what are some of your comfort games?

[sodalitee]

title explanatory! what are some games that offer you comfort / happiness when you play it? feel free to explain in detail and show images or videos!

for me, one of mine is Calico, a very small indie game on Steam that is based around running a cat café with a bunch of cute animals and cute characters; it's overall just a relaxing game to unwind in! other runner-ups are animal crossing (any version, honestly), stardew valley, sonic adventure 2 (for the chao garden, of course!), and nintendogs! a lot of games bring me happiness, but these are just a few that are guaranteed to put me in a good mood~

 

[Tamacass]

ahhhh this is a great idea for a thread!!! u have amazing taste btw (did not expect to hear SA2's chao garden mentioned, hours were spent across my laptop and gamecube copies just replaying levels over and over for specific animals and traits LOL), i was looking at purchasing calico the other day as it looks really fun!!!!

as for my picks, unfortunately my icon tells all haha!! ever since i was a bab the Mario series has been my fallback, what i like to call my Major Fandom(tm) if that makes sense! the platformers (specifically new super mario bros + mario 64 and its DS counterpart + the mario galaxy duology!!!! great memories with those) and spin-offs (mario kart wii and DS my beloved) always hit home for me, i am a 6th generation nintendo-only through-and-through and it showwwwss

non-mario comfort games for me include animal crossing (gamecube especially, that game hits different from the rest, tho i did start with new leaf on 3DS!!), pokemon (mostly black 1 which was the first pokemon game i played start to finish and owned, there is a pattern with the DS here ;w; ), definitely sonic in my later years (SA2B for my pre-owned gamecube my beloved, and sonic advance + rush of course), and as i've gotten into PC games i've really enjoyed noita and spore!!! i additionally grew up with spore creatures on, u guessed it, the Ninbento DS before playing the original, so there's an automatic bias there for a not-so-good series of games LOL -- re-reading this chuck in Earthbound for SNES in the mix, had a huge obsession with that for a good while, AHH and kirby too!!!!! amazing mirror and triple deluxe are where it's at imo

as for the single comfort game that's stuck with me forever though, it's back to mario and i'm gonna have to say Mario Party DS! underrated gem of a game and always a nostalgic time for me whenever i pop its cart back in ;A; i'd be terrified to see how many hours i've put into it if there was ever a way to, the 3DS' activity log would not be accurate considering i played this game heaps on my DS lite prior to owning one. nothing beats the boards, soundtrack and minigames,, ok the N64 and gamecube titles come close but i refuse to discuss this, my opinion is now fact /j

looking back on all of this i'm both shocked and not that surprised that most of these games were for the original DS, love that console with all my heart, and i think picking up a multi-game cartridge for it recently has helped to rekindle my love for the system. now i can play all the other games i didn't grow up with/may be hard to find down here, pokemon soulsilver especially being a game i've wanted to play forever!!! and also the tamagotchi corner shop games,, tried those out on an emulator years and years ago but never got to experience them "properly" until now haha!

tl;dr: i'm a total nintendo simp......
oh my this got so long, tho i think all my tamatalk posts end up as multi-paragraph behemoths BKDSJBVKJSVB as said, this is such a cool thread idea and i really appreciate having the chance to infodump like this -- on a forum i already infodump heaps on!! now you've got me wondering what other people's comfort games are indeed

 

[sodalitee]

ahhhh this is a great idea for a thread!!! u have amazing taste btw (did not expect to hear SA2's chao garden mentioned, hours were spent across my laptop and gamecube copies just replaying levels over and over for specific animals and traits LOL), i was looking at purchasing calico the other day as it looks really fun!!!!

as for my picks, unfortunately my icon tells all haha!! ever since i was a bab the Mario series has been my fallback, what i like to call my Major Fandom(tm) if that makes sense! the platformers (specifically new super mario bros + mario 64 and its DS counterpart + the mario galaxy duology!!!! great memories with those) and spin-offs (mario kart wii and DS my beloved) always hit home for me, i am a 6th generation nintendo-only through-and-through and it showwwwss

non-mario comfort games for me include animal crossing (gamecube especially, that game hits different from the rest, tho i did start with new leaf on 3DS!!), pokemon (mostly black 1 which was the first pokemon game i played start to finish and owned, there is a pattern with the DS here ;w; ), definitely sonic in my later years (SA2B for my pre-owned gamecube my beloved, and sonic advance + rush of course), and as i've gotten into PC games i've really enjoyed noita and spore!!! i additionally grew up with spore creatures on, u guessed it, the Ninbento DS before playing the original, so there's an automatic bias there for a not-so-good series of games LOL -- re-reading this chuck in Earthbound for SNES in the mix, had a huge obsession with that for a good while, AHH and kirby too!!!!! amazing mirror and triple deluxe are where it's at imo

