We get together with friends once a month (most of the time) where we usually play board games or card games. However, there are a handful of video games we enjoy playing with them. Some of these we played on the Xbox but most of them are on the Nintendo Switch.

Certain groups of friends enjoy different kinds of games, and it’s a marvel to me at how Rachel’s and my experiences as gamers ourselves stretch between our multiple friend groups. Mario Kart and Mario Party games are definitely favorites, with our friend group who game more often prefer the former while those who are more casual with their games prefer the latter. Despite these games being compared to Monopoly in terms of “destroying friendships,” we seem to be able to still see said friends every month on good terms, haha!

Yeah, we tend to get through games of Mario Party mostly unscathed. Sometimes we’re too nice to each other and other times we have no mercy. Regardless, playing Mario Party is usually a staple, and it’s one of the reasons why I want more boards to the latest Mario Party titles so that we don’t get sick of the game. Since we’ve played the games so much, there’s only so many times we can play on the more difficult boards. Still, we have a good time playing through the Mario Party games, even the first three on the Nintendo Switch Online.

Mostly is the key word. It would be great to see more Mario Party games on the Nintendo Switch Online, especially since the GameCube is available now. Adding DLC for additional boards for the more recent installments for the Switch would be great, too. Speaking of the Nintendo Switch Online, we recently introduced the more casual gamer friend group to the original Mario Tennis on the Nintendo 64 Online. They really seemed to enjoy that! The simplicity of it and being able to switch teams easily was great.

Oh, right. I forgot we played Mario Tennis with them for a while. It’s a shame we can’t get a port of Wii Sports onto the Nintendo Switch! Mario Tennis is a nice change of pace from Mario Party and, similarity, we’ve also been playing The Game of Life 2. It’s the board game with a little twist to, I assume, make it more interesting for TV. Playing The Game of Life 2 and Mario Tennis are more low-key than Mario Party that allow us to play a game in the background while we chit-chat and catch up.

Low-key is always good. On the flipside, though, we’ve also played games with them that would result in us getting a little keyed up. Overcooked was a great game to play with them, with us starting nice and slow before ramping up to the more complicated levels. We would always attempt to have a plan, but then the chaotic levels would throw the plan out the window, and we would just be doing our best to scramble to keep up. Pico Park was similar, in that it was more co-op puzzles for us to figure out, with the earlier levels being simpler before diving into gimmicks that would rile us up.

Playing co-op party games such as Overcooked and Pico Park are great, for sure. I think I prefer to play the co-op party titles over the versus party games, like Mario Party. Overcooked is always a good time and things can get pretty heated (no pun intended) when going through the later, more complicated levels. Pico Park is much more low-key, but some of the puzzles are tough, even though each level should only take about a minute or two to complete. Honestly, I think we’ve argued more playing Pico Park than we have with Overcooked or even Mario Party.

You should absolutely intend that pun! I do agree that Pico Park made us a little more heated with the later levels than, say, Mario Party. Granted, I think that’s because there’s an understanding with Mario Party games that we’re supposed to be against one another in good fun. With co-op games like Pico Park, it’s easier to start arguing when things get tough because everyone has different ideas as to how to get through the level and not everyone has the same reaction times to the puzzles. Regardless, we tend to have a good time and know when to pause the game before our arguments escalate too far!

That’s true. Pico Park is meant to be light-hearted cooperation and we usually play at night on a Friday when everyone is tired from the work week. We usually play for an hour or two before we all start going for each other’s throats! I think that’s partly why Overcooked can be a nice medium. We’re working together, but we can each have our own tasks to get things done. We’ve also played Moving Out once or twice, and while I enjoyed that game, we didn’t get too far in it. I think I played most of it with the kids I babysat when they were younger.

Yes, I don’t recall playing Moving Out too much. I believe we played it with our cousins at one point, yes? We were a little more chaotic with them than with our friends, but we did get stuff done. Not well, but done, haha! Overcooked being a nice medium makes sense, but we do have to coordinate with each other and accept that not everyone moves at the same speed when it comes to completing the levels.

Moving Out has similar vibes to Overcooked, but it wasn’t as fun, if you will. Still a good game, but we just had a better time with Overcooked. And yes, we were more chaotic with our cousins. The thing with party games, no matter which game it is, is that you can have a really good time or not depending on which group of friends you’re playing with. That’s certainly an important element that goes into playing party games with a group of people.

Moving Out was sillier, if I remember correctly. Overcooked obviously wasn’t serious at all, but Moving Out’s physics were more ragdoll-like with us tossing furniture around. I definitely agree that party games depend on the group you’re playing with – it’s always a shame when you’re trying to play a game that just may not vibe with everyone in the group, which could cause frustration and resentment.

The same goes for board games and card games. Depending on the types of games you play and who you’re with can dictate a lot about how the night will go. We play games with three different friend groups and we play vastly different games with each group. Which is fine with us, because we get to experience all different types of games.

One group plays more classic card and video games, while another group is always down to buy and try new games. Our cousins usually try anything at least once with us as well, always willing to humor us as we share our favorites from both of our other friend groups with them. We got a good thing going on with our groups of friends!

Kris

Kris is the older sister of the pair, and has been playing video games since she was able to read. She was introduced to the gaming world mainly by her uncles with the Super Nintendo and Nintendo 64 consoles.

As a child, she wanted to grow up to be a teenage mutant ninja turtle, but instead she works a typical 9 to 5 office job. Much of her other time is spent pet-sitting, writing, and role-playing shenanigans in tabletop RPGs.

Rachel

Often seen as the second player, Rachel grew up watching Kris play video games before she was old enough to pick up a Nintendo controller herself. Now she only sometimes gives Kris the hard bosses to defeat.

In real life, Rachel is a full-time pet sitter and part-time storyteller. She writes game reviews for Pure Nintendo Magazine, and is working on creating her own video game.