Dec 21, 2023Feature
Ready for another list? This time it’s a list of games released this year that are perfect for console users. Whether they’re receiving a new one for Christmas or you’re just searching for some cozy games to get your console owner, this list is a good place to turn! Many of these games are on more than just Xbox and PlayStation, but sometimes it’s hard to weed out what is or isn’t. At any rate, these are all cozy games that should meet some needs. Relaxing farming sim, cute survival craft, cozy exploration, spell-slinging dungeon exploration, intriguing conversations, and potion making are all here.
So here are 6 cozy games for the console!
Lego Fortnite is a brand new mode in the popular game where you play as a Lego figure. Play solo, or with up to seven other people and explore a fun new world. It’s a survival crafting game, so you’ll need to collect resources for crafting. Build weapons, homes, and many more useful items. Recruit villager NPCs as you expand your base of operations. They’ll be able to collect resources and battle enemies with you!
Harvest Moon: The Winds of Anthos is the most recent entry in the franchise. Ten years ago, a great calamity. A volcano erupted and the Harvest Goddess and Harvest Sprites used the last of their power to keep the inhabitants safe, but it isolated the villages from each other. Some people were even trapped outside their villages. Ten years after the eruption, you find a message in a bottle containing an SOS message, and with the help of your inventor friend and others, you’re on a mission to revive the Harvest Goddess and Harvest Sprites and a mission to reconnect the villages. Farm in different biomes, raise a variety of animals, take part in different festivals and contests, so much more!
Coffee Talk Episode 2: Hibiscus & Butterfly is the second episode in the Coffee Talk series. In it, you play as the proprietor of a cozy little coffee shop that’s only open at night. Set in an alternate present-day Seattle, join a cast of fantasy characters and serve up some delicious hot drinks as you explore the world by listening to their stories. Even use your phone to follow their lives outside of the coffee shop via social media, and return lost items to further influence the story.
In Mail Time, you’re a newly minted Mail Scout in the cozy forest of Grumblewood Grove. It’s your first day on the job, and you’re full of unbridled enthusiasm for your new adventure. With your cute little mushroom hat, over 46,000 character design combinations, and a bag full of mail, it’s up to you to deliver all of the letters to the inhabitants of Grumblewood Grove. You shouldn’t dally, but Mail Time is a relaxing adventure. Run through the forest, jump over obstacles, and even use letters to glide your way around the forest to reach your destinations. Explore 8 different colorful areas and meet 15 unique characters with their own stories and charms.
Spells & Secrets is a captivating rogue-lite adventure where you use different spells to fight your way through dungeon levels. You’re a first-year student at the esteemed wizard Academy of Greifenstein, eager to learn together with your fellow magic users. However, something odd has happened to the school on your very first day there. It’s now over-run by magical creatures, and of course it’s up to you to defeat those creatures, save your classmates, and save the school.
Potion Craft: Alchemist Simulator takes inspiration from medieval manuscripts and medical books. Play as an alchemist who runs their own shop. Grow your own ingredients or haggle with traveling merchants to buy them. Use your various tools to brew potions using those ingredients. Even experiment to concoct new types of potions, then sell your wares in your shop!
Looking for more ideas? Check out this list of the 15 Best 3DS Games of All Time. You can also find a list 5 Games Perfect for Your New Steam Deck, and 5 Farming Games for Your New Switch.
Nov 2, 2023Indie Highlight
Re:Fresh is a short 3D platformer with a focus on exploration. Your town has been wiped out by a torrential rain storm. Things are in need of repair, and it’s up to you to collect the materials for those repairs. Run, jump, and dash your way across a beautiful landscape at your own pace. Explore an open-ended environment where you’ll collect solar cells to upgrade your movement options. Those energy cells are your main source of energy that allow you to jump and dash, so be sure to pick them up! You also get to interact with all of the lovable townspeople, too. Get to know the cast of goofy villagers, each with their own unique lines of dialogue. They’ll give you tidbits of information that will help you in your adventure!
You can find Re:Fresh on Steam now!
Pile Up is another cute 3D platformer you should check out!
