Top 5 Games For Your Valentine

Here at Zatu we are very aware of the imminent arrival of Valentine's Day, and as such we have put together the top five two player games so that you need not worry about how to spend that quality time with your other half.

Remember that couples that play together, stay together!

So without further a do let me introduce our top five couples games:

5. Pandemic

What could be more fun than attempting to save the human race from a series of deadly diseases? Well I will tell you, attempting to save the human race with the one you love! A fully cooperative experience in which you will be moving around the board attempting to halt the spread of disease, as well eventually curing it, Pandemic is a fantastic game with great mechanics, that work even at the lower player counts. Pandemic's speed of play and being fully cooperative will ensure that it causes no heartbreak this Valentines.

4. Agricola

Like marmite, you either love it or you hate it and for me its a special love affair. Agricola is a wonderful meeple placement in which you will be managing a farm and attempting to score as many points as possible by sowing crops, raising livestock and improving your farmstead. The cute sheep meeples are certain to make anyone fall in love with them, but beware that is competitive so play nicely.

3. Legendary Marvel

Nothing spreads love faster than the pounding of villains and Marvel Legendary certainly has plenty of that. Another cooperative game, this time being centred around deck building and the Marvel franchise, Legendary sees players building their team of superheroes and attempting to bring down a mastermind - be he Magneto, Loki or Doctor Doom. With countless expansions and more on the way you can create your favourite Marvel hero line up and together share the love in New York City.

2. 7 Wonders Duel

A two player version of the critically acclaimed 7 Wonders? Well surely we all knew this would make this list. 7 Wonders Duel is a fantastic two player strategy game taking many aspects from the its parent game and streamlining them to make it playable in less than one hour. One of the best things about 7 Wonders is also still present in Duel and that is the varied victory conditions. Perhaps you don't want to lay waste to your partners civilisation? Well then a standard points victory or scientific advancement is an option, but all avenues should be considered on the path to victory - though perhaps not all of them end in a happy ever after.

1.T.I.M.E Stories

Narrative cooperative game play about protecting paradoxes from threatening the fabric of the universe sounds like a good gaming experience for a board gaming couple and it most certainly is, taking our number one spot.  T.I.M.E stores is a game of 'decksploration' where you are trying to complete your objective in the fewest amount of moves possible. As temporal agents, you and your team will be sent into the bodies of beings from different worlds or realities to successfully complete the missions given to you. Failure is impossible as you will be able to go back in time as many times as required and that is the core of  the game if you do not complete your 'run' fast enough then you are recalled and you will both start the mission again. This game also allows you to essentially pause so that you can pick it up again another time due to time restrains. Fast and incredibly fun T.I.M.E stories truly deserves its place at the top of our board.

So that is our top five games for couples. There is an honourable mention here for Mansions of Madness, which is a very immersive cooperative miniatures game featuring the Lovecraftian mythos and if either of you prefer a longer and much stranger experience then Mansions should most certainly be your port of call.

Which ever game you choose you are most certainly guaranteed a fantastic time, but just remember its all in the name of love... At least this time of year.

All of these games are also now available on our online store, so make sure you have the perfect game for your valentine.

Editors note: This post was originally published in Feb 2017. Updated on 06/02/2024 to improve the information available.