Middle aged woman needs XBox 360 game suggestions

[Jane Doe]

I love playing Wii, especially colorful games like Mario Galaxy, de Blob, Donky Kong, etc. It seems there are not a lot of great Wii games. My kids decided to upgrade me to an XBox 360. Can you recommend a couple of games for me to start with? I am a little daunted by the speed and instant reaction times needed for first person shooters and wanted something similar to Mario while I get familiar with the controller. Something colorful, various types of challenges, something not requiring the reflexes of a top fuel race car driver.

[Max Torque]

A few older games spring to mind, which you can probably get for a bargain price these days.

Viva Piñata, the original and its sequels. Basically, you're a gardener, trying to attract "wild" piñatas to your garden so that they become residents. Yes, there are challenges, it's not just a stroll down Buttercup Lane; your garden can grow weeds, some piñatas will fight, some get sick, and if they get too unhappy they might just leave. And then there's the "sour" piñatas and Ruffians who mess with your garden and attack your residents. Converting those sour piñatas into good versions is one of the more fun aspects of the game, I think. You can have fun breeding your piñatas, growing new plants to feed them to make them different colors, and evolving them into new varieties. Very colorful, not at all twitch-based.

Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts is a vehicle-based platformer. Most of the gameplay involves accomplishing various tasks or winning challenges using vehicles that you can construct yourself, or you can buy (using in-game cash, not real money) or download blueprints for special custom vehicles. Naturally, a lot of the challenges are races, but there are plenty of other kinds, like playing soccer, or throwing away trash, or ferrying things from one location to another, or defending a location.

Any of the Lego games would probably be great. Lego Star Wars probably gets the most acclaim, and if you're familiar with the movies, the games will rock even more. There's practically no penalty for failure. The first two games, covering all six movies, can be bought on one disc, and a third game, covering the Clone Wars, was just released.

And if you want one from the Xbox Live Arcade, The Maw was colorful and cute.

[Airk]

Xbox Live Arcade has you covered here. I recommend Chime (http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/Product/Chime/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d80258410a16), IloMilo (http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/Product/ilomilo/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d80258410a1b), Braid (http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/Product/Braid/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d802584108ce), Castle Crashers (http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/Product/Castle-Crashers/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d802584108b7), the ever popular Plants vs Zombies (http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/Product/Plants-vs-Zombies/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d802584109ff), Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes (http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/Product/Might-Magic-Clash-of-Heroes/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d80258410a19?cid=search) and uh... probably some other stuff I'm forgetting. All of those have demos, so you can try before you buy (Internet connection required, but not Xbox Live: Gold).

In terms of games in boxes, well, maybe you could try the older (2009) Prince of Persia (http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/Product/Prince-of-Persia/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d8025553080c), now also available in Games on Demand, but can be gotten for a little cheaper at, say, Amazon. It's got fairly complex controls compared to say, Mario, but it's a good gateway game because it's extremely forgiving of errors. (There's no "lives" or "continues" or anything; If you mess up, you are just reset to the last piece of steady ground you were on.).

The 360 is definitely a more "hardcore" platform than the Wii though - controls tend to be more complex, and require more time investment to master. You have your first person shooters, your one on one fighting games like Street Fighter 4 or Blazblue, your 3rd person action games, etc, all of which require pretty significant time investment to master. Maybe I can interest you in a nice RPG?

[Jane Doe]

I really appreciate your suggestions and will play some of the demos you listed and maybe purchase on of the Banjo games. The console was given because I expressed interest in playing Red Dead Redemption but I definitely need to gather speed with the controller before playing.

[Red Barchetta]

I really appreciate your suggestions and will play some of the demos you listed and maybe purchase on of the Banjo games. The console was given because I expressed interest in playing Red Dead Redemption but I definitely need to gather speed with the controller before playing.

Banjo: Nuts and Bolts ia a fantastic game, but it can be pretty daunting even for hardcore gamers. If you liked the 3D Marios, like Mario Galaxy, I might suggest checking out the original Banjo-Kazooie on Xbox Live. Although it was originally released over 10 years ago, it holds up really well and is only $10! There's also a demo you can grab for free online if you want to try it.

[FinnAgain]

Portal is awesome.

[Jane Doe]

I tried the demo of Portal, it looks very interesting even though I got stuck on 3rd level. Will try again tonight.

