Recommend me a game for my wife

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Herr Schatten
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Recommend me a game for my wife

Post by Herr Schatten »

For long years, my wife hasn’t been interested in my gaming hobby at all, but lately she has expressed interest in being introduced to what the fuss is about. The problem is that in her generation girls usually haven’t been encouraged to do things that serve no purpose just for fun. So I’m pondering what could be a good introduction to gaming for her. Ideally, it should be something relaxing that doesn’t put too much pressure on the player, so shmups, r2rkmf and hardcore arcade action are pretty much out.

I was thinking of maybe puzzle games, but the first one I could think of was Picross and she doesn’t like Sudoku, so that is a potential mismatch too. Next genre I thought of were point and click adventures, and I still think this could be a good genre for her, but most of them are hard sells thematically. Are there any with not too difficult and logical puzzles that are not fantasy-, sci-fi- or pirate-themed?

I’m having my eyes on the upcoming Moomin game, which could be a perfect fit since she grew up with the books and loves the characters, but that’s not out yet.

So I’m open for recommendations which games we could try out in the meantime. Any good ideas?
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BIL
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Re: Recommend me a game for my wife

Post by BIL »

From a glance at the Moomin title, maybe Okami might appeal to her? I recently played it for the first time, found it wonderfully charming. Very Zelda: OOT-esque; a vibrant, thoughtfully-designed action/adventure, vast in scope, but easy to play at whatever pace and completion level you prefer. In a decidedly un-Zelda aspect, your Navi stand-in likes cracking boob jokes at the various fine honeys, which could be an issue - not to generalise the wimmens, and it's pretty harmless PG-13 stuff, but better safe than sorry. :lol:

Other caveat is, with it being a Hideki Kamiya title, the controls and bosses might be a bit much for an absolute beginner. It's a very forgiving game, easy to win at and hard to really screw up, but it does assume you're comfy handling a character in 3D space. On the other hand, this might be a good way to introduce someone to the modern notion of character action, without getting into the avowedly high-pressure stuff. PS4 port is excellent.

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I know you said oldschool action isn't ideal, but I've seen several absolute beginners fall in love with SOTN. It's gorgeously presented, handles like a dream, and while it's technically an oldschool ARPG, its savepoint-peppered exploration and generous player character keeps pressure decidedly low. ala Okami, perhaps a good gateway title for someone wondering why we're so taken with "old games." ^__^ Again, the PS4 version is (surprisingly) very good, easily standing in for the PS1 original.

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Finally, a genre I've virtually zero experience with, but I noticed lots of non-gamers seemed to like The Neverhood, back in the day. AFAIK, it's not considered as tough as some of the more famous point n' clicks; actually, I tend to see its puzzles criticised for being a bit too easy. Half-watched my sister and her friends play it over a few weekends, seemed very personable - it was packed in with our then-new PC, along with Road Rash, which my brothers and I played the balls off of, hooting and hollering at rival bikers booted into oncoming traffic and flying for miles down the track. Image Image Not sure how accessible it is, seems there's a fan-ported version from ScummVM, but I'm a total noob there.

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Finally finally, an especially marmite pick: Silent Hill 2. Chicks love it, seriously, I have decades of hard proof. :lol: It's a dark trip, though never luridly so, being deceptively sensitive and not without a self-aware, sparing levity; a careful balance which I suspect gives it its crossover appeal. All four Japan-produced games have noticeable female followings, but SH2 tends to be the clear favourite. You can set the action and riddle levels independently, with the former's easiest setting being expressly designed for non-action sorts. Prepare for your lady to cry on your shoulder at the ending (any of them) - it ALWAYS happens, they can call me a sexist or whatever IDGAF :cool: - make sure to be chivalrous! Image

Caveat is, as a game, it's only ever vanilla survival horror ala RE2, so not a title to show off the medium with. PC version is ancient, and might take some tinkering to get running, but it has a very devoted fan porting community that I would be have sorted it out for modern hardware+OS. PS2 ver is reliably excellent and not all that hard to find used n' cheap, IIRC. Avoid the HD collection for consoles like the plague, it's infamously god-awful on multiple fronts.

