice anymore, noobs are people who don't have enough money for leeching to level 200 in a week, and everything nexon does is to make money... even zakum helms aren't special anymore because you can buy them. i miss the old maplestory. :[
this is a great post, as far as the idea of it goes. however i think the only ones that are probably a good try for ANY girl are mario kart and soul calibur. the others seem kinda... eh. like i dunno if they should be a good suggestion for such a huge group of females. i love mario kart (who doesnt though) and ive never played soul calibur but ive kinda wanted to. im a girl gamer and i'm dating a girl who hates games, mostly because she hates that she's not good at them. so i dunno, it's kinda hard to play much of anything with her because she'll get upset that i'm so much better at it (i've been playing games since i was 2 years old so yeah). i'd try to suck more but a lot of games wont allow you to use handicaps, and most of the time it's kind of hard to suck at a game without it being super noticeable that youre totally trying to suck. if that makes any sense.
wow ;)
@peaceciao@xanga - haha yep, don't forget good ol' world of warcraft :)
Any Mario series game is great.
Kirby.
Killer Instinct.
Zelda.
:( as a serious smash player, I'm sad that everyone's mentioning smash.... that game is extremely deep if you take it seriously
anyway, most girls I know really like the 2D mario games, which is SWEET NEWS because of New Super Mario Bros Wii! Which is awesome and when I see my girlfriend later this week I am definitely going to play it with her.
And one time I introduced a girlfriend to Zelda: Link to the Past and she played like 10 hours a day three days straight, and she doesn't even like video games.... that was probably sor tof a fluke though.
Grand Theft Auto! :) And I love Soul Calibur! I think any Wii games would do well for most girls.
Peggle man. Just point and click. You do remember the Price is Right game Pachinko where contestants insert a circle like object and it randomly goes down right? There is also two player mode.
Mystery Case Files. A hidden object game in which you have a time limit to find many objects. There are also puzzles to test your crime solving capabilities. I highly recommend MCF: Ravenhurst as a start.
Plants vs. Zombies. Everyone loves a plant or a zombie so why not play a game that has both? It is a kind of a tower game where you must not let the enemies go past a certain point in your backyard. Throw in humourous plants/zombies and a strange attempt at plot and you got a winner.
DJ Max/ Pump / DDR / Ez2DJ. These rhythm games offer a lot of excitement. With music ranging from Classical, Hip-hop, to K or J pop, just step on the arrows/hit the button with the beat of the music. Usually offers beautiful backgrounds or anime characters/graphics.
*All of these games require very little explaination.
Puzzle games, rhythm games, mini-game games, casual sports games, fighting games and arcade-style racers all have fairly low barriers for entry and many women who wouldn't normally be interested in games, would probably be more likely to enjoy those types socially.
I've put down Maple Story since freshman year. I was hella into it. It was good until too many things came out and hecka people just ended on private servers, but that got boring too. Mario Kart is not cool on the Wii because it's harder to control.
I LOVE LOVE LOVE MARIO KART WII.
playing online is the besttt!
Haha. I haven't played Maple Story in forever!! I just remember leaving my lvl 92 priest. Loved it cause everyone wanted me to play with them. But yeah.. don't play games anymore. Unless Facebook apps count.
DotA AI is fine I guess, but just don't let her go play online =]
I play Mario Kart and Soul Calibur with my boyfriend! Ha. And he told me about Maple Story but he hates it. I personally love it. He's more into stuff like Fallout, and lately a lot of old school nintendo stuff since we've discovered emulators and rom's, haha.