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

Morbid Party 5

Last night my childhood friend Rebecca came over and we decided to take out the gamecube for oldtimes sake. Now when we were little, we used to play Mario Party 5 for HOURS. I mean literally, hours. We would stay up much too late for children - button mashing, star stealing, and mini-game winning. We were obsessed.

Fast forward about 10 years and you've got two adults swearing at each other, at the characters, and at the game in general. Mario Party is arguably the easiest game to rage on (Apart from Sonic the Hedgehog - but we'll get to that in another post...)

I had a much different feeling while playing through it as an adult. I quickly realized that the characters are essentially playing for their life! It's a modern Lord of the Flies! These cute little characters are cheating, stealing, and racing the way to the top in order to save themselves. Just take a look at the end of the game...

One character wins (and is saved), the rest just fall into a pit of nothingness. I might be taking this too far, but I began to though about the mechanics of the game and the morbid nature of the gameplay. First of all, let's look at the mini-games. Basically all 4 of the characters compete; either all against each other, two vs. two, or one vs. three. Winner gets some coins, loser gets nothing. But look carefully at the end screen of the mini-games. Fifty percent of the time the loser can be seen almost being killed! Whether by rocks, falling to their doom, or just disappearing. Their lives are on the line!
The game also encourages players to cheat, steal, and basically do just about anything to get another star. All those capsules, hidden blocks, duels just aide in the massacre. Don't even get me started about Bowser or Donkey Kong.

This is right before Boo falls to his uh, death. I'm not really sure how that works when you're a ghost...

I'm convinced the stars are the ones behind it. They've trapped the characters in some dream world for them to duke it out. I might just be paranoid, but this game is all about survival of the fittest.

"The desire to squeeze and hurt was over-mastering."
- William Golding, Lord of the Flies

Well, I hope you all have a Happy Easter and a lovely long weekend. I'll be doing a Portal 2 review for the next post, so be sure to check back in (or just subscribe and make life easier).

As Always,

LadySnip3r 

PS. Have you ever played a game as a kid that you ended up having a totally different feeling playing through it as an adult? Comment and tell me about it.