Best Cozy Game From Every Console Generation

2 weeks ago 6

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 term “cozy,” specifically in regard to video games, entered common usage around the start of the 2020s. The exact definition changes depending on who you ask, but in broad terms, a cozy game is one that you play with the express purpose of relaxing. It’s something low-impact, low-stakes, that demands very little of you compared to more intensive game genres. While the term itself is relatively new, though, there have been plenty of games that fit that bill over the years, dating all the way back to the earliest console generations.

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As a wise man once said, the word “game” implies fun and enjoyment, and different people find different things enjoyable. Gaming, being the broad hobby it is, has always catered to the lower-impact crowd alongside the bombastic arcade stuff, at least to an extent. Games are certainly made more with the express purpose of being cozy these days, but if you look back to the early days, you can find plenty of titles with a similar slow-vibe energy.

We’re starting with the second generation here since the first generation is just Pong consoles. Pong can be cozy, but it can also be extremely not-cozy.

8 Miniature Golf

The Second Generation

Developer

Platforms

Release Date

Atari

Atari 2600

March 1979

The second generation of game consoles, particularly the likes of the Atari 2600 and Intellivision, were still part of gaming’s formative years. There weren’t even really genres yet, let alone subgenres like cozy games, but you could still find relaxing experiences if you knew where to look. For example, Miniature Golf on the 2600.

The 2600 actually had two golf games, Miniature Golf and… Golf. Between the two, the former is definitely the more cozy experience, relatively speaking. It’s all very simple geometric shapes, including your putter, the ball, and the hole, but it’s still just as pleasantly slow and meditative to gradually tip the ball toward its destination as it is in real life. Plus, unlike in real life, you don’t have to worry about the family on the course behind you!

Thanks mostly to the very nature of golf, Miniature Golf was a different kind of game from most of the fast-paced, arcade-style fare of the 2600. You weren’t in a rush, nothing was going to steal your ball or give you a game over. You just hit the ball, bounce off the walls and blocks, and toward the hole as quickly or slowly as you please.

7 Kirby’s Adventure

The Third Generation

Improvements in graphics and processing power by the third generation meant that home gaming could really start flexing its muscles and give you an experience roughly analogous to those in the arcades. The NES and Master System’s bread and butter were speedy, high-stakes platformers like Super Mario Bros. or Castlevania; fun to play, but definitely not relaxing. However, there was one game from within that bunch that managed to be at least somewhat cozy without compromising its impact: Kirby’s Adventure.

The first console venture for everyone’s favorite friend-shaped cosmic horror, Kirby’s Adventure is an action platformer, but manages to be cozy by tipping the scales of the action significantly in your favor. Compared to Mario or Simon Belmont, Kirby is an exceptionally capable protagonist, thanks to his ability to fly, defeat most enemies instantly, and pick up a multitude of skills through his Copy Abilities.

Kirby’s Adventure is a good illustration of how you can make an otherwise high-impact game cozy: by ensuring the player is almost always in a position of superior control and agency. There’s no timer, you have plenty of health and lives, and the cute vibes of Kirby and his world help to keep the edge off.

6 Harvest Moon

The Fourth Generation

By the fourth generation, hardware had gotten good enough that games could afford to slow down and contemplate a little more. There were still plenty of in-your-face platformers, of course, but the SNES and Genesis also started dabbling in slower-paced, more cerebral games. It was during this time that arguably the ancestor of many modern cozy games first graced us: the original Harvest Moon (or Story of Seasons, if you prefer).

Harvest Moon is one of the earliest farm life sim games, at least to release on consoles. You receive a mildly dilapidated farm, and day-by-day, bit-by-bit, gradually restore it to its former glory. There are no action setpieces or much in the way of looming stakes beyond, perhaps, remembering to feed and shelter the animals. When the chores are done for the day, you can hit up the local bar and mingle with the townsfolk before doing it all again tomorrow.

Harvest Moon was deliberately conceived as a counterpoint to more aggressive genres of gaming at the time, such as the then-burgeoning fighting game scene. It didn’t do gangbuster sales right on release, but as time passed, people gradually picked up what it was putting down, and it eventually bloomed into a healthy franchise in its own right.

5 Pokémon Snap

The Fifth Generation

Not long following the dawn of the fifth console generation, Pokémon became one of Nintendo’s certified secret weapons, sparking off what would become the most profitable IP in the entire world. Of course, the first Pokémon games were RPGs, not super aggressive, but not exactly cozy either. The first properly cozy Pokémon game would also be one of its first home console endeavors, and the first time most of the critters were rendered in 3D: Pokémon Snap.

Unlike the battle-centric RPGs, your only job in Pokémon Snap is to take research photos of the titular critters. You move on a set track, rail-shooter style, and try to get the best-composed snaps of every Pokémon you come across. No one’s battling, and if you miss or mess up a shot, you can just run the course again. It’s a nifty, low-stakes way to challenge yourself, and considering this was the first time the Pokémon were animated in this fashion, it was really cool to see.

