10 of the Best Dating Sims to Keep You Warm at Night

Who doesn't love some dad-on-dad dating? At least they understand each other's jokes.

So, yeah. It's exactly what it sounds like. In this game, you're playing as a dad, with the goal of romancing other dads. And there's a dad for every preference!

From a nerdy English teacher to an animal loving goth dad, how can you help but fall in love? There's even a complex path for a married youth minister…

Every romance path contains minigames and side quests to make this so much more than a basic dating simulator.

Admittedly, the conceit of this one is odd, but I promise it's not the strangest on this list.

In Hatoful Boyfriend, you are accepted into the acclaimed St. PigeoNation's Institute. In this school for gifted birds, you are the first ever human student. As a high school sophomore, you can take classes like gym and art to level up your stats.

In between classes, however, you just might find love with the bird of your choice. Will you fall for the bad boy java sparrow or the bookish mourning dove? Maybe you'll even cause a scandal by having an affair with the mysterious school doctor, a chukar partridge.

Amidst the romance there's also intrigue and conspiracy, including everything from murder to apocalypse!

In the near future, a teen boy wakes up one morning to find that the White House has moved right next door. Which makes sense, apparently, since his best friend has just become the president of New Japan.

Aliens have brainwashed humanity into subscribing to a new world order—one that sees a teenage girl in the position of president. But she's not the only new leader. It seems all the bigwigs and generals have been replaced by cute girls.

In this strange interactive romantic comedy visual novel, there are four different romance options, and plenty of satirical humor.

***This game contains mature adult content***

Mechanically, this game functions as a combination of a puzzle game, an RPG dating simulator, and a visual novel. Honestly, the goal of this game is basically to convince women to take their clothes off—but in a charming very consensual way.

You play as Kyu, a guy who has absolutely no skill in picking up women. After fumbling a shot with a magic love fairy, she decides to act as your ultimate wing-man.

There are eight official romance options, all with unique personalities and professional voice acting. There are even a few secret characters you can unlock, too.

Think a romance novel meets candy crush, if they were both incredibly spicy.

***This game contains mature adult content***

Uh-oh, Monster Prom is three weeks away, and you don't have a date. You have an array of fellow monsters to choose from—but you may not be the only one looking!

Determine your stats with fun personality quizzes, unlock special items to help you along the way, and charm your favorite date into their best formalwear.

This game can be played alone or competitively with up to three friends.

There are several spin-offs of this game, including Monster Camp, Monster Roadtrip, and Monster Con.

There's no age limit on love, so why should there be one in dating simulators?

In Later Daters, you play as an octogenarian who has just moved into Ye OLDE, a luxurious retirement community. Here, you have your pick of several senior hearthrobs, with both heterosexual and queer options for men and women.

Like a fine wine, passion gets better when you're older. Customize your character and build meaningful connections through storylines about mortality, vulnerability, and sexual intimacy.

And if that's not enough, you have plenty of chances for a game of cribbage…

We're all familiar with boyfriends being tools, but how about… weapons?

This dating sim is great for romance lovers that love fantasy stories or diving into a game of Dungeons & Dragons. In this dungeon crawler, you'll be thrown into battles where you'll need to select the perfect weapon to succeed. But that weapon may just steal your heart.

These weapons transform into human babes, and all of them are single! Unfortunately, someone has also been abducting and damaging weapons from the dungeon. While you navigate the highs and lows of dating, you also have to solve this tricky mystery.

As the name of this dating sim implies, this is a satirical game, but there's actually a lot of heart at the core of it.

Based on '90s teen dramas, a socially awkward girl moves to the magical town of Ladle. Here she may find love with three unique creatures: Robert Raptorson, a charismatic skateboarding raptor looking for purpose; Woo Day Lilly, a fairy girl in a complex relationship with a ghost who wants to leave this town behind; and Taylor Tall-Toe, a sasquatch who was our protagonist's childhood crush.

This game explores anxiety, coming-of-age issues, and adolescent joy.

In Arcade Spirits, players are dropped into an alternate timeline where the video game crash of 1983 never happened. The arcade industry is thriving, and the Funplex arcade is the perfect place to find love!

You can completely customize your character, from design to pronouns and beyond. Through roleplay choices, you can cultivate both platonic and romantic relationships, picking between seven cool characters.

Will you fall for the bubbly cosplayer? Or will the score-obsessed day trader steal your heart?

Would any list be complete without an Eldritch dating sim? Probably, but not this one!

In this game you play as Darling, a character that must perform horrific rituals in order to win the heart of one of three monstrous cuties.

Choose between the cthulhu-like sweetheart Ln'eta; a yellow entity (a gender-flipped Hastur) with a lair for theatrics, Estir; and an intimidating cat-girl named Nyanlathotep.

This game also has a followup, Sucker for Love: Date to Die For.