[Invisible Chimp]

I'm a thirtysomething year old guy and I like FPS, but I suck at them. My favorite game for 360 is Oblivion. You can do anything and totally play it at your own pace. You can stay in the towns and do little to no fighting if you want.

[stpauler]

I'm a thirtysomething year old guy and I like FPS, but I suck at them. My favorite game for 360 is Oblivion. You can do anything and totally play it at your own pace. You can stay in the towns and do little to no fighting if you want.

I echo this statement completely but I'd go for Bethesda's other big game Fallout 3 (or Fallout: New Vegas). For some reason, I like the skillz to get that reticle to go where I want it to with an XBox controller, but the VATS system is perfect for FPSes and would get a person up to speed with the controller. It's not colorful though unless you consider only earthtones a color.

There's also the whole world of Kinect too.

[FoieGrasIsEvil]

Dead Space and Dead Space 2 are nice, relaxing, easygoing games you can play alone in your basement at night while its thundering and lightning outside.

[Sitnam]

My wife is by no means a gamer but she really liked Fable 3

[FinnAgain]

I tried the demo of Portal, it looks very interesting even though I got stuck on 3rd level. Will try again tonight.

It's a puzzle game, of course, but it's doable. Part of the fun is trying to chew on the puzzles until they resolve themselves.

[davidw]

I tried the demo of Portal, it looks very interesting even though I got stuck on 3rd level. Will try again tonight.

There are a few puzzles in the first Portal game that required pretty good reflexes, but I don't think you needed great reflexes to solve any of the puzzles in Portal 2.

[Tanbarkie]

I tried the demo of Portal, it looks very interesting even though I got stuck on 3rd level. Will try again tonight.

I think Portal's actually a great way to familiarize yourself with standard first-person shooter controls. Just walking around without running into walls or staring at the floor can be difficult in FPS games until your mind gets used to moving your feet with one stick and your head/arms the other. Portal uses exactly the same control scheme as virtually every other FPS on the 360, but because it's a puzzle game, allows you to take things at your own pace. For probably the first two-thirds of the game, you never actually have to do anything faster than you want to - if you want to spend an hour wandering around one test chamber and learning to jump, you can do so without being blown to smithereens by a rampaging horde of computer-controlled enemies.

Portal also features one of the most expertly-designed and well-integrated "tutorials" I've ever seen (insofar as approximately the first 50% of the game is a tutorial), gradually and intuitively introducing you to the various mind-bending mechanics required for solving the puzzles. Some of the later puzzles require a certain amount of timing and aim, but the game brings you along methodically enough that by the time you're forced to portal while flying sideways, you'll be so used to how everything works that you probably won't even realize how crazy a stunt you pulled until after you do it.

I would also add, don't play Portal 2 until you've finished Portal 1. Seriously. These games have some of the best stories ever written for a video game, and should be experienced front-to-back, ideally with as few spoilers as possible.

[FinnAgain]

These games have some of the best stories ever written for a video game

The Nameless One begs to differ.

[Tanbarkie]

The Nameless One begs to differ.

I didn't say it was the single best video game story of all time (see how it says "some of the best," rather than "single best"? :p). That being said, Portal's story is definitely in the top five.

[Airk]

Recently, I've been having a lot of fun with Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom. The game controls surprisingly well (Uses a fairly generic 3rd person action game control scheme, but well put together it seems) and the game itself is fairly forgiving, with a minimum of difficult jumps or threatening battles. My wife, who is usually terrible at this sort of thing, was able to pick it up and manage without too much trouble.

[FordTaurusSHO94]

I'm playing through Batman: Arkham Asylum right now. If you can get the hang of Portal, it's kind of like that, but with fighting. You have to use all of the buttons on the controller, but it usually tells you which button to push.

[GameHat]

Pacman CE DX (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pac-Man_Championship_Edition_DX)

Aesthetically, it's gorgeous. Especially if you have fond memories of the arcades twenty years ago.

Gameplay is also fantastic. It's Pac-man, and everyone knows how to play Pac-man. But this iteration really nails the "just one more play...." feeling. Meaning - you play, you do ok for a bit, then you fail. But every time it feels like you're getting better. And every time you're compelled to try "just one more time", because it's such a great and fun game.

Cheap on XBox Live, Pac-Man C.E. DX (http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/Product/PAC-MAN-Championship-Edition-DX/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d80258410a8c), 800 MS Points, which is about $10

[FordTaurusSHO94]

Trials HD is an addicting game on XBL.