Jul 20, 2023News
Humble Bundle is a great resource for the thrifty gamer with their bundle offers. Pick a bundle, then choose what you wish to pay. It’s a great way to grab a bunch of games for cheap. Right now, Humble Bundle has a Cozy Games bundle perfect for trying out a bunch of games you may have had your eye on! And these are all worthy of playing. They’re cute, cozy, and wholesome. Some feature powerful stories, while some are just perfect for kicking back and relaxing with.
This offer ends in 20 days, so take your time to decide, but don’t let it pass by!
Cat Cafe Manager has you taking over your grandmother’s derelict cafe in the sleepy town of Caterwaul Way. Restore the cafe, renovate it, and decorate it as you wish, turning it into an inviting home for the plethora of cats that call Caterwaul Way home. Hire employees to help manage the cafe, and explore the village to befriend the inhabitants and learn new recipes.
In Witchy Life Story you’re the youngest member of the magical von Teasel family, but you’re not exactly their pride and joy. In fact, you have one more chance to prove yourself or your witch training is over. So, you arrive in the village of Flora to try and save their harvest festival. You have two weeks to make it a success. So, gather herbs, brew potions, get to know the townspeople, and even cast some spells. Maybe cause a little chaos, even.
Play as the adorable Niko, who’s just become a professional friend for Tadpole Inc. in Here Comes Niko! You’ll explore different scenic islands while making friends with people you come across. Complete requests for them by catching fish and bugs, solving puzzles, and even just listening to them. If you’re lucky, they’ll pay you and you can then invest in a train system to get to new islands!
Welcome to the Grove! You’re its new guardian, and it’s your duty to rebuild the village and uncover the story of its past. Garden Story is a chill wholesome game where you’ll complete quests to defend against encroaching Rot, gather resources, restore, and improve the town. There’s even a way to turn off combat to make it even cozier to play!
Lemon Cake is an adorable little game about restoring a run-down, haunted bakery. Grow fruit and care for animals, who provide ingredients for your bakery. Repair, furnish, and decorate every room to create an inviting little business. Mix and bake up some fantastic recipes, and maybe even convince the ghost to help you out!
Join Alba as she visits her grandparents on a once-beautiful Mediterranean island in Alba: A Wildlife Adventure. She’s ready to explore the island with her friend Ines, but when she sees an animal in trouble, she realizes she needs to help it. As Alba, you’ll start a whole campaign to clean up the island! Convince the townspeople to help out and gather volunteers to restore the island and help the wildlife.
A Short Hike is about exactly that, hiking! Spend time in the peaceful mountainside of Hawk Peak Park simply exploring. Hike the marked trails or explore the wild back country. Climb some rocky cliffs. Glide over lush landscapes. Take your time to absorb the beautiful surroundings and meet other hikers. Perhaps you can help each other out. Even discover some treasures!
Assemble with Care features a meaningful, evocative story line about Maria, a globe-trotting antique restorer as she arrives in Bellariva. She wants to help the inhabitants fix their personal items, but discovers it’s their personal lives that are starting to fracture. It’s harder to fix those, but she’s determined to help. You’ll solve puzzles by fixing items brought to her, meet the townsfolk, and tune into a lovely soundtrack inspired by the 80s.
Unfortunately, Haven Park isn’t included in this bundle, just a lovely 65% off coupon! It’s a great discount for such a cute game where you play as Flint, who has just taken over his grandmother’s beloved park. He wants to make it a park campers will love, so it’s up to you to help him out. Fulfill each camper’s wishes and build whatever their hearts desire. Happy campers will attract more business, which means more quirky characters for you to talk to and enjoy!
Like lists? Want more game recommendations? Check out 5 of My Favorite Cozy Steam Next Fest Demos!
Mar 16, 2023Indie Highlight
Jump into the fantastic world of Togges, where an endless wall keeps the known universe safe from the dangers of the unknown. The leaders of each domain maintain the balance, and the King protects all of existence.
It’s your job to solve puzzles and use the living blocks, called Togges, to do so. Spread and stack the Togges around the vibrant world to keep the threat of the void at bay and save the galaxy. Complete 7 massive levels, but take your time. There’s so much to discover and look at in the world. You’ll discover a futuristic city in the Savannah, and explore the whole kingdom that’s made out of carrot cake. There’s no lack of interesting and fun things to find in Togges. Make friends all around the cosmos as you adventure, too. Each character has a unique story for you to listen to, packed with humor.