Other caveat is, it gets pretty gnarly and grotty - not much gore, but lots of ghastly locales in need of a thorough steam-cleaning, so if Mrs. Kage is germaphobic, stay far away. :mrgreen:
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NYN
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cute 'n soft

Post by NYN »

The things I wouldn't play. Depending about how one feels about Nintendo: character-related puzzler. I mean Wario's Woods, Yoshi's Cookie, or Mario's Picross hold some appeal (for some). Kirby-related games (which are vast). WarioWare (that one I play). Simple and wild.

*(Inter-man-splicing): Those Prof Layton things? There's a new coming up.

My female half has no interrest in any. She had a GAME BOY once, and gifted it away when she grew tired fairly early (The Tetris-phenomena failed).
Some times she likes to watch. And distract me with questions. So hard not to man-splain, man. They know it.
Last edited by NYN on Sat Mar 11, 2023 11:07 am, edited 1 time in total.
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DenimDemon
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Re: Recommend me a game for my wife

Post by DenimDemon »

How comfortable is she with a control pad?
People are different but I could tell a few of the games my wife likes to play (when our 5 kids give us opportunity for such).

Collumns, Mario Kart 8, Yoshi Touch n Go, Crazy Taxy, that online Switch Tetris, Guitar Hero…Battlefield 4 (yes lol) and she’s damn good with it. Nothing open world or story driven, just like me, very impatient.
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Ebbo
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Re: Recommend me a game for my wife

Post by Ebbo »

Stardew Valley is an absolute delight and comes with co-op too. I have spent well over 100 hours on it with my wife. Very laid-back farming game with tons of things to do and experiment, no real pressure either unless you get way into minmaxing stuff.
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Vanguard
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Re: Recommend me a game for my wife

Post by Vanguard »

Tetris and Mario Kart 8 are good, wife-friendly games you can play together.
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guigui
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Re: Recommend me a game for my wife

Post by guigui »

I also think the first question to ask is : "how can she handle a controller ?" I've seen lot of adult people trying a game only to drop it afeter 3 minutes just because they can not coordinate the move they want their character to do, with the moves they actually have to make with their fingers. This is actually hard for someone not used to it since childhood like we certainly all are.

If not good with controller : Mario Kart 8 with all the assists on including gyro turn, some fun touch screen puzzle games like Zoo Keeper, Meteos, Grindstone. Layton or maybe Ace Attorney if patient.

If a bit good wit controller : Kirby games, Mario Odyssey/Galaxy, SOTN if she likes the mood.
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BryanM
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Re: Recommend me a game for my wife

Post by BryanM »

Most women have this mysterious thing called a "nesting instinct". It's different from our male "murder and fuck everything" instinct.

Animal Crossing, The Sims, Harvest Moon (Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town remake is probably ok?), that kind of stuff. And provide low pressure environment to get accustomed to using a controller. Even something like a Mario game is too hard for what are effectively gaming babies; children might have the patience to persist after falling into a hole a hundred times, adults will just give up definitely by the second.

If she had the murder hobo potential, she'd have long been drawn into the medium like a moth to a flame like us poor bastards. Don't waste your time trying to force something that isn't meant to be; if you want perfect people you'd have to make them. Out of sand.
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GaijinPunch
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Re: Recommend me a game for my wife

Post by GaijinPunch »

How about Hide the Sausage?
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BulletMagnet
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Re: Recommend me a game for my wife

Post by BulletMagnet »

Herr Schatten wrote:Next genre I thought of were point and click adventures, and I still think this could be a good genre for her, but most of them are hard sells thematically. Are there any with not too difficult and logical puzzles that are not fantasy-, sci-fi- or pirate-themed?
I'm utterly dreadful at point-and-click adventures, but there's one on Steam that I actually finished some time back, in part because the puzzles weren't too hard and in part because the game only lasts an hour or two. Theme is "snarkily poke fun at Victorian-era murder mysteries and the like, with lots of terrible puns". Haven't tried Part 2, though reviews for it aren't as favorable.
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Re: Recommend me a game for my wife

