If you’ve been following me on Twitter (which you should all
do, just saying @OurMindGames), then you’ll understand I’ve recently fallen
back in love with Lego. Growing up, I was the opposite of my older sister – who
preferred the more stereotypically feminine stuff. Nothing wrong with that, it
just wasn’t me.
My love of video games and creating things, be it through Lego or carpentry, has had a major influence on the young adult I have become. I loved to create motorised vehicles out of Lego, so much so that I genuinely considered becoming a mechanical engineer for a good few years (before I realised that I didn’t like studying physics). So, to come back to it after all these years has a somewhat bittersweet feel to it.
LOOK UPON MY CREATION AND WEEP.
Alongside my university studies, I work as an ambassador in
local schools, delivering workshops, computing lessons and providing access to
new technologies that the kids may not have had access to before. My Saturday
mornings are spent helping younger kids build their own games, robots and
applications from all sorts of bits of tech. Honestly, most of the kids are
leaps and bounds ahead of where I was when I was their age, which is really
heartening to see.
One of the most popular bits of kit, is the Lego Mindstorms – programmable robot units given movement, control and purpose by adding Lego blocks! More often that not, I end up on the floor, digging through boxes of bricks looking for the specific piece that will complete the kid’s magnum opus.
Thankfully, the love of Lego did not die with my generation.
Side note, typing that sentence genuinely made me shudder
out of realisation that I’m technically part of a different generation. Age is
just a number, come at me world. If I want to build Lego, dance in the rain and
roll down grass hills, then I will. You cannot stop me! (Cue evil laughter)
Moving past the days of Lego stop motion movies, more often that not, we often see these building bits in game adaptations of our favourite franchises – such as Marvel, DC, Harry Potter and Lord of The Rings. Though that last one isn’t really an option anymore, unless you want a court case on your hands.
RIP the precious
A lot of kids first experiences with these cinematic universes,
is through Lego games. Obviously, not every parent is content with letting
their primary school age child play games with heavy themes or to see films with
adult ratings. For example, I used to only be able to play games that were
rated 15 or 18, if my dad was with me. So, I have played a lot of Lego games.
A large amount of gatekeeping in the gaming community is based on the argument of what constitutes an actual “game”. Some claim that only console/PC games fit the criteria, others argue that there should be some degree of difficulty in the gameplay for it to be called a “proper game”. Lego games, with their simple but enjoyable gameplay, basic puzzles and focus on fun, tend to be in the eye of the storm. Let’s chat through a few of the common complaints:
Avenge their bricky bodies
“They’re too easy”
What’s wrong with a game being easy? Considering the complex issues that we deal with in everyday life, sometimes it is nice to play a game that doesn’t go out of its way to challenge you. It’s about enjoyment, losing yourself in something other than your problems for a while and getting a small sense of achievement when you beat a boss or solve a puzzle. Depending on your mental state at the time, it might be your only win in a day filled with losses.
*WEEE WOOOO WEEEE WOOO* ITS THE LAW
“Nobody enjoys them or wants to play them.”
For those who struggle with reaction times or complex puzzles, having a game that is fully playable for them, is a welcome relief. Although the games industry is slowly improving, it is not the most accessible thing in the world. From providing subtitles, to having different colour schemes, to turning off quick time events entirely, there are lots of ways that games can broaden their audience and allow anyone and everyone to enjoy the experience. Plus, they’re good multiplayer games. Being able to play games with your loved ones, especially if you don’t normally get to, is a wonderful way to make memories. Just because you don’t enjoy something, doesn’t mean others won’t. Remember that.
IM BATMAN AND IM FINE.
“They’re boring.”
Considering the popularity of the Lego games, this couldn’t
be further from the truth. Whether it’s building the actual sets, punching
every breakable thing in sight to collect studs, or swinging around as a Lego
version of Spiderman, there is a childish delight in these experiences.
Personally, I find the process of building the Lego sets very therapeutic and relaxing. For someone whose mind is often filled with anxiety, fear, self-loathing and every possible catastrophic scenario that could befall me, Lego provides a peaceful respite. Don’t knock it till you try it.