Along with the 7 main levels, Togges has 30 bonus levels for you to puzzle through. Use the different abilities of the different colored Togges to solve puzzles, as well as find all sorts of collectibles. This game takes inspiration from fan favorites like Katamari, Pikmin, and Super Mario Galaxy, and boasts about being a revival of the golden era 3D platformers, so it’s sure to be packed with loads of fun.
This colorful and beautifully designed game is available pretty much everywhere now! You can find Togges on Steam (where it’s on sale until March 23rd!), Epic Games, GOG, Nintendo Switch, Playstation, and Xbox.
Oct 19, 2022Indie Highlight
In Frogun, play as Renata, a young girl whose parents are world-famous explorers, archaeologists, and inventors! Usually her parents take her on their adventures to uncover the secrets of the past, but not this time. Instead, poor Renata is left at base camp while her parents enter the Beelzebub Ruins. The ruins are just too dangerous for young Renata.
However, Renata is left alone, bored and upset, for three days before she realizes perhaps her parents are in trouble. She makes up her mind to go search for them, and grabs their last invention, the Frogun. Not only will she rescue them, but she’ll show them she’s just as capable an adventurer as them!
Frogun has quite a bit of features to look forward to, also. You’ll explore different colorful levels, from ruins, to snow and lava. Use the trusty Frogun to solve environmental puzzles to explore the area. Pull levers, press buttons, outwit traps, and fight cute enemies. You’ll even be able to race Renata’s rival and fight bosses. Discover secret areas and shortcuts through the levels with your grappling skills.
Meanwhile, collect various emblems by meeting certain level requirements, discover the stories of other adventurers through found diary pages, and turn in the coins you collect to the Mad Hatter in exchange for fun hats, bestiary pages, game art, and other stuff. You’ll even find a photo mode to take cute pictures in, and you can even unlock 2-player duel arenas to challenge friends in!
Find Frogun on the Epic Games store, Gog.com, Playstation 4 & 5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One and Series X, and Steam.
For a really cute platformer, checkout Tamarin.
Jun 11, 2022Indie Highlight
New game alert! Today Little Bear Chef just premiered, a cozy 3D cooking platformer. The bear in question looks like an adorable bottle of honey named Chef Toto.
It looks like in the game trailer below, that you’ll have to come up with unique ways to use ingredients that are bigger than you. The platforming aspect is probably due to having to jump around on cooking utensils and appliances and Rube Goldberg your way to creating dishes.
Little Bear Chef is being developed by BananaBox, and is coming to PC and consoles (potentially later) in 2023. Since Little Bear Chef just debuted, there’s not much more information or a Steam Page as of yet.
May 24, 2022Indie Highlight
Koa and The Five Pirates of Mara is a 3D platformer created with the combined efforts of the following three indie game studios: Talpa, Undercoders, and Chibig. In this mash-up, you’ll get to play as Koa and her best friend Napopo from Summer in Mara (extra chibi-fied), with levels that are reminiscent of adventure game Mail Mole.
Unlock an archipelago one after the other and dodge traps, fight pirates, solve puzzles, and find collectibles! All islands throughout the world of Mara have a variety of biomes like “sandy beaches and bubbling volcanoes”.
The game will be releasing this year (2022) on PC and consoles. You can Wishlist Koa and The Five Pirates of Mara now on Steam here. For another game that’s part of the Chibig Universe, go here: Ankora: Lost Days – New Switch Game From The Makers Of Summer in Mara. Stay tuned for more titles coming soon too!
Dec 5, 2019Indie Highlight
Spirit of the North is a 3D adventure game about discovery and companionship. The developers, Infuse Studio, mention how they were inspired by the landscapes of Iceland, and Nordic folklore. Solve various puzzles and examine the ruins of an ancient civilization. You can buy it here on PSN for $24.99 and enjoy running freely on snow-covered mountaintops this holiday season!
Play as an ordinary red fox whose story becomes entwined with the guardian of the Northern Lights, a female spirit fox. As you journey over the mountains and under red-stained skies you’ll discover more about your companion and a land left in ruin.
You can follow the developers on their Twitter page here for more information. For a similar breathtaking experience and story-rich game, check out my review here: Lost Ember: A Beautifully Heartbreaking Exploration of Forgiveness.