Harvest Moon 64 Pilotwings 64 Pokemon Snap Cruis'n' USA

10 Cozy N64 Classics You Need to Play

Classic N64 games like Harvest Moon 64 and Pokemon Snap can easily fit into the modern cozy vibe.

Even putting aside the inherently comfy vibes of viewing Pokémon in their natural habitats, Pokémon Snap maintains a beloved place in the hearts of many 90s kids, myself included. I still remember bringing my cartridge to the local Blockbuster to print off stickers of my pictures. Ah, good times.

4 Animal Crossing

The Sixth Generation

By the sixth generation, game consoles weren’t just becoming more advanced, they were becoming smarter. It was during this time that consoles gained new features beyond just playing games, such as the PS2 playing DVDs or the Dreamcast playing music. The GameCube didn’t have anything like that, but it did have an internal clock, and that set the stage for another progenitor of coziness, Animal Crossing.

Animal Crossing was a life sim game, in a similar vein to something like Harvest Moon, but with a decreased emphasis on farming. Rather, it was more about just… living your life. Meeting and doing favors for your weird neighbors, exploring the surrounding wilderness, and trying to scrounge together whatever cash you could to pay back that dirtbag Tom Nook.

What set Animal Crossing apart in its time was that it followed the GameCube’s internal clock, so you couldn’t play it marathon-style. When you were done with chores for the day in-game, you were done in real life too. It was a routine kind of cozy, something to gradually work into your day after work or school. Just don’t try to cheat the system by changing the clock, or Resetti will scream in your face.

3 Minecraft

The Seventh Generation

I often like to call the seventh generation “the brown years,” because nearly every major game released during this time was a gritty war shooter with a dirt filter slapped on top of it. It wasn’t really a conducive atmosphere for relaxing with your games, yet it was during this time that a titan began to stir within the depths. From the dry, cracked crevices of the brown years, the titan of creativity called Minecraft rose up, and the world would never be the same.

Minecraft is a game that needs no introduction. From the moment its earliest build was unleashed upon the world, everyone who was anyone was stacking blocks. It was a game with no set goals, no set limits; you wanted to build a cute little cottage and harvest iron? Sure. You wanted to build a scale replica of a Gundam in 4x3? Why not? You wanted to create a fully automated calculation system? Can’t think of a reason not to! It was as cozy (or not-cozy) as you wanted it to be.

Minecraft has become an empire, well past its humble origin in the brown years. In the years that followed its original release, just about every other major publisher tried to ape its customizable vibe, which, in hindsight, may have helped lay the building blocks for the highly-customizable cozy games that came later, pun unintended.

2 Stardew Valley

The Eighth Generation

In the eighth generation, many game genres were returning to their roots, thanks in large part to the indie scene really taking off under its own power. Those individuals who grew up with the likes of Harvest Moon and Animal Crossing were now staking their own claim in the industry, and one of the most prolific cozy games of this endeavor was Stardew Valley.

Stardew Valley was a farm sim for the modern age, carefully engineered to address the perceived shortcomings of the classic Harvest Moon games. It was the same basic concept on paper; you get a farm, you raise it up, yadda yadda, but it also incorporated RPG elements, allowing you to become proficient in skills like fishing, foraging, and even combat. There was also a much bigger emphasis on social elements, allowing you to meet and bond with your neighbors, find a spouse, and have kids.

Not only was Stardew Valley a cozy game you could largely set the pace and tone of, the addition of multiplayer later down the line allowed players to share their experiences with one another, creating an extensive community that made the game feel even more warm and welcoming than it already was.

1 PowerWash Simulator

The Ninth Generation

The ninth generation of game consoles officially began in 2020, and 2020 was… well, let’s just shoot straight with it, a bad year. It was in this fraught year, and the years that followed, cozy games hit their modern hot streak, going a long way toward keeping the lot of us sane. During this cozy boom, we received quite possibly one of the most influential, yet ironically, simplest cozy games to date: PowerWash Simulator.

PowerWash Simulator is, well, exactly what it sounds like. You’ve got a power washer, there are dirty vehicles, buildings and locales that need to be cleaned, and you clean ‘em. It’s quite possibly the most deviously simple game concept ever conceived, but it’s downright hypnotic. The sheer, mechanical satisfaction that comes with removing the accumulated dirt and grime from a residential home never seems to diminish, making it the perfect accompaniment for a lazy Saturday alongside a long podcast.

In a time when a lot of us felt like things were out of our control, PowerWash Simulator allowed us to wrestle back a modicum of mechanical routine, the simple joy of accomplishing a task that needs accomplishing. Its co-op multiplayer also served as a great social lubricant, giving online friends something to do while talking about nothing.