Playing games is a great way to share experiences with your partner, possibly while gaining experience points. Video games in particular can be an important part of any relationship; they will bring you together and let you blow each other apart. Almost everyone has their own favourite game, but if you are not lucky enough to have a partner with similar tastes, or if you find yourself with someone, but they’re not that into games (yet), here are a few to try that are sure to end in good times.
Puzzle Juice
A crazy combination of games, Puzzle Juice is a game designed for one person, but like solitaire, anyone watching over your shoulder is in serious danger of being sucked in. What might at first look like a damn snazzy Tetris clone quickly becomes a frantic exercise in agility as well as diction.
Like in Tetris, neon blocks plummet downward, waiting for you to swiftly nudge them into neat rows. However, once a line has been completed, each block in the row becomes a random letter of the alphabet. If the player wishes to rid themselves of the pesky bricks once and for all, they must drag their fingers to connect a series of letters and form a word. The mechanics are quite simple, but when one is faced with an ever-cascading series of vowels and consonants, the task can be overwhelming. It’s times like these when you need to bring in your ringer. Puzzle Juice is the perfect game to play along with a partner, and also makes for good couch co-op with additional people. Searching out words and neatly arranging rows is much more exciting when you’re doing it together. When the blocks are crashing down around you, the board is full, and there isn’t a power-up in sight, you will be glad that you have someone with you who happens to know for certain that “necessary” is spelled with one C and two Ss.
Fingle
Probably one of the strangest games I have ever played, Fingle is an intriguing tablet puzzler with a unique spin. A multi-touch game of Twister for your fingers, Fingle will have you and your partner playing handsies to an accompanying soundtrack of campy ’70s wah-wah guitar.
The game itself is simple, each player must touch and drag a set of coloured squares into their own corresponding slots. To pass the levels, players must only hold these positions for a few seconds and are rewarded with a satisfied and sexy sigh, along with some words of encouragement. The true goal, however, is interaction: real, physical “multiplayer.” As levels progress, the number of fingers needed to complete each level fluctuates and the positions each player is asked to achieve become more and more entwined, the motions more and more provocative.
Fingle is a surprisingly entertaining game. Its simple mechanics are easy enough for anyone to get into and the strongly suggestive gameplay and narrative is a good laugh when playing with a significant other, or hellishly awkward and uncomfortable when playing with your friends and co-workers. Though, I wouldn’t recommend playing it at work, especially if HR is present.