Post by Dochartaigh »

I say Zelda Breath of the Wild. You can literally just walk around exploring and do whatever you want with SO many interesting, beautiful, funny, intriguing things to see and do. Has some action elements if you like fighting, puzzles if you like that, a wealth of lore to find out about, quirky people to talk to if that's your thing... you can really make the game yours by doing whatever you enjoy.
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Re: Recommend me a game for my wife

Post by Specineff »

How about Stardew Valley or Cult of the Lamb? She may find the visual style attractive. I also read in a gaming mag that someone's GF and her friends all liked playing DOA Xtreme Beach Volleyball, back in the days of the original Xbox, because it's partially a friend simulator.
GaijinPunch wrote:How about Hide the Sausage?
That's not a game, it's the reward.
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Mischief Maker
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Re: Recommend me a game for my wife

Post by Mischief Maker »

Bah! Instead of Suzy Homemaker simulators, how about a nice vaporwave murder mystery with a female protag?

Paradise Killer.
Two working class dudes, one black one white, just baked a tray of ten cookies together.

An oligarch walks in and grabs nine cookies for himself.

Then he says to the white dude "Watch out for that black dude, he wants a piece of your cookie!"
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Herr Schatten
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Re: Recommend me a game for my wife

Post by Herr Schatten »

Some really good suggestions so far, thanks. We’ll go through the whole list eventually, see if something catches on.

I had actually all but forgotten about the Professor Layton games, despite having played through one (the second one if I’m not mistaken) at some point in time. I lost interest in the series after the horrible Phoenix Wright crossover that somehow managed to fail at capturing what’s good about either series, but these games might actually serve as a great introduction to gaming in general. There’s no pressure, the challenges are varied and even introduce different means of control. Additionally, not only are the games very easy in general, you can also skip stuff if you get stuck. I think we’ll give the title I already have a try, unless any of you thinks there’s an entry in the series that stands out compared to the others?

Regarding point and click, both the title BulletMagnet suggested and The Neverhood look very interesting.

We'll definitely have a close look at Stardew Valley, too.
DenimDemon wrote:How comfortable is she with a control pad?
guigui wrote:I also think the first question to ask is : "how can she handle a controller ?"
That’s a fair question, and the answer is: Assume she’s never touched one. Even the simple act of moving an avatar on screen might be a considerable challenge, so the first thing to do probably shouldn’t be explaining what a shoulder button is. For some reason, the thought of not knowing what to do in a game and/or doing something wrong terrifies her, so I think Bryan is onto something if he’s warning about frustration thresholds. Learning from trial and error is a huge part of gaming, but it’s not everyone’s cup of tea.

When (or rather if) we give more action-oriented games a try down the road, I think it will have to be something very simple, probably from the 8 bit era. Maybe the first SMB? It gets pretty challenging later on, but the first few stages are basically a gentle tutorial. Plus there’s the attractive All Stars version on the SNES, in case the cruder graphics of the original prove off-putting.
Other than that, maybe the remake of Wonderboy: The Dragon's Trap? It looks lovely and I remember the original as rather easy, although I can hardly imagine how it is for an unskilled player.
The remake of Link's Awakening is another one I think of. I do prefer the original GBC game, because I found the physics in the remake weird, but it’s attractive and playful and not too demanding.
Kirby games seem like another good suggestion. I’m not really into them, though, so If appreciate a pointer to a good introductory one.

Any thoughts on these?

Oh, before I forget: Mario Kart 8 is another good suggestion I didn’t think of. It definitely goes out of its way to try including players of all skill levels, so I can see this becoming a sort of advanced gaming experience somewhere in the future.
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BulletMagnet
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Re: Recommend me a game for my wife

Post by BulletMagnet »

