When someone mentions video games you might think of Mario, The legend of Zelda, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Pokemon. Or maybe you prefer more violent games like Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto and Halo. However, there is much more out there than these popular gaming franchises and a lot more that gaming can offer you as a person.

1. Gaming can teach you about history.

Many of us can happily recall playing games like "Oregon trail" in school. Over 65 million copies were sold and from the mid 1980s to mid 2000s the game came bundled with school computers. "The Oregon Trail" was pretty much every where and now you can relive your virtual pioneer day memories on the Wii and Nintendo 3DS.

If you are a Mario Brothers fan and happen to have a NES or SNES, then check out "Mario’s Time Machine". In this game, instead of capturing the princess, the evil Bowser has stolen many different artifacts and it is your job as Mario to return these objects to their correct times by using a time machine called the Timulator. There are a few difference between these versions.

In the NES one, Bowser Kidnaps Yoshi and you have to complete the game to free him and you have to play a Mario mini game to obtain an artifact. Next you use the time machine to travel to one of the fourteen time periods. You are not told what time period the object comes from and so the player explores the time period to get hints from the citizens and from message blocks. Once you and Mario figure out the artifact belongs in that time period, you return the artifact to its original spot in that time period. After all the objects are put back in the correct location, there is a small three question multiple choice quiz about the time periods you visited. Upon answering all those questions correctly, its final boss time with Bowser.

In the SNES game, Mario is given the year and place each object goes and using that info they know where to travel to. However before you can go back in time, you have to play a mini game where the player controls Mario to surf through the ocean collecting mushrooms and when you collect enough mushrooms, you will go to your destination. You will then be given a document describing life and notability of a historical person associated with that time period, but the document is incomplete. To find the missing info, Mario must talk to the locals in order to learn various facts. You must then fill in the blanks with what you have learned by using a list of pre-determined words. Once correctly filled in, Mario can return the artifact to its original owner. When all the objects are returned, You confront Bowser. However there is three possible endings and what happens next is determined by your over all performance.

For something more modern feeling and action packed, a historical shooter might be the path for you.

In "The history Channel: Battle for the Pacific" for Xbox 360, Playstation 2, Playstation 3, and Wii, players participate in some of the famous battles in the Pacific Theater of Operations of World war two such as the Battle of Corregidor, Guadalcanal and Iwo Jima.

If you prefer the civil war then you can check out "History Civil War: Secret Missions" ( Playstation 2, Playstation 3, Xbox 360 ) and/or "The History Channel: Civil War – A Nation Divided" ( Playstation 2, Xbox 360).

In "History Civil War: Secret Missions" you play out convert operations behind enemy lines during the great train Raid of 1861 and the Fall of Vicksburg. There is eleven missions total and it is your goal to disrupt the armies of both sides by any means necessary . Some of these ways include stopping enemy supply lines, stealing ships, and sabotaging enemy strongholds. All of these missions are based on the actions of famous partisans, scouts and rangers.

Lastly there is "The History Channel: Great Battles Medieval" for Xbox 360 which is based on the story of the hundred years war. The player is in complete control of massive armies from Knights to men at arms.

2. Games can be used to Learn geography as well.

Some of you may remember the "Carmen Sandiego" series since it spawned 25 games, 3 TV shows, 2 films, 2 book series, a comic book series, 5 board games, and has won over 70 awards, but for those who don’t, here is an explanation.

In the "Carmen Sandiego" series you play as as an agent who works for the ACME Detective Agency. Each case starts with a theft being committed and you are transported to the scene of the crime. The agent must find clues to create an arrest warrant that outlines the guilty party’s attributes and to figure out the the suspect’s next destination. You will likely have to travel to a few destinations to catch up with the thief for they are continuously on the move. Once you do find the thief, using the arrest warrant, the thief will go to ACME prison. The process is repeated as you find more and more thief and rise through the ranks at ACME Detective Agency. The final thief is Carmen and once successfully captured, the game is done. The first game of this series came out in 1985 and the most current one came out in 2015 so because of this, this series can be played on a wide variety of computers and game systems.

"National Geographic Challenge" for Playstation 3, Wii and Xbox 360 teaches both Geography and history. This game includes mini games, sixty minutes of videos, and 4,000 different questions with five modes of game play; single player, multiplayer quiz, puzzle challenge and explorer mode. If you like answering trivia questions, you might like this one.