as for the single comfort game that's stuck with me forever though, it's back to mario and i'm gonna have to say Mario Party DS! underrated gem of a game and always a nostalgic time for me whenever i pop its cart back in ;A; i'd be terrified to see how many hours i've put into it if there was ever a way to, the 3DS' activity log would not be accurate considering i played this game heaps on my DS lite prior to owning one. nothing beats the boards, soundtrack and minigames,, ok the N64 and gamecube titles come close but i refuse to discuss this, my opinion is now fact /j

looking back on all of this i'm both shocked and not that surprised that most of these games were for the original DS, love that console with all my heart, and i think picking up a multi-game cartridge for it recently has helped to rekindle my love for the system. now i can play all the other games i didn't grow up with/may be hard to find down here, pokemon soulsilver especially being a game i've wanted to play forever!!! and also the tamagotchi corner shop games,, tried those out on an emulator years and years ago but never got to experience them "properly" until now haha!

tl;dr: i'm a total nintendo simp......
oh my this got so long, tho i think all my tamatalk posts end up as multi-paragraph behemoths BKDSJBVKJSVB as said, this is such a cool thread idea and i really appreciate having the chance to infodump like this -- on a forum i already infodump heaps on!! now you've got me wondering what other people's comfort games are indeed

aww, aren't you a sweetheart! this was super interesting to read, thank you so much for sharing~!

as for your comfort games, all of them are so good!! i unfortunately didn't really grow up with as much mario as you did; i think i played like. super mario bros. wii, mario party 9, all versions of mario kart (except the n64 one), yoshi's island DS, new super mario bros DS (a classic honestly) and a few more i can't remember off the top of my head! but all of them were really good~

i've also been super into pokemon as a kid, so any of them count as a comfort game imo, but i often drop it when i have to grind for a long time, haha... but my favorites (though i've played since leaf green up until ultra sun and ultra moon) have got to be X/Y, Heartgold and Pearl! such good games~ i've also been super into the chao garden since i was a little kid! i'm actually running it right now; gotta let some of my newborn chao grow so they can evolve!

you have incredible taste as well, i'm glad to find some people that i share a lot of things in common with! thank you for sharing this with us, your opinions are very much factual <3

 

[tamagotchivideo]

there are a lot of video games i! might consider comfort games there are a lot of video games that just make me happy whenever i play them!
one of my comfort games is actually tamagotchi corner shop 2 which is fun!! i've had that game for a very long time and its always stuck with me, its always just really nice to play!! i feel like some of the other tamagotchi console games might also be comfort games, mostly hoshi de hakken!! tamagotchi for the ps1! a not tamagotchi one is Doctor Mario 64!! i dont play a ton of puzzle games like doctor mario but i have a lot of memories of watching people play that game and the style of it is just really warm feeling! the sprites are all really cute and it just makes me happy whenever i see it!
one last one would just be! i think any picross video game, those are always comforting to play! recently it's been picross DS and that game is just very wonderful!!

 

[Nazotchi25]

I really like the game called Uplink by the indie company Introversion Software.
"Hollywood hacker" kind of game that all takes place on your "gateway" that you rent from the company you work for in the game called, well Uplink.

Get jobs from a BBS, unlock new hacking tools and upgrades for your tools or even your gateway computer itself.
Kinda makes it feel like you're doing all this from your real computer, connecting into the rented Uplink Gateway and then into the "internet". Feels like using a VPN or something to hide your "real" location.
If you're ever caught the company pretends it has nothing to do with you and you lose all status, money and rankings in the game. Then you can create a new login and try again all over.

Has some rogue-like elements and the "internet" is generated upon every new game, but you can sort of trial and error it until you properly learn how to play. If you get caught on smaller networks and systems you'll get a fine, some missions will get locked due to the record, but then maybe you can hack the government's criminal records? (you can)

This game is a single-player offline game. Hence why "internet" is in quotes. Originally made in 2001. I just love it!
A few years back someone made a stand-alone mod that you can install and it makes the game's UI, feeling and even the in-game year all a bit more modern. (Year takes place in 2026 rather than the "futuristic 2010!"

I think the mod may be Windows only, but the base game itself can be played on Windows, Mac and Linux systems. There used to be Tablet versions for iOS and Android. iOS maybe is still there but the Android version just gives an error 404 and any APK files I've found won't work on my tablet.


Anyways, that's my ramble of one of my fave comfort games. I'm so proficient in it that aside from the fine details on a mission, I can just do most things by muscle memory.

Here's a Wikipedia article on it. Has some other details along with other names the game went by.

 

[KrisKris]

Is it weird that my biggest comfort game is a horror game? The original Silent Hill. It's just so nostalgic for me. I can put that game on and my troubles melt away. Not only the first game, but especially the first game. It's been such a big part of my life. It will always be my top video game and brings a deep feeling of happiness to me. So many great memories of hours spent playing it over the years and hours spent discussing it online and making friends in the fandom.

I have sometimes opted for playing Silent Hill 1 and/or Silent Hill 2 as a birthday activity for myself.