When I lived in Toyama I had a girlfriend. At the time I had just been brought into video games by a friend of mine who enjoyed them and collected them as a hobby (Thanks Kenji!). But at night when I wanted to relax and enjoy my game my girlfriend would be rather upset at my choice of activity, “Why are you playing your games?” she would always ask me in a scolding voice. My answer would always be, “Because dear, I’m bored.” This would usually end with me turning off my game and being forced to sit through some Japanese drama TV show with her.
Two months into our TV routine, I decided to do something I never thought I would have done before. I actually invited her to play with me. I was playing Super Mario Bros. and thought the game was easy enough for her to play without too much assistance from me. After twenty minutes of convincing dialogue and showing her the controls and walking her through the first level she took the controller, plopped down on the floor, and crawled up to the TV. I was excited to have a second person to play Family Computer with, but also anxious to see how she would do.
She died three times trying to pass the first level and twice trying to pass the second. The game over screen came up and she watched in what I could call anger as she was sent back to the first level only dying twice to finish it. She never made it to 1-4 and was frustrated that I played well. “You are only doing this to get out of watching TV with me !” She would say in her scolding voice. I explained to her that was not true but instead I wanted to do something with her as a couple.
We switched over to the Super Famicom since I knew maybe Super Mario Bros. was a little too advanced for her. Realizing that I would needed something easy for her to figure out and play but not make her look unintelligent or foolish for losing, my answer…Yoshi’s Cookie.
Yoshi’s Cookie is a puzzle game for the Super Famicom. The objective of the game is to line up the rows of cookies so that the rows would have completely matching cookies. You would only be given a certain amount of moves you could make before you lost though giving the game some challenge. She managed to learn the controls in about an hour and she even managed to figure out some of the puzzles by herself. One night I even caught her playing by herself when I got up in the middle of the night.
Sadly, our relationship did not stand well against the sands of time as we went our separate ways a month or so later. But every now and then I still pop in Yoshi’s Cookie and try to figure out the puzzles as she could do and keep the happy memories of what time I got to spend with her in my heart.
The point of the story is that we live in a world where both video games and girlfriends exist side by side. Many people write and ask what is my best piece of advice to getting non-game playing girlfriends to play with them. My answer is really simple. Buy a game you think she would enjoy. If she is the type that does not play video games, you need to find something easy to learn and challenging to master (Like Pac-Man). Since it is something you are doing as a couple, maybe try a game she would like and both you and her play it together. This is even better when you and her are not great at the game and both you and her can grow together in skill.
I don’t have a girlfriend right now in life, But when I finally find miss right for me ( I know who she is…). I do plan to at least have her play one game with me. This week I know its not some ground breaking or thought provoking article. I wanted to just write a little bit about my gaming life and share a rather interesting story with everyone. Well a story I always thought was interesting anyway.