Would you like to learn geography with a familiar character? In "Mario is missing" for the NES, and SNES, Bowser attempts to buy a bunch of hair dryers to melt Antartica. He sends his Koopa Troopas to travel all over the world and steal important landmarks in the hopes of selling the landmarks to afford all those hair dryers and bring upon lots of destruction. Mario, Luigi, and Yoshi follow Bowser to Antartica in attempt to stop him but Mario ends up getting captured by Bowser! As Luigi, in his first role as main character, it is your job to return all the stolen artifacts, save your brother and save earth from ultimate destruction. In each level, Luigi must find Koopa troops, jump on them to defeat them and reclaim the artifacts. Once Luigi has the artifact, you take them back to the landmarks they were stolen from and answer trivia questions about the landmarks. In addition to returning the objects, Luigi has to figure out what city he is in so that he can use the Globular to call Yoshi to help him through the level’s end since the path is blocked by a Pokey. Once all the artifacts are returned, there is a boss battle. The SNES version has three floors in the castle each with five different locations per a floor. The NES version has seven rooms with two locations each.

3. Games can be used to learn a new language??!

Are you interested in learning Spanish, French, Chinese, or Japanese without attending an in person class?

"My coach" is a video game series released by Ubisoft which cover a wide variety of topics, one of which is learning new languages.

"My French Coach" (DS and Wii) and "My Spanish Coach" (DS, Wii and PSP) were developed with assistance from real language teachers. The games consist of lessons to introduce the player to new vocabulary and later master said words through mini games. When you start the game, a test is given to figure out your previous knowledge of the language. Once that is done, you are place in a level most helpful to you. So if you are already a little knowledgeable of the language you will be pushed past the basics. When starting a lesson, You are shown ten new words, their meanings and hoe to properly say them. As you play, the words and phrases increase in complexity. Following this, the player can pick from eight mini games to test what they have just learned. when answered correctly, you gain mastery points on the word. The process continues until the player has fifteen mastery points for every word which allows you to go to the next lesson. There is fifty lessons total but that is not it. When completed, the player can learn even more new words through open lessons that contain ten new words each. There is 10,000 words in each game that can be learned. the games also come with a dictionary and phrasebook that can be accessed at any time in the game. The dictionary and phrase book have the meanings and audio for each word in the game as well as the option to bookmark chosen phrases for easy access.

"My Chinese Coach" for DS teaches the player Mandarin Chinese. This game is also lessons and games like the other two. In lessons the player is taught how to pronounce the words by comparing themselves to a native speaker by using the DS’s microphone function. Another unique function in the game is the use of the stylus to trace and correctly write Chinese characters.

"My Japanese Coach", also for DS, is similar to the Chinese one. Lessons, games, Pronunciation compared to a native speaker using mic and the writing of Japanese characters. However in this game, there is a digital character called Haruka who is the player’s teacher. If you miss two questions in a row in the placement test of this game, the test ends and your language understanding level is determined. Like the others there is mastery points to get through the levels. The game is known to be quite difficult and has high expectations of the player.

4. And for learning how to play an instrument!

When one thinks of playing a music game, they might think of rock band or guitar hero, however these games, no matter how fun they are to play, will not actually teach you how to play the instruments used. But if you do want to learn how to play a instrument, there is actually a few games of there that can teach you how to play.

With "Rocksmith 2014" ( Playstation 3, Playstation 4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One ) the player can learn how to play lead, rhythm and bass guitar. This game includes more than eighty five lessons covering bends, accents, slides and more. Other than lessons there is a Jam session option which allows the player to Jam with the in game musicians as well as enhanced master mode which helps with playing by memory. To a name a few, the song list offers music by Aerosmith, Alice Cooper, Avenged Sevenfold, Def Leppard, Green Day, Kiss, Muse, Nirvana, Pantera, Paramore, Radiohead, and the Smashing Pumpkins. The game also offers Downloadable content to add more songs into the game.

"Piano Teacher" is a newly released game that came out earlier this month for the Wii U. From beginner to pro, anyone should be able to learn something new. To play, you use the Touch Screen and press the red keys to learn the piano figure positions for 20 different songs.

5. They can even teach people how to type.

In today’s world typing on a computer is an very important skill that everyone should learn. Most of these games are, unsurprisingly, for the computer but "The Typing Of The Dead" for Dreamcast and Playstation 2 is a very unique way to learn to type. Not only is it a console game, but it has an interesting story and game play method to it. The player is a secret agent in zombie infested Venice and they must type the letters, words and phrases quickly to kill the zombies. The words and phrases increase with difficulty as you get farther in the game. Each level has specific challenge areas where the agent has to kill a certain number of zombies in a limited amount of time. These end with a boss battle in which you have to type out long phrases or the answer to a question asked which must be correctly typed. Original and arcade mode fallow the main story which is closely related to a game called House of the dead 2. There is also Tutorial, Drill and Boss modes that offer additional typing training.