Some More Holiday Gaming Ideas

It’s that time of year where you find yourself wanting to be the ultimate gift giver. You know, the person who always gets the perfect reaction, the one everyone wants a gift from. After all, you have a reputation to maintain. This time, you want to get that person who’s terrified of a controller a game to play. There have been some user-friendly games out there. If you like a story with your action, solving puzzles or conquering worlds there’s a game for anyone to enjoy.

Mortal Kombat X: Released in the spring of 2015, “Mortal Kombat X” has rich animated cut scenes, a cool storyline that relies on its history and great fights. More importantly to the inexperienced gamer the controls are easy to handle. At the end of a cutscene in the storyline mode, for X-Box One each letter is highlighted for special moves of the character you’ll be playing next. That’s right in the storyline mode you may start out in chapter one as Johnny Cage and then by chapter four be playing as his ex-wife Sonya. You read that correctly. Longtime fans of the series who may be more familiar with the 1997 film, the television series (yes, at least, six episodes aired) the cartoon and original game may not know the current happenings in this universe. And to see how these characters have evolved, aged and survived is a welcome addition to the game itself. There are also other modes to play that won’t interfere with the storyline. You can play someone one-on-one and return to the story with more experience. One thing you should do before you start is join a faction. Even if you don’t play every day, and whether your faction wins or not, you will still gain experience points and can move up in the storyline mode. So for the casual player, it is to your benefit. There’s not a considerable amount of pressure to be obsessively compulsive about playing. You’re not missing out and you can come back to your game at any time.

Farm Heroes Saga: Yes, there is a free app for “Farm Heroes Saga” but a gift card to buy extras is always welcome. What’s makes this matching game so addictive is the replay value. There are at least 400 levels and as the levels increase between the rotten fruit, essential pieces encapsulated in ice and timed explosions that erase all your planning you will constantly be challenged. Unlocking animals will help you move up and if you don’t unlock them all early on that’s alright. You can always go back to a lower level and try to get the rest of the animals. You’ll get extra bonuses that will help you in the more difficult levels and improve your strategy skills along the way.

Zumba Fitness World Party: Originally released in 2013, don’t be fooled, Zumba is not going away and “Fitness World Party” is no joke. You can have a short, medium or long workout. Don’t worry about dancing along to songs that are not annoying, you’re going to be busy moving. The choreography is tough, but there are tutorials to help you get the moves. Opening these tutorials, making up a playlist among other things helps you to unlock postcards. These postcards can open up other workouts. What’s more is it’s uber-competitive. With each move, you do well you may get a star and with that the scene changes. You will be determined to get 5 stars for every song, all the time you’ll be losing pounds. You can also compete with another person and try to get a perfect score.

Dance Central Spotlight: Released in late 2014 “Dance Central Spotlight” has songs that you’ll actually recognize and want to dance to. The routines are challenging but not as difficult as Zumba. There’s also a tutorial section and downloadable content, so the game will always be growing. Even if losing weight is not a priority you can have fun learning the moves or competing against someone else.

Essentially these games have a myriad of experiences to offer other than what someone may believe as traditional. Giving any one of these games as a gift may help someone not be intimidated by entering the gaming world. Being on the receiving end of any of these games may have the novice gamer venturing to try “The Witcher” soon enough.