Herr Schatten wrote:Kirby games seem like another good suggestion. I’m not really into them, though, so If appreciate a pointer to a good introductory one.
The very first Kirby's Dream Land on the Game Boy is about as gentle, forgiving and brief as they come; not sure what the most recent port of it would be, though I know it was on the Dream Collection for the Wii. Super Star on the SNES is my personal favorite (speaking as someone generally "meh" on Kirby, it should be noted), as it includes several different variations on the formula, including a beginner-friendly "Spring Breeze" that's sort of a truncated remix of the original, as well as simultaneous two-player. That latter feature might actually work even better here; if you play as Kirby and your wife is the "helper" character, even if she dies you can simply inhale an enemy and create another helper as many times as you want, though she'll have to get accustomed to the different abilities of each.
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Bloodreign
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Re: Recommend me a game for my wife

Post by Bloodreign »

Bubble Bobble, the game was intended for couples and friends to play along with you.
SuperDeadite
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Re: Recommend me a game for my wife

Post by SuperDeadite »

The Daedalus Encounter. Puzzle difficulty can be changed on the fly, the story is interesting. Strangely relaxing experience.
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MOSQUITO FIGHTER
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Re: Recommend me a game for my wife

Post by MOSQUITO FIGHTER »

Diablo 3 couch coop has probably gone over the best imo. PGA Tour 2k. VR stuff usually goes over well too. Beat Saber, Blood and Truth, Creed, Rush of Blood, Catch and Release, Swordsman, etc.
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BryanM
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Re: Recommend me a game for my wife

Post by BryanM »

Herr Schatten wrote:For some reason, the thought of not knowing what to do in a game and/or doing something wrong terrifies her, so I think Bryan is onto something if he’s warning about frustration thresholds. Learning from trial and error is a huge part of gaming, but it’s not everyone’s cup of tea.
Something I've learned from first hand experience. Important to note also that failing at something new in private is different than doing it in front of someone else - imagine having to dance in front of strangers without knowing anything about dancing. It's actually rather brave for her to try something new, even with family.

Two Bryan memories of playing Super Mario World with two different ladies:

When my niece was a kid there was this one time we played through the entire game together. In one sitting. She cleared 0 stages and needed to siphon lives off my guy like a little six year old vampire. And when I say "entire game", I meant it. All 96 exits. One sitting. Here's the horrifying part: once absolutely everything was cleared, she wanted to keep playing the game. This is absolutely the first and last time in my life of playing a video game with someone where *I* was the one who needed to take a break.

While my ex fell into a hole a couple times and walked away. It wasn't a good time for it, she wasn't interested, but still.

A suggestion I would give for Mario is to offer gaming baby levels of the thing. A ROM Hack of Super Mario World or a world made in Mario Maker 2. No instant deaths. Lots of power ups. Lots of practice gaps that let you jump out or walk out and immediately retry them. Even "crush the goomba" is too much of a day-1 challenge. That's like a day 3 world 3 challenge: "crush five goombas to unlock the door." ... Mario Maker is definitely the way to go. We're so spoiled here in 2023.

JRPG's as a whole are usually very popular and very low pressure. The only major problem is one of theming - most of them are about edgy murder hobos with swords. Maybe the new Persona games, Dragon Quest 65 or whatever it's up to these days is maybe a bit too sword hobo heavy.

.... for shooters, um Parodius. With an infinite lives cheat.

.... I kind of feel like we're all doctors here, trying to figure out what to do with the patient. Thankfully this is all I have to offer on the matter, seacreast out.



/edit: seacrest in. I googled some other people's experience with 96'ing SMW, nice that some people are still getting around to finishing the game even in this day and age. One cultural clash is a lot of people seem to have a bigger problem with Outrageous than Tubular. I had to youtube the stage since it didn't leave a memory on me, and I can see why. For me, there was no threat there, I didn't get hit, almost all mario enemies are defenseless in any number. For them, it was a bullet hell nightmare.
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evil_ash_xero
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Re: Recommend me a game for my wife

Post by evil_ash_xero »

Probably Animal Crossing or Stardew Valley. The ladies tend to like these games a lot.
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Re: Recommend me a game for my wife

Post by neorichieb1971 »

Games that girls have liked around me are -

Chu chu rocket - DC
Super Monkey ball - Main game too hard, but my wife is in hysterics playing it as she keeps falling off the platform
Ultra Bomberman on the PS3 - Download only - Mainly multi player, but there is a very easy 1p mode


The main aspect is fun for girls, its not competition or winning. If they are having fun losing, its a win win. Not saying girls are rubbish at games, but they are in the introductory stage of gaming getting used to the controls. So games that don't use all 10 buttons on a pad is a good thing.

