Your Mom Hates Dead Space 2, but She Might Like These...

Moms generally don’t understand video games. They don’t know why we enjoy them, why we talk about them, why we play, breathe, even live them. With Mother’s day looming, here are a few games you should introduce your mom to. I’m sure she’ll love spending time with you, and may even become a little gamer herself. 

Note: These are in no particular order.

Little Big Planet

She'll love the cute nature of this game, and will be able to play it even if she has no prior gaming experience. It's very easy to pick up, and two players can play together. I smell some Mother/Child bonding time.

It's always fun to see how different people dress up.

Kinect Adventures

It is absolutely hilarious to watch your mom play a kinect game. Especially the pictures at the end. Trust me, I know. This game is super easy to play, and tons of fun. It also is a huge workout, so if your mom is a gym buff try the exercise persuasion.

Best part is recording the statues, you can watch 'em later and laugh.

Viva Pinata

You cannot be sad while playing or watching this game. It is so unbelievably cute and quirky, that you just have to smile. It can be a little difficult to juggle everything in the game, but start a non-gaming mom off at the beginning with a small farm and she should be fine. Unfortunately, it's only a one player game but you can still have loads of fun together switching who plays. 

Portal

One of the few games on this list that isn't necessarily 'cute'. If playing as little Sac characters or growing pinata's isn't for your mom, this might be a great contender. If she isn't familiar with gaming controls, make sure you explain how to use the two sticks to move and to look around. The nice thing about Portal is that there isn't any 'enemies' for a while - so she can practice without getting flustered. This game will really open her eyes to video games, showing that they can be more just killing army guys. 

It's easy to get confused but totally worth it when you solve a test.

Mass Effect

Like Portal, this game will show your mom that games can be more than just shooting things. You might need more than afternoon to really get her into it, but this might make her into a serious gamer. She'll love the story, the character development, and the relationships. An added bonus, it's not too too violent and it's pretty easy to pick up.

The conversations are so much fun.

Mario Party

This game is great for parties (no, really?) and it can be played with the whole family. If your mom likes boardgames, she'll probably love this. It's easy to play and previous video game skill doesn't really matter. It's a pretty fair game. Plus, if your mom is really bad at it, you can just give her an extra star as a handicap at the beginning of the game. But be warned, she might trick you into thinking she sucks, than she'll turn around and kick butt. 

It's just a big board game.

Guitar Hero

Another great party game. This game is quite difficult the first couple times you play, so give your mom plenty of time with the practice menu. This game can also be played with the entire family and can accommodate all the various  music lovers. Your mom will love the music from her teenage-hood, and you'll love watching her rock out. Who knows, maybe she'll become the next Jimmy Hendrix. 

Tons of fun for music lovers of all sorts.

I hope that these suggestions will encourage gaming with your family (especially with your mommy). Let me know how it goes, or if  you have any other game recommendations. To all moms: have a great Mother's Day! And to all those gamer moms, I hope you can find the time to play your favorite game all day today.


As Always,
LadySnip3r

Top 8 'Rage' Games

Ever played a game that made you so mad you rage-quit? How about so angry you threw your controller? Well I'm going to countdown the top 8 Rage games that have made me scream, curse, and even break things. I was going to do a more traditional top 10, but couldn't think of that many games that made me angry.

8. Any Pokèmon Game

Gotta Catch Em All? How about when that legendary you've been fighting for what seems like forever, runs away...or faints? How about when after hours of shiny hunting, you find it only to have it run away... or faint? How about when you white/black out and you haven't saved since Pallet town? Pokèmon is full of opportunities to rage. Take a deep breath, and remember they're just Pocket Monsters.

7. Guitar Hero

I was a guitar hero junkie. I would play it for hours and hours, perfecting my skills for parties and hangouts. I would play on practice mode so I could play expert songs without missing a note. Occasionally (actually frequently), I would play a song till the very end and miss the last note. Not only was it the final note and ruined my perfection, but it was usually a 20 second hold note. How embarrassing.  I would rage.

6. Mass Effect

I hate driving games. I really do. So I was pumped to play Mass Effect, a space RPG with elements of a shooter. Until I realized half of the game is spent driving the most glitchy, frustrating space car. I would get stuck upside down, be devoured by aliens, and even glitch out of the vehicle while on a planet that humans can't survive on. The whole process of driving on each planet really made me grow to hate Mass Effect. But then I'd remember how much I love the story and the characters and I'd try it again. Mass Effect is a roller coaster of emotion for me, and it's mostly rage.

5. Lost Via Domus

I know this game was a joke, but being a Lost junkie I decided to give a shot. Now I got a few achievements while checking it out, and I was gonna drop it because it just wasn't that fun...until I realized I was on my boyfriend's account. Did I mention he's the most intense 100% completion achievement whore? I panicked. Luckily, he was at work for 8 hours so I had some time to beat the game. Now the game was overall pretty easy, until two parts. The first was hiding from the smoke monster. Every freaking tree looked the same, and I couldn't figure out where to go. I got so frustrated. The next part was walking through caves. Not only could you run out of fire or fall down a pit, but you could get killed by darkness. I'm not kidding. I screamed when "You've been killed by the darkness" popped onscreen.

I don't even recall any caves in the show.

4. Portal

While playing through Portal, I fully understood what it meant to rage quit a game. I was playing it on my macbook, and at test 15 I slammed it closed. I felt so frustrated, humiliated, and overall angry. The game had beaten me. After a few nights sleep and a short hiatus from the game, I had a renewed energy and solved the puzzle in all of 2 minutes.  

3. Any Online Multiplayer game

There will always be lag, there will always be n00bs. Combined, it makes for an awful experience. Unfortunately, this rage really just depends on some external factors of internet connection, game servers, and other players. There is nothing you can do about it, except play campaign.

2. Sneak King

The name says enough. Basically, my group decided to get every achievement in this awful game. We would play for hours every hangout, listening to the “Wah wah wah wooh wah wah” and getting stuck in glitchy patches. We still haven’t beaten it, but this game is definitely a rage fest waiting to happen. 

1. Sonic The Hedgehog

Arguably the most glitchy game of all time. Here's evidence.

Meditate and focus on your breathing after reading this post. Patience is key. Speaking of patience, w0lfspirit is going to do a post later this week on the second lesson she's learned gaming: Patience.

In other news, congratulations to the winners of the Beta and indie game bundle draw! If you didn't win this time, don't worry...Assassionista will do more giveaways and maybe even a contest of sorts in the future (depending on reader support/interest). Assassionista also has started a This Week in Gaming History segment on our twitter and facebook pages. Basically, we list some key events that happened during the previous week in video game history. If you want to surprise everyone with your random gaming knowledge, check it out every Sunday.

As always,

LadySnip3r

PS. What games make you rage? What's the worst thing you've done out of frustration or angry caused from a video game?