CREDIT: NINTENDO
Don't say you weren't warned. Games like New Super Mario Bros. can - and will - ruin perfectly good relationships.

With the rise of video games in popularity among mainstream audiences, the idea of sitting down with your significant other and a video game for an evening in is not a foreign concept. Especially with the female demographic becoming more dominant in the gaming community.

With Valentine’s Day approaching, more than a few couples will be cuddling up with some games amid the lousy weather, and there are a couple of games that are absolutely perfect for romance and love to blossom.

But that would make a lousy list. So, instead, here is a few games you should absolutely not play with someone you care about if you plan on getting through an evening in peace.

New Super Mario Bros. (Wii/ Wii U)

Just to get it out of the way, there is going to be a huge Nintendo bias on this list since they make the best games to play with others. That’s just a fact.

When Nintendo reinvented the series that made games what they are today, it decided there was one thing missing from their precise, timing-based platformer: co-op. What could be a better idea than taking a game that requires split second, perfect timing at higher levels and putting the responsibility of perfection on two people in order to finish?

Honestly, co-op Super Mario is pretty damn fun. That is, until you and your SO move to make a jump and your partner uses your head as a spring, knocking you to your bottomless death. Or when you’re waiting for that perfect moment to move through fire and having them nudge you in the back ever so slightly, just enough for that fireball to singe Mario’s mustache off his nose.

Completing a tough stage is an achievement worthy of kisses and high-fives all around, providing that your relationship can survive that long.

Mario Party

The ultimate in a test of friendship, one of the cruelest games known to man and a bastardization of skill and luck that can drive the closest couple to be at each other’s throats with the wrong roll of a dice.

The idea is simple: you’re on a game board, you spin a number and you move, with the final objective being to have the most stars and coins come the end of the game. Each turn is punctuated with a mini-game of which there are a dizzying variety, and victory is rewarded with more coins and progression to the final goal.

It all seems pretty straightforward until they threw in the obnoxious chance spaces, offering players a chance to steal hard earned coins and stars from the one you claim to love. Nothing is a bigger punch in the gut than being ahead with one turn to go and having your date randomly land on that space and steal it all, rising from last to first and leaving you in a deep shame.

Arguments will be had, tears will be shed, and one of you will say something you can’t take back.

Seriously, if you love them, don’t play Mario Party.