6 Games That Will Help You Achieve Your New Year’s Goals

New Year’s Eve has come and passed, and with that, it is time to accomplish all those goals you committed yourself to. Bummer. But hey, do you know what would be totally fab? If you could complete your New Year’s Resolution while gaming!

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Since TheGamer is all about wedging gaming in wherever we can, I’ve compiled a list that’ll help you make those gains while still grinding for exp. From getting in shape to learning a language, we’ll show you how to turn your hobby into a catalyst for growth.

Learn A New Language (Specifically Japanese) – The Atelier Dusk Trilogy

One common goal people set for themselves is to finally learn a second language. Something I know a little about myself, as my weebiness sent me down the path of Japanese learning. The realm of Japanese-teaching edutainment games has expanded greatly with the indie market opening up. The Learn Japanese to Survive games, as an example, have a lot more meat on their bones than Slime Forest (which used to be one of the games of its type). Additionally, you have great free titles, like Kana Invaders.

However, I don’t think the best games for learning Japanese are actually the titles that are aimed at teaching you the language. In my opinion, the best games to learn the language alongside immerse you, and allow you to repeat the language. That’s where Atelier’s Dusk trilogy of games comes in…

You’ll find that many of the Atelier games feature the ability to play back what was just said in a conversation. This is definitely the case with the Dusk trilogy. In the Dusk games, every line of dialogue will be logged, allowing you to go back and listen to any sentence repeatedly. This is an incredible studying tool, as it will allow you to compare what is being said in Japanese as you read the English version of it. Needless to say, this isn’t an all-encompassing language learning experience, but it is a fantastic supplementary learning aid!

Pick Up A New Hobby – Rocksmith

Maybe you want to learn a new hobby, which is a worthy goal indeed. Well, why not learn the guitar, then? And no, I’m not talking about the Fisher Price experience you get from the Guitar Hero games; Rocksmith takes all of that plastic instrument fun and translates it into very real, very practical guitar lessons. Not only do you get to have fun strumming along to your favorite songs, but if you play it enough, you’ll be able to play those same songs without the game’s guidance.

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You’ll find that Rocksmith is available on a number of consoles, including the modern batch. However, as is often the case with rhythm games, you’ll probably get the best experience from the PC version (CDLC really blows the doors open on song availability). The only issue is that you’ll have to buy both a guitar and the tone cable alongside the game. But worry not, once you learn the art of shredding, you can finally start that band with your buddies, hit the road, and rake in the cash. So, just consider it an investment of sorts.

Getting Fit – Punch-Out!!

My first thought was to suggest Ring Fit Adventure for this category, and sure enough, that game is great for achieving a better level of fitness, but everyone already knows about Ring Fit. However, there is a game that provides a similarly excellent fitness routine, while being a touch more focused… Punch-Out!!

Truth be told, boxing is just about the most exhausting thing you can do. And Punch-Out!! provides you with that experience while being relatively inexpensive (about $30 USD), and on a console that most people have sitting in the back of their closet: the Wii. Now, this is one where you can cheat yourself out of the experience, so you’ll actually have to stand up and throw punches, because waggling Wii-motes while sitting on your butt isn’t going to cut it.

VR Alternative – Pistol Whip

Hey, we all love Beat Saber, and that is most certainly a great VR fitness game, you already know about. If you want a fitness boxing game in VR, Knockout League is an incredible workout. However, if you want to feel like John Wick, while tricking your body into an absurd amount of squats, then Pistol Whip is quite simply the way to go.

The experience you’ll get from Pistol Whip is extremely slick and provides adrenaline-pumping action. It also feels very gamey. So, you never feel like you are working out, even though it does a better job of being a fitness game than many of the best explicitly fitness-based games out there. You’ll feel like too much of badass to even notice that your thighs are on fire.

Save Money – UFO 50

If your goal is to save money in the new year, yet you want to keep gaming, you are in between a rock and a hard place. While video games are glorious, they are also so very expensive. But what if I told you that you could purchase 50 new games for an amount of money that you may be able to find wedged in your couch? Well, as you probably saw from the title above, that’s exactly what I’m here to tell you.

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UFO 50 is a collection of retro games that never were made by a game developer that never was. They span multiple genres, and are all, without question, excellent. Sure, not every title in the bunch will strike your fancy, but they cover such a wide range of genres that it is impossible for me to believe that you won’t find a dozen or so games that you adore. If you are looking to game on a budget, it is hard to argue with a title like UFO 50. It will provide you with endless amounts of fun, while also giving you an unparalleled amount of variety. With UFO 50 by your side you can pinch pennies while playing a new game every day for a month and a half straight.

Make More Time For Others – The Typing Of The Dead: Overkill

Okay, this one’ll take some explaining… The Typing of the Dead games will improve your typing, but how are they going to help you make more time? Well, your mileage may vary with this one, but I spend a massive amount of my day typing. Most of the people I know do as well. If you are employed in academia, are a student, work in an office, or work from home, you’ll certainly find that you spend your days like I do: plucking away at a keyboard for hours a day. So then, if you want to carve out more time for others, what better recourse is there than doubling your typing speed?

And better yet, with The Typing of the Dead you’ll have fun doing it. Spending half an hour typing up a storm while shredding zombies may not seem like a productive use of your time, but when you find yourself zipping through e-mails, and writing up TPS reports in double time, you’ll quite possibly find that you are able to spend more time with loved ones. Or hey, maybe you can just spend more time typing zombies to death. That’s valid too.

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