10 Best Cozy Games Still Stuck on Older Systems

2 hours ago 2

Published Apr 1, 2026, 2:29 PM EDT

Daniel has been playing games for entirely too many years, with his Steam library currently numbering nearly 750 games and counting. When he's not working or watching anime, he's either playing or thinking about games, constantly on the lookout for fascinating new gameplay styles and stories to experience. Daniel has previously written lists for TheGamer, as well as guides for GamerJournalist, and he currently covers tech topics on SlashGear.

The “official” cozy genre of game has only become a thing in the last few years or so, to the point that you actually hear it used in industry presentations and whatnot. However, games with cozy vibes have existed as far back as the early days, whether they’re more in line with the current cozy paradigm or are a milder take on an established game paradigm. It’s not always about action and violence; people appreciate a game they can chill out with, no matter what generation they’re from.

10 Best Cozy Games With Fishing

If you're someone who likes to kick back and cast a line, these games are right up your street.

The increased prevalence of coziness in the public consciousness has led to many retroactively cozy titles being rescued from the proverbial junk bin of history, either through ports, remasters, remakes, or digital collections like those on Switch Online. Unfortunately, there are still a few cozy titles that remain trapped on older systems, just waiting to be uncovered and returned to the spotlight. If any industrious publisher were hunting for cozy retro titles to monetize, I’d start with these.

10 Kula World

Rollin’ Away

While some puzzle games are a little too intensive to be considered cozy, plenty of others like to take things relatively slow, giving you a basic framework of rules and specifications and just letting you piece things together at your own pace. It certainly doesn’t hurt if the puzzle in question has a cool, tropical theme like Kula World.

Kula World, also known as Roll Away, is a PS1 puzzle game in which you play as a beach ball rolling around all sorts of 3D geometric puzzles. The force of gravity shifts depending on the panel you’re standing on, so you can reorient yourself and jump across short gaps as long as you do it from the right place.

The only real goal in any given level is to get to the end, but you increase your score by picking up fruit and solving the puzzle quickly. There is technically a timer, but it’s pretty lenient, so you can take as long or as little time as you think you need to. Everyone loves a casual brain-teaser to get the synapses firing on an otherwise lazy day.

9 Reel Fishing II

All Fishing Games Must be Preserved

Developer

Platforms

Release Date

Victor Interactive Software

PlayStation

January 2000

Fishing games have become one of the dominant forms of cozy gaming in the modern day. It’s not surprising; it’s an activity based largely around sitting in one place and doing nothing for long stretches of time. While they have become more widespread now, though, fishing games are hardly new. Just look at Reel Fishing II on the PS1.

Reel Fishing II is, even amongst fishing games, an exceptionally simple title. You pick either free fishing or seasonal fishing modes, get plopped down into a boat, cast your line, and wait, watching the FMV water sway in the distance. When a fish bites, you get a 3D view of it flailing around as you fight to reel it in. You can freely switch up your gear and bait to hook different kinds of fish, as well.

Season mode has a proper progression curve to it, with different stages and unlockable equipment, while free mode just lets you fish as long as you want wherever you want. It’s every kind of fishing for every kind of angler, and boy is it relaxing. It was even better if you had the special PS1 fishing controller, though I’m guessing we wouldn’t be able to carry that over for a modern port.

8 Cubivore: Survival of the Fittest

Like a Very Angular Nature Documentary

Cubivore: Survival of the Fittest

You ever put on a nature documentary when you’re trying to fall asleep at night? Even if it’s depicting something kind of messed up, like animals hunting each other, it’s still kind of soothing, just having the natural world in the background. Cubivore on the GameCube is kind of like that, just… pointier.

Cubivore has you playing as the titular cube-shaped beastie in an equally cubical world, engaging in the age-old pastime of natural selection. You need to hunt other, smaller critters and take big bites out of them to make your Cubivore stronger, pick up mutations to improve its abilities, and eventually find a mate to produce a superior offspring. The ultimate goal is to produce several generations of offspring that, eventually, will be able to take its place at the top of the food chain.

It’s a pretty chill game, so long as you’re not bothered by animals hunting each other, though even if you are, everything’s a cube, so it’s not exactly graphic violence. Besides, half the fun is eating everything to see what kind of multi-paneled freakshow you end up with.

7 Digimon World

Monster Friends to the Boys and Girls

While the creature collecting champ of the 90s was undoubtedly Pokémon, Digimon always had a healthy presence in the background, placing a greater emphasis on raising up one monster over just catching ‘em all. Not counting the original virtual pet, the first Digimon video game was 1999’s Digimon World on the PlayStation.

Digimon World is a hybrid adventure RPG and digital pet simulator. Much like with the namesake pocket toys, you’d receive your own Digi-Egg and hatch it into a Digimon, then raise it through the various stages of its life while you progress the main story.

Interestingly, your Digimon can’t just be kept in your pocket the whole time. You need to care for it, feed it, and let it take a periodic bathroom break for it to grow up big and strong. All Digimon eventually pass away from old age, recycling back into a Digi-Egg to re-raise, which was rather heartbreaking to experience for the first time. Hey, even the best cozy games know how to punch you in the feels periodically.

6 Hey You, Pikachu!

Open Your Ears, You Dang Mouse

In both the games and the anime, it’s never been super clear the precise extent to which Pokémon can understand their human partners. It seems like they can pick up a general gist, but you obviously can’t carry out a two-way conversation. If you’ve ever wanted to talk to a Pokémon in earnest, the closest you’d ever get is by playing Hey, You Pikachu.

