Editor's note: Rather than sitting around dreaming about finding a girl who enjoys games, Matthew has actually gone and done something about it. Did his application of the scientific method work? You're going to have to read the article to find out. - Aaron

As male videogame enthusiasts we're always looking for the elusive "gamer girl," a unicorn of a creature if you will. The girl who understands the difference between a battle rifle and an assault rifle. Who knows how to throw a hadouken and headshot your buddies from across the map, or can talk about World of Warcraft raids with instead having to humor her with shoe talk.

While there are gamer girls out there, even whole clans of them, it's still undeniably difficult to nab one for yourself. Those of us who already have significant others resort to trying to get our wives and girlfriends into gaming, desperately looking for games that we believe they would enjoy. The Wii has helped bring in a whole herd of new gamers and broken down the accessibility barrier, but you don't want to be playing Wii with your girlfriend for the rest of your days right?

I decided to put games to the test to see how a person who hasn't played a game since the NES would react to modern games. My hope was that I would maybe find that link to get a girl into gaming.

The rules were as follows: I placed my girlfriend Ginny in front of a gauntlet of six games to see what she thought about content, difficulty, and controls. She played each game's tutorial and the first level or quest. Afterwards she would give me her feelings on the game. I actually came up with some surprising results.

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Game 1: Wario Land: Shake It! (Wii)

A game like Wario Land should be a no-brainer right? It looks like the original Super Mario Bros., is 2D, which makes it easier for most people to get into, and has cute art and animation. I explained to her that it was an evil Mario named Wario who loved treasure and really wasn't all that evil. After that, I gave her the Wiimote, told her to hold it like a NES controller and let her loose. The tutorial quickly put her in the zone and she proclaimed it, "Like Mario, but I can punch enemies instead of jumping on their heads." I went further and asked about the controls. "I really like them, it makes me feel like I'm playing Super Mario Bros., and that is familiar. I really like to shake the little guys to free items. I also like to grab the money bags and shake the coins out."

While the controls are familiar, the act of shaking the remote stood out for her. "It makes me feel like I'm really in control of Wario." After the tutorial, she jumped into the first level, which is where things got a little cagey. "The level has so many different paths and arrows pointing me in different directions. It just confused me as I wanted to go forward and grab more enemies and money bags." I metioned that the original Mario had you go from left to right and any secret paths were up to you to discover, but not required. "It made me feel like they were spelling it out for me instead of letting me discover it if I wanted to."

After it was all done, I asked what stood out to her. "The shaking and jumping really made the game fun for me, it was just the multipathed levels that threw me off. I would definitely keep playing it though".

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Game 2: House of the Dead: Overkill (Wii)

Next, we moved on to light gun game House of the Dead: Overkill. Ginny is a self-proclaimed zombie freak so I thought that would be an entry point to the game. How right I was. "I immediately took a shine to the 70's grindhouse feel. It made me laugh and feel like having a good time just like the game was."

We entered the first level, Papa's House of Pain, with two Nyko Perfect Shots. There was no barrier here. She just started shooting zombies and looking for power-ups. "I loved to kill the zombies. I didn't really have to think about anything except shooting zombies or avoiding the people. It makes it easier with the gun shells you bought as well."

It wasn't all sunshine though. "The onscreen reticles sometimes confused me. I would think I was your reticle and shoot zombies I wasn't really targeting. It didnt detract from the experience at all, but more variety between the two or no reticles at all would have been nice." All in all, she liked it though. Its simplicity combined with tongue-in-cheek humor and flashy gore made her "want to play it again now."

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Game 3: Scene It! BOS and Buzz! Quiz TV (XB360, PS3)

I'm a big fan of trivia games and I own both of these titles to satisfy any game show itch I may have. We played Buzz first, which seemed to be the more favorable of the two. "I enjoyed the random trivia from all categories. We could jump from movie trivia, to things I know more like TV or music, so if you have more points than me, I can pick a category that I am familiar with to try and move ahead."

I then moved to Scene It? Box Office Smash, which wasn't so highly praised. "The game didn't feel like it was too much about movie trivia. We have the sections where we had to guess a picture before it came into focus or unscramble a movie title or actor. I didn't like that too much and wanted more questions like the movie clip or credit roll, which felt more like movie trivia to me."

It seemed like the more game show oriented Buzz was liked more. It was more familiar and appealing and Scene It was "A party game we can play when we have company. With Buzz we can do that as well, but I would be more prone to play it without company."

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Game 4: Marvel Ultimate Alliance (XB360)

I wanted to try a game that was built for co-op and emphasized team play. Marvel Ultimate Alliance is really easy to play, as well. All you need to do is mash the attack button to do cool stuff. Unfortunately, she didn't think so. "The game was just too disorienting to me. The above camera would make me lose sight of my character, or I would focus on what the other characters were doing." The superheroes powers didn't help, either."The effects also made me lose focus. Sometimes Iron Man would throw a blast or you would throw your shield and I would immediately track that. I don't know why, but there was just too much going on."

When I asked if there was any redeeming quality, she responded with, "No, I'm a DC girl." Which brings me to the next game....

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Game 5: Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe (PS3)

Mortal Kombat has always been an easy fighting game to get into. The combos and special moves are easy to learn and the game is well-suited to button mashing. Which is exactly what happened. "Well, I picked Wonder Woman, and was immediately doing cool things without having to really learn anything."

We played a few matches and she smiled with glee whenever she knocked me off the ledge for free fall kombat or threw me through a wall. "I didn't really have to invest a whole lot of time to do these cool things, and didn't have to study combo videos like you do when you are playing Street Fighter IV or BlazBlue." She knows my strategies. "It was just a fun game to bash each other around and I would definitely play again. It also helped that I could be Wonder Woman."

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Game 6: Fable 2 (XB360)

Fable 2 was a rough choice, but one I made to see if familiar Sims-like character interaction would appeal in a fantasy RPG. While the graphics and British humor were appealing to her, the gameplay was not. "I don't like the fantasy setting all that much. While the graphics look nice, I just can't get into dragons and spells. It's just not my thing." That's fair enough. She trekked farther into the game, making evil decisions. "I actually liked being a little hellion. It was cool being asked to make a choice and seeing its effect."

While the moral choice system was appealing, the large amounts of dialogue were not. "The game would give me a task, I would go do it, and then it would stop me for some more story. I just want to be my character and run around doing what I want. It's OK to stop for story, just don't keep me frozen to tell it."

Looks like Half-Life 2 might be more her bag.

So there you have it. It seems that games with simple controls or an added layer of immersion were the most appealing, while games that had a lot going on were off-putting and confusing. The most loved games, like House of the Dead or MK vs. DC were aided by her previous interests, but also had simple systems that gave way to more in-depth strategies. She identified with this and expressed interest in learning more since they were so easy to get into.

This, of course, isn't the final word on this issue, but hopefully it can spur some thought into games that can be used to get non-players into our favorite obsession.

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