Image: Nintendo
Are you and your significant other spending Valentine’s Day apart? We have a few virtual date ideas lined up for you.
Who says Valentine’s Day has to be spent in person? The romantic holiday that brings couples together to celebrate their mutual connection can be a tough one for long-distance relationships. Sure, there are plenty of ways for people to spend time together even if circumstances have separated them by distance - but how can they make things feel even more special for this, the most romantic of holidays?
The writers at GosuGamers have this to posit: play more video games! Gaming is a fun and endlessly entertaining activity for couples to enjoy together, encompassing a wide variety of casual and competitive experiences. For a long-distance relationship, it can lead to the formation of genuinely compelling core memories.
Here are five ways you can spend time with your long-distance significant other this Valentine’s Day:
Visit the aquarium in Animal Crossing
Image: Nintendo
By Timothy Raj Augustin
Aquarium dates are as timeless as they are iconic, giving couples a fun way to spend time together while learning about all manner of underwater creatures. A couple is sure to find common ground in ‘ooh-ing’ and ‘aah-ing’ at whale sharks, football fish, and arowanas - all common fish found in a scaled-up aquarium. If you don’t have the means to visit one physically however, there is another option.
Building up Animal Crossing: New Horizons’ aquarium is an immensely rewarding experience. Seeing as certain fish can only be caught within specific time windows (salmon and king salmon can only be caught in September, for example), a player’s aquarium can exemplify the progress they've made following years of playtime. To cap off all of this hard work, why not invite your significant other over to your island to see the gorgeous aquarium that you’ve built for yourself?
Even better, why not start from scratch and fill the aquarium up together?
Build a life together in sandbox video games
By Arianne Blanco
When it comes to a romantic relationship, you likely want to explore a probable future with your partner. What kind of life do they want to spend with you? What kind of home do you want to build together? Sandbox games offer a semi-physical space for players to explore these ideas. Distance isn’t a problem at all when it comes to the virtual world, after all.
Make your own home in sandbox games like Roblox and Minecraft, and roleplay your hopes and dreams together to the fullest extent available. You can build your own house together, plan your own layout, and care for your own pixelated pets. You can even have fun and interactive dates, explore breathtaking environments, or even spend a little time taking on solo activities. It’s almost like playing a marriage simulator!
Fix a divorce in It Takes Two
By Kurt Lozano
Being in a relationship isn’t always sunshine and rainbows. There will always be problems or rough patches popping up that you and your partner have to go through together. In It Takes Two, soon-to-be-divorced couple Cody and May find themselves trapped in the bodies of dolls after their daughter Rose wish for their relationship to be repaired. Luckily for them, a magical anthropomorphic relationship therapy book sets them on a journey to rediscover their love for one another. They'll traverse through their now-gigantic house, solve puzzles, and commit heinous acts of barbarity against innocent stuffed animals, in doing so.
It Takes Two, as its name suggests, is designed to be played by two players controlling Cody and May via split-screen. Cody and May have different roles and abilities, forcing players to become intimately familiar with their partner and coordinate in order to progress. Of course, there will be laughter and arguments as you try to figure things out with your partner as you go along, but isn’t that how all relationships work? The game is genuinely fun to play and its story really heartfelt, especially if the two players are already a couple. Play It Takes Two with your partner, and there’s a very good chance your relationship will come out stronger once you finish the game.
Only one player needs to have a copy of It Takes Two for two people to play it. Your partner just needs to download the It Takes Two Friend’s Pass for free so that the two of you can play together. It's a great time to play the game too, as it is on sale on Steam right now.
Test your relationship by playing Overcooked
Image: Team17
By: Tommy Makmur
There's no better time to put your relationship to the test than Valentine's Day. Lovers who want to discover the strength of their connection only need to do something that requires constant communication and coordination. This might be hard to do when a pair is forced apart by distance, but fret not. Technology and video games always find a way!
For the low, low price of getting ghosted, enduring a weekend of the silent treatment, and seeing tears in your partner’s eyes after just one level, you can finally test your strong bond by playing the infamous co-op cooking game Overcooked (or its sequel). Enjoy telling your partner to chop the fish while you are waiting for the steamer, getting scolded for mixing up the order, and repeating the level because your partner wants to three-star Kevin's levels. Ah, the joys of being in a healthy relationship.
Solve Puzzles Together in The Past Within and We Were Here
By: Anna Bernardo
Long-distance couples can make the most of their time together by playing cooperative games that require teamwork and communication. Our personal picks include The Past Within and the We Were Here series, as they encourage players to rely on each other to solve puzzles.
In We Were Here, two players take on the roles of explorers trapped in an abandoned castle, separated from each other with only a walkie-talkie to communicate with. One player navigates rooms filled with puzzles, while the other provides crucial clues in a separate room. The puzzle-solving in this game is crucial to player survival, so the vibe of this game is less cosy and more thrilling—but the puzzles are cleverly done, putting players in a virtual escape room of sorts.
The Past Within offers a different kind of cooperative experience, set in the mysterious world of Rusty Lake. One player is placed in the “past” and the other in the “future.” The two must work together, sharing observations and solving interconnected puzzles to uncover a hidden story.
If you’ve already played these games before, here are a few more co-op puzzle games you could try: Operation: Tango, Tick Tock: A Tale for Two, and Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes.