Hey You, Pikachu was one of the only two games to use the N64’s microphone peripheral, which would, at least in theory, allow you to communicate directly with the Pikachu on screen. Pikachu would get up to all kinds of little activities and shenanigans, and you’d guide him around with your voice. Whether or not he listened was a bit of a toss-up, but it was still a cool novelty for its time.

Pokemon Games That Feel Completely Different When You Play Them Again as an Adult

I imagine the obvious difficulty that would come with bringing this game back through a platform like Switch Classics would be the mic integration. Though, Nintendo has hyped up the Switch 2’s internal microphone a bunch, so maybe we could bridge the gap there?

5 Pokémon Channel

Be a Couch Poké-to

Hey You, Pikachu never received a proper sequel, likely due to its somewhat mixed reception, but there was definitely still an audience for palling around with Pokémon in a domestic setting. Without a microphone, though, there would need to be some other kind of central gimmick. For Pokémon Channel, the gimmick was television.

This GameCube game has you testing out an experimental TV meant to show programming with Pokémon in mind, which happens to attract the eyes of a curious wild Pikachu. The two of you spend time watching whatever schlock is on, occasionally breaking for exercise shows, home shopping, quizzes, and actually leaving the house sometimes for little adventures.

Admittedly, this game didn’t do so great, either in its time or retrospectively, but I’ve got an old soft spot for it, and wouldn’t mind experiencing it again someday. Just please, please let us fast-forward through the Pichu Brothers shorts. Assuming they can even get the rights to show those again; I’m not really sure what the copyright situation is between the Pokémon games and the anime.

4 Rocket: Robot on Wheels

A Big Physics Playground

The Nintendo 64 was the prime turf of the 3D platformer, though I’m not sure how many of those platformers I’d call “cozy.” I adore Super Mario 64, for example, but it spikes my blood pressure too much to be cozy. If there were any game of this particular category and era I could call cozy, though, it’d probably be Rocket: Robot on Wheels.

Rocket: Robot on Wheels is a 3D puzzle-platformer with a big emphasis on physics manipulation. Something that differentiates it from its contemporaries is its pacing and atmosphere; it’s a generally pretty laid-back, floaty game. There are definitely parts that rush you a bit, but for the most part, you can roll around and solve puzzles at your leisure.

The game also gives you ample means with which to fool around and indulge yourself, from building your own rollercoaster to splattering paint all over Greek architecture. As a kid, even after beating this game, I’d still boot it up pretty regularly just to pick a level and fart around for a while, and what is that if not cozy?

3 Diddy Kong Racing

Relatively Chill for a Kart Racer

Speaking of genres you may not expect to be cozy, kart racers are generally pretty high-impact. Goodness knows I’ve gotten plenty heated over a few laps of Mario Kart. Much like with Rocket, though, the N64 was home to a few titles that knew how to dial things back a smidgen. For the kart racers, that was Diddy Kong Racing.

Diddy Kong Racing is functionally similar to Mario Kart 64: you pick a track, you run a few laps around it, and occasionally pelt your rivals with missiles. That part’s fun, and the jaunty BGM and simpler tracks do help take the edge off, but it’s not the coziest part. The coziest part is the single-player adventure, specifically the overworld map. It’s not gigantic, but being able to drive around on that map was always oddly calming, especially if you were flying in an airplane.

It’s no secret that N64 kids want Diddy Kong Racing to make a comeback, either with a modern port of the original or a sequel. The game actually did briefly escape the N64 with Diddy Kong Racing DS, an expanded port for the titular handheld, but since the DS is just as dead as the N64, the problem remains unsolved.

Like Regular Golf Without Heatstroke

Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour

As far as sports go, the most relaxing is undoubtedly golf. Or at least it would be, if it weren’t for all the bugs, and the burning sunlight, and my distaste for the laws of physics, and… well, you get it. That’s why I prefer golf games to real golf, and I sincerely hope that Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour returns from the void, because it’s quite a good one.

Much like its predecessor, the N64 Mario Golf, Toadstool Tour is a fairly straightforward golf game with a lovely coat of Mario-themed paint on top of it. You get all your favorite characters driving and putting their way across colorful courses, interspersed with the usual hazards like bunkers and the occasional curveball like a Chain Chomp.

The N64 Mario Golf is already available through Switch Online, so hopefully, Toadstool Tour will follow up soon enough. The original game is good, but I think I’d prefer to play something with analog camera control.

1 Animal Crossing

I Miss When Resetti Hated Me

As the first Nintendo console with an internal clock, the GameCube was notably more advanced than its predecessor. It may sound like a small detail, but without that particular detail, we never would’ve received one of the console’s hallmark titles, Animal Crossing, nor the beloved franchise it spawned.

Animal Crossing was a compact life simulation game. Rather than all the minutiae and stats that came with something like The Sims, Animal Crossing encouraged you to just live your virtual life at your own pace, making some cash to pay back your loan, befriending your neighbors, and exploring the surrounding area. Thanks to the GameCube’s clock and calendar, things like birthdays and holidays happened on their designated days, which was always fun to wake up to.

I’d assume that the only reason Nintendo hasn’t brought Animal Crossing to the Switch 2’s GameCube library is that it’d prefer you play New Horizons instead. Fair enough, but remember, gaming is a medium that respects its roots, and everyone deserves to know how this series started out.