How to push a pocket gamer's buttons on Valentine's Day
Roses are red, violets are blue, if life is a game, you're my Player Two.
It's that time of year when cherubim spring out of the woodwork, roses appear in every supermarket, and chocolates suddenly cost more than PlayStation 3s.
If you've got a special gamer in your life, remember the way to a gamer's heart – guy or girl – is through their cartridge slot. So let Pocket Gamer take over from Cupid this year, and help you to make the right moves. (Also, forward this page to your partner as a romantic, erm, hint).
Be my Valetine: Let's make music together
Gitaroo Man Lives! (PSP)Music is the food of love, so they say, and if that metaphor still holds after a few centuries of poems and cheesy cards, it makes Gitaroo Man Lives! the equivalent of a sugar-coated sushi banquet for two. Enough to bring a smile to anyone's face, it's the fusion of unusual gameplay with brilliantly uplifting Japanorock music that makes the game.
Gitaroo Man Lives! is pure silly fun, and that's a great part of any relationship. Every couple has a song – and a teenager with a secret rock identity and a dog with opposable thumbs makes a neat change from Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes.
The romantic bit
Leaping up onto the sofa, PSP cradled in your arms like you're a geeky Jimi Hendrix, thrashing out a heartfelt finale in front of your bemused partner – there's something poetic about J-Rock.
(Click to buy from Play.com)
Be my Valentine: I'm Loco for you!
Loco Roco (PSP)If you could have your dream date on February 14th, it would probably go a little something like Loco Roco plays. What more could you want? Snazzy locations bursting with colour. Plenty of things to do that you've never done before. Thrills, a little confusion, and pretty flowers. It's like a montage from a Hugh Grant movie.
Okay, so it's rather light on skin-heavy XXX-rated romping. But this is a first date we're talking about.
The romantic bit
Tumbling around, spawning crazy colours and blobs, solving puzzles in a haze of motion and bright swirls. If that isn't Valentine's Day video gaming, we don't know what is.
(Click to buy from Play.com)
Be my Valentine: I'll be faithful
Nintendogs (DS)Some relationships are hard to keep going – things like a lack of free time, distance apart, or just the pressures of day-to-day living don't help. Nintendogs hasn't solved those pressures, but it alleviates them a little by taking the constant stress of the day, putting it on pause for a bit, and enabling you to look after the kind of cute dogs that make the Andrex puppy look like a moulting hippopotamus.
Giving a copy of Nintendogs is a way of sharing stress. You're looking after something, something that loves you back in its own made-up way. If want to share your feelings with someone who you don't see often enough, then giving them a Nintendog is a great way of doing it.
The romantic bit
It's a puppy. You can't go wrong with puppies.
(Click to buy from Play.com)
Be My Valentine: Across the stars
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LEGO Star Wars II (PSP)You'd need to be a fairly well-seasoned gamer to say that you went on a date to a screening of the original Star Wars films, but even if you weren't around to see it the first time, everyone's sat down at some point or other and journeyed to that galaxy, far, far away with their own Leia or Han (or maybe even Chewie). LEGO might not seem like the most loving way to bring the Force to the smallest screens of all, but it's worked brilliantly for the PSP, getting rid of time limits, lives and seriousness and replacing it with good, clean, arcade fun.
Whether you share the fight through the game in turns or team up together in its co-operative mode, LEGO Star Wars II on PSP is designed with playing around in mind, and never punishes you – almost guaranteeing a great two-player experience (unless your tastes run to being punished, of course...)
The romantic bit
Han Solo and Princess Leia, fighting back-to-back against the worst the galaxy has to offer, with consoling hugs for when you get smashed to bits. Or, if you'd prefer, C-3PO and R2-D2 – a cute couple if there ever was one. But only give the duff DS version to your ex.
(Click to buy from Play.com)
Be My Valentine: Forever
Animal Crossing (DS)
Everyone has fairytale dreams. Even the manliest of manly gamers has momentary lapses where their mind wanders to forests, rivers, castles and small farms with good development prospects. Of course, gaming is usually about winning things. It's about accomplishing tasks, overcoming obstacles, solving puzzles. There are rousing 'huzzah's and things like that.
Animal Crossing isn't like other games. It's the fairytale you've always dreamed of. At its core, you see, Animal Crossing is a game about love. There, we said it.
You arrive in a town populated with walking, talking animals and you live. You tend to the flowers you're growing near the pond, run down to the river to catch dragonflies, do chores for the local grocer. And it's this that makes Animal Crossing one of the most romantic games ever, because taking someone else into your town, sleeping next to them each night, and living in the world you only saw in Disney films, is something that no other game has.
The romantic bit
In a game so full of sweet things, it's hard to say what stands out the most. But nothing can beat strolling along a beach at sunset, picking up shells and leaving footprints in the sand together.
(Click to buy from Play.com)
Be My Valentine: For the last time
Tomb Raider : Legend (Mobile)It happens to the best of relationships – that moment where you just can't stand to watch Neighbours any more, or you realise you never liked White Stripes in the way they did, or you've woken up and you don't recognise the person sleeping next to you.
Pocket Gamer's not here to judge, we're here to suggest bad gift ideas. One thing we know about love is that the only way to get over a relationship is to get focused on something else. And gaming stereotypes just wouldn't be gaming stereotypes without Lara Croft and her infamous physique. So if your message this February is something along the lines of 'Better luck next year', then maybe Lara's latest and prettiest adventure is the one to give.
Obviously, Lara's running, jumping, and shooting of endangered species is just as fun to play together as the next action game. But really it's a single-player experience, just you and Lara versus the world.
And if you get given the gift of Croft this Valentine's Day, don't fret. Lara will understand you better than anyone else, anyway.
The romantic bit
When you've just made a particularly tricky jump in the rainforests of Ghana, on the first try, well… there's a true bonding moment there. Don't tell us you can't see it in her eyes? The way she holds her gun… Ahem.
(Click to buy from Play.com)