Anyways, I’ve got sleep to catch up on and crops to harvest
on my virtual farm. Till next time,
Anyone who has spent more than ten minutes with me, will know that my attention can be easily distracted by any form of fuzzy animal – be that in video games or just while walking down the street. I’m a sucker for animals, to the point where my default in any game is to pet anything and everything that will let me. I’ve always had more of a connection with animals than I have with people, partly due to my struggles with understanding the intentions behind other’s actions and partly due to my heightened empathy, which can overwhelm me to the point of breakdown.
Cats hold a special place in my heart. Amusingly, I’ve often been described as more of a cat than a human. This is often because I have an uncanny ability to befriend the more skittish felines. Much to one of my best friends’ confusion, I managed to get his extremely shy cat who wouldn’t stay in a room with him for long periods of time, to rub herself against my feet within a day of meeting her. Praise be CaitlinRC, the cat whisperer. Hence why my only flaw with Assassins Creed Syndicate is that you can’t pet the cats that wander around London’s streets. LET EVIE CUDDLE A CAT YOU COWARDS. Thankfully, video games will often let you pet the dogs. If they didn’t let me praise these good boys and girls, then I’d probably be in prison under arson charges. #NoRegrets
Row, row, row your BORK.
Any game that has you controlling animals, immediately
skyrockets to the top of my “to play” list. PHOGS, the game we are talking
about today, has been on my radar for a while now. I got a chance to play it
back at EGX Rezzed last year, with my good friend Ellie. In PHOGS, you and a
partner play a pair of goofy dogs, attached to one another through a very stretchy
belly. One of you plays Red and the other plays Blue, so you must work together
to solve a variety of puzzles in order to progress through the bright and
colourful world that you find yourself in. Though you can play PHOGS solo, I’d recommend
playing it with a friend or a family member, as a lot of the joy comes from the
interactions you have, the havoc you wreak on one another and the inevitable
bark off that arises when you realise that you can press a button to bark.
Although it is a puzzle games, the puzzles themselves are not ridiculously difficult. By keeping the mechanics simple, PHOGS encourages you to be creative with your solutions, to try out new things and see how far that doggo can stretch. If you stumble across the answer whilst doing it, then great! The game itself is a very calming experience. There are no real “enemies” in PHOGS. Sure, there’s a few creatures and bits that your doggies don’t particularly like, but they aren’t major setbacks. This makes it a great game for parents to play with their children, especially for kids who have a lot more trouble focusing than others. It teaches them about cooperation, logical thinking and puzzle solving, without punishing them for getting things wrong.
Hardworking pups need their beauty sleep.
One thing that the game gets 100% right, is its colour
palette. Colourful, vibrant and pretty but not overwhelming. When chatting with
Jack at the PHOGS stand during EGX, I discovered that a lot of parents spoke
very highly of the game, especially when they got to sit down and play it with
their kids. For the parents of children on the autistic spectrum especially,
the number of video games that they can play together without worrying about
overstimulation, anxiety or frustration can be counted on the fingers on one
hand. So, having a game like PHOGS, where the art style, music, gameplay and
puzzle solutions are tailored to be accessible to all, is a breath of fresh air
for all it’s players. Personally, I found PHOGS calming, providing me with a
sense of peace and relaxation that I rarely get to experience for a prolonged period.
For someone with anxiety, that can be a game changer.
Having games that are accessible, is majorly important. We touched on this in a bit more detail during our article about the gaming charity, Special Effect, last week. When chatting with Jack, it became clearly obvious that PHOGS is a massively accessible game that they hope that anyone and everyone can enjoy. When asked about further accessibility options, Jack was brilliant and told me about their plans to implement options for those who are red-blue colour blind. Being able to adapt, improve and open your game to every type of player, is a sign of a good developer. CoatSink, the company behind PHOGS are also behind Cake Bash, another colourful local coop game that has you take control of sentient desserts that fight one another to become the “most delicious”. (Bit dark when you think on it too much)
Me when I put too much spice in my curry.