Another tip, just show them how to play, don't go all Clint Eastwood on them showing them its easy.

Show her your games that use 1 or 2 buttons, are colourful, charming and doable.

Other games i'd introduce her to are Lemmings, Road Rash, Mario kart, Mario 64 etc. Those games have very good learning curves.

Dont expect gaming to be their no1 hobby after showing them the games, women tend to show curiosity, but after 1 hour say "well thats me done now". My wife is a productive woman, she wont spend much time doing stuff that isn't productive she would rather be at work making money than playing games.
This industry has become 2 dimensional as it transcended into a 3D world.
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NYN
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wife is an adventure-game

Post by NYN »

Herr Schatten wrote:Kirby games seem like another good suggestion. I’m not really into them, though, so If appreciate a pointer to a good introductory one.
Kirby's Pinball Land. That one turned me around. Only half kidding here. Before, I didn't understood the mechanics of the pinball. Not sure I do now, but there was a time where I was sick as a dog and needed diversion. Not being able to play Hide The Meat I crashed the HI-Score of the then, uh, receiver. Made me feel cured, alright.

Or that other one, the golf one? Dream Course. See, both are Kirby, yet with a GAME appeal, not strictly video. Feel me here?
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Hazuki
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Re: Recommend me a game for my wife

Post by Hazuki »

Animal Crossing New Horizons. My wife plays that daily.

There are plenty of casual games where you're never in danger like Unpacking, Cats Arranged Neatly, Stray, etc.

If she gets to a point where she'd be comfortable with having any danger around, then BotW, Pokémon SwSh/SV and modern Nintendo games in general tend to have beginner friendly difficulty.

For oldschool, I have a sister that would enjoy playing Puzzle Bobble, Super Mario World, Super Mario Kart and Kirby Super Star with me back in the day.
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Re: Recommend me a game for my wife

Post by neorichieb1971 »

Bust a move games.. Can't go wrong with bust a move games. AKA puzzle bobble.
This industry has become 2 dimensional as it transcended into a 3D world.
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Rob
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Re: Recommend me a game for my wife

Post by Rob »

Hazuki wrote:Animal Crossing New Horizons. My wife plays that daily.
Same, for nearly 3 years now. I've never experienced that monk-like dedication to one game. Probably the best/safest recommendation in the thread. I'll throw in another for Mario Kart 8 as well.
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XoPachi
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Re: Recommend me a game for my wife

Post by XoPachi »

Manifold Garden
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To Far Away Times
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Re: Recommend me a game for my wife

Post by To Far Away Times »

Mrs. To Far Away Times went from playing Pokemon and Animal Crossing and not too much else gaming wise into a deep dive playing the Dragon Age series. And I mean she was playing those games all day long.

And now she's reading through the books. There are dozens of dragon age novels.

I'm probably second fiddle to Alistar these days.

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guigui
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Re: Recommend me a game for my wife

Post by guigui »

C'mon Herr, now we want to know what you recommended her and how she reacted to it ?
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Herr Schatten
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Re: Recommend me a game for my wife

Post by Herr Schatten »

guigui wrote:C'mon Herr, now we want to know what you recommended her and how she reacted to it ?
Unfortunately, we haven’t gotten around to going through the whole list of suggestions yet, but from the early ones I showed her, Professor Layton piqued her interest the most, so that’s probably what we’ll start with. I’ll report back when I see how that goes and when/if we’ll eventually move on to something else.
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Re: Recommend me a game for my wife

Post by Steven »

The correct answer is, as always, Out Zone.

Unless it isn't, in which case I'd add Neo Turf Masters/Big Tournament Golf to the list. Play it on AES if you can since that seems to get rid of the time limit, or at least make it super long, but on MVS you can go increase the time limit in the soft DIPs.
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