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Comment by telesilla | Hacker News Reader

I am terrible at video games. It's not what my brain does well so I miss out on playing computer games in general, I'm more interested in board games or cards. Not long ago I was waiting for laundry to be done with a friend who had a Nintendo Switch on her, and we started a game of Mario Kart. The entire time we played, maybe 15 mins, I thought wow, I'm better than I think! Then after the game I told my friend and she says, the whole time she was racing behind me to kill the bad guys so I could enjoy playing. What a beautiful gesture!

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I don't think another player can actually be that helpful in Mario Kart, but it does have extremely strong steering assistance, which can be enabled/disabled in the pause menu. Not trying to be rude by comparing you to a small child, but the main benefit is that little ones can join in and have fun while they're not quite co-ordinated enough to steer properly.

If you wanted to get more into gaming, a Switch would be a good choice. There are lots of games which are mechanically accessible (still not trying to be rude here) to six-year-olds, while still being a ton of fun.

No offence taken! It's not so much the coordination but that I just don't care about playing. My sense of being entertained is different than what computer game play provides, so I don't put any effort into learning the moves. So in relation to the topic here, it's nice if I can hang out with friends who love games while I don't need to invest effort to join in on occasion, as I could get quite a lot out of copilot mode.

Not quite true :) I’ve played a lot with my 2 youngest daughters and the AI adapts to the fastest player. So if you hang behind the “worst” player, it will become very easy.

Subsequently, if you race full-pull the other person will be in a permanent #12 spot. They will receive a lot of star and bullet power ups though ;-)

Mario Kart: Double Dash was actually a lot of fun with two players in a kart. A friend of mine who couldn't steer to save his life took over the weapons while I focused on driving. The best part is that the second player could make their character throw their weight left or right to shove the kart sideways and save you from an obstacle, or a tight turn taken a little too quickly.

Goose & Maverick. Very cool.

I probably would've played more video games if I had known about these co-op modes.

Most people when they say they are terrible at video games mean they are bad at reflex games. I recommend you don’t discount entire sub genres of non-real-time video games you might enjoy. Depending on your taste that can be anything from tactical/turn-based RPG’s to sports management games.

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