PHOGS isn’t out yet, with an estimated release date in early
2020 on basically every platform. Being able to watch its development and
growth as a game has been a joy and I genuinely can’t wait to see how everyone
reacts to it. The initial feedback from various game journalism publications
such as Eurogamer, Rock Paper Shotgun and GameSpace, have been outstandingly
positive, so if you don’t believe me, go check out their pieces about PHOGS.
Anyways, I’ve got to go do more coursework, so look out for
another piece soon and leave any feedback, suggestions or personal experiences
in the comments! Like, comment, follow the site and our Twitter @OurMindGames for
updates on all future content!
So, a few days ago, I had hit a bit of a writer’s block. I wasn’t sure what game I wanted to talk about, so I reached out on Twitter to you guys (@OurMindGames) for any suggestions. Out of the many awesome suggestions I got from you guys, one really grabbed my attention. It was a game called GRIS, an artistic platformer that had been on my radar for a little while. People have spoken very highly of its visuals, soundtrack and powerful message – so needless to say, it seemed right up my alley. As I’m currently prepping to go back to university for my final year, I have some free time on my hands, so I decided to dedicate an afternoon to trying out GRIS. That afternoon quickly morphed into the rest of the day, until around 9 PM that evening when the credits rolled, and I sat back in my chair – stunned into silence.
The story of GRIS isn’t clearly laid out to the player. It’s told through imagery, visualization, and symbolism that will leave you pondering it’s meaning hours after you put it down. At its core, it’s a puzzle platformer. The further you progress through the game, the more abilities you unlock, which allows you to progress to new areas. It’s a fairly linear experience so you don’t worry too much about getting lost, however, the game does encourage you to explore each area to its fullest – with the key to moving on often being tucked away in a hidden cave or up a series of complex jumps. It’s a game that rewards you for taking your time and looking around, which as a completionist is a very satisfying experience.
This is your protagonist. Though you could argue, you are the real protagonist.
When the game starts, you see a young girl lying in the hand
of a statue – seemingly asleep. She awakes and begins to sing, gradually rising
into the air when suddenly her voice just stops. Without her voice, the statue
crumbles and you are powerless to watch as she plummets to the ground, a
seemingly desolate place devoid of the beautiful colours of the sky above. To
start with, she can barely walk without crumpling to the ground, gradually
regaining her strength and abilities as the game goes on. You collect tiny stars
that form little constellations, allowing you to cross gaps and restore colour to
the world around you. Each colour you restore opens another section – e.g.
unlocking blue restores water to the world, enabling underwater exploration.
Honestly, you could fill an art museum with screenshots of this game, and nobody would question it, as this game is visually stunning. The artists behind this game manage to make even the simplest of colour schemes and landscapes beautiful. When you combine that with the haunting soundtrack, this game is best experienced in a room by yourself, on a big screen. I played it on my switch but honestly, it deserves a fully equipped cinema with surround sound and a ginormous screen to truly appreciate every titbit of detail and love that has gone into crafting this game. The game itself is not very long, it took me about 4 hours on and off to finish a playthrough, including a twenty-minute puzzle section that I was just too dumb to realize the simple solution to.
How is possible to be this gorgeous a game, I’m just saying!
What I really want to talk about though, is what I feel the story behind this game is. As there are only a few little cutscenes and the closest we get to any exposition from the character herself is through song, it’s mostly about how you choose to interpret it. The achievements list gives you a hint towards the game’s true meaning – specifically those related to each “Stage” or chapter of the game. I didn’t notice this until the final chapter when I popped an achievement called “Stage 5 – Acceptance”. This achievement and its counterparts all refer to stages from the Kubler-Ross model, which talks about the five stages we go through when we are grieving. Let me explain each stage and its corresponding achievement in GRIS:
Stage 1: Denial – Often our first reaction is to deny that anything is wrong as if pretending it doesn’t exist will reduce the pain later. In the first chapter of GRIS, you start out barely able to walk – collapsing to your knees frequently and struggling to stand up again. Most players will get GRIS to stand back up, but if you leave the controller and let her stand up again on her own – this stage of the model will be fulfilled, as she herself denies that anything is wrong.
Devoid of colour and life, the world seems to be crumbling around you.
Stage 2: Anger – When we are upset, often we internalize that pain and instead lash out at others. When you are hurting, sometimes you feel like that nobody understands the pain you are in and that the only way to lessen the pain you are in is to inflict it upon others. During the second chapter of GRIS, you gain the “heavy” ability which allows you to smash through unstable objects and destroy various statues/pots scattered around the world. This ability is a clear manifestation of that second stage of grief, which the achievement emphasizes as when you destroy three specific statues, you get the “anger” popup.
When the world tries to knock you down, keep pushing on through.
Stage 3: Bargaining – “Don’t you think after all this time, and everything I have ever done, that I am owed this one?” – The Doctor in the Snowmen, Season 7 of Doctor Who. This quote sums up the bargaining stage of grief for me. We feel that we are owed something, that we deserve better than our current situation presents. That maybe, just maybe, the world will take pity on us and provide that little bit of hope. We beg for it, trying to barter with chips that have no real worth anymore, even though we know deep down that it won’t work. In GRIS’s case, this is seen when you come across a statue in the forest chapter. Her first reaction to it when you try to interact is to sing to it, despite her voice still being gone. She is trying to barter with something that isn’t there anymore.
If you don’t learn to accept things, it’ll weigh you down forever.
Stage 4: Depression – I think the use of the underwater section for this stage is remarkably clever. Often, we describe depression as sinking under the waves, falling further and further from the light that we so desperately try to cling to. In my case, it often feels like a heavyweight is attached to my ankle, slowly tugging me downwards no matter how hard I resist it. In order to get this achievement in GRIS, you must seek out the statue hidden in the darkness. This section is pitch black and finding this hidden cavern is not easy, as its surroundings are full of creeping darkness that threatens to consume you. That statue is of a woman, seemingly sinking down into the inky depths, like how you fell from the sky at the beginning of the game.
We all sink into the darkness sometimes. We just need to keep pushing back to the light.
Stage 5: Acceptance – After retrieving your voice and escaping the shrouding darkness, you come across a tomb on the remains of the land. In this tomb is a statue, lying down, still and quiet. If you sing to it, the acceptance achievement pops. Although it doesn’t seem like much at the time, to me it reminds me of the songs you sing at funerals. In those moments, you can hear the whirling mix of emotions in everyone’s voices – grief, joy, longing and hope all mingling together as one. It’s a haunting yet powerful experience to be a part of, whether they were your close family, a good friend or just an acquaintance.
To me, this game is a tale of grief and loss. Now, this is just my interpretation, but I think that our young protagonist has just lost her mother. To me, the start of the game seems to be the moment that the loss truly hits her and her whole world crumbles around it, losing all the joy, colour and structure that her mother brought to it. Often when we lose someone, we feel like a part of ourselves has been ripped from us, like a missing limb or a hole in your once full heart. In GRIS’s case, this manifests as the loss of her abilities. She struggles to walk, to move through the world on her own, to begin with. Her voice, which can restore life to the world and heal the cracks in it, has been stripped from her. Every time she opens her mouth, nothing comes out – as if she is on one side of a one-way mirror, slamming her hands against it but getting no response.
Every colour she restores to the world, every demon she faces (looking at you, giant creepy eel thing), brings her one step closer to overcoming the grief that is threatening to consume her. The darkness and demons chasing her, seem to indicate depression and anxiety – the way they appear and disappear, how they creep up on her and force her to flee. She can’t fight it, only try to outrun it. The same is in life, you can’t outright fight mental illness. It’s always there and it always comes back. You learn to coexist with it, to lessen its hold on you, to accept it as part of you. The end of the game leans towards this, with her seemingly moving on – her voice spiraling up into the sky, harmonizing with her mother’s, shattering the remaining darkness and restoring colour to the world. It’s a powerful ending to a powerful game.
Light and darkness cannot exist without one another.
This is probably the most moving game I’ve played in the last year. Having recently lost my grandfather, it spoke to me on an incredibly personal level. Even if you can’t afford it right now, watch a playthrough of it, or even listen to the game’s soundtrack. It is, hauntingly beautiful and something I think we all understand on a primal level. Grief and loss are a part of life, yet I hadn’t played a game that really summed up that experience until I played GRIS.
I hope you all have a great week, next up is Little
Nightmares! If you enjoyed this piece, remember to like it, follow the site and
comment below any feedback or suggestions for future articles!
First things first, I’m not good with horror. Be it movies
or video games, I prefer to immediately switch it off and go find literally
anything else to do. Most of my experience with horror franchises is through
watching various lets plays on YouTube, or through hiding behind my friends as
they play it. It’s not that I don’t enjoy horror, I love the paths that it can
follow and the tropes it can delve into without drifting too far from the norm.
For example, my interest in psychology means that games that make use of sanity
mechanisms or more subtle horror are fascinating to me, I just struggle to play
them all the way through.
Part of this is due to anxiety. Horror games and their tendency to rely on jump scares, does not mix well with a tendency to have a panic attack when I get flooded with too many stimuli. Some people don’t do well with gore or can get too overwhelmed by all the events that are unfolding, meaning that for a lot of people, the horror genre of media is often one they can’t experience properly. Which is a bit sad, since there’s so much talent and enjoyment out there to experience.
Personally, I’ve never played Alien Isolation. Partly because it never really came on my radar of games to play and partly because I’d watched a few clips of others playing it, screamed my head off and had to go calm down in another room. However, one day when I was very unwell and had nothing to do, I was watching YouTube and ended up binging the entirety of Cryaotic’s playthrough of the terrifying extra-terrestrial game. The horrific alien and weird androids aside, the atmosphere and storytelling of the game are astonishing. Sure, there’s a few pacing issues but no matter what section of the game you are in, the constant paranoia and fear of the alien never truly subsides. EVEN IF YOU’RE IN SPACE.
I would not vacation here, nice air ducts and tech facilities but Alien kept eating my friends and family, 1 Star! – Probably Ripley, Trivago.
However, the simplistic nature of this survival horror game is what makes it such a staple of horror. Being based off a popular horror franchise helped massively with its appeal but when even five minutes of gameplay can unsettle you so drastically, you know you’ve done something right. Whether it’s the scrawls on the walls of the space station, the footsteps of the alien as it draws closer to your hiding spot or the constant paranoia that stalks you around the ship, Alien Isolation orchestrates an atmosphere of horror that fills you with a sense of dread that haunts your every move.
The most powerful aspect of this game is in the title. Not the alien, though that thing is horrific. It is isolation. Although you do interact with various people throughout the game, 90% of your time exploring the space station’s various nooks and crannies are spent in solitude. In fact, most of the people you come across are more likely to put a bullet between your eyes than help you open a door. The only person you can trust in those lonesome corridors is yourself. Sometimes you can go nearly twenty minutes without any dialogue or cutscenes, just the player and Ripley, staring into the darkness and praying that nothing is staring back.
It is in these quiet moments where the horror reaches its peak. You are instantly more aware of every creak in the pipes, every panicked breath escaping Ripley’s chest and the lines between reality and the game’s fiction seem to blur. People often talk about how they get sucked into books and games like it’s unfolding right before their eyes and they are just swept along like a leaf in the raging rapids of a river. Sure, jumpscares can be effective in keeping the players on their toes but the fear quickly fades. Meanwhile, with that constant sense of dread and each sound effect sending a shiver down your spine will stay with you long after the dramatic sequence has ended. The best games have a profound impact on you, and I think I speak for many people when I say, I don’t like walking under air ducts anymore (DON’T EAT ME I DON’T TASTE NICE I SWEAR).
I think the Alien needs to see a doctor, that’s not a healthy amount of drool. Or hygienic. GROSS
Humans are inherently social creatures. Even introverts like
myself, need company from time to time, especially in distressing situations. Sometimes
just letting someone know that they aren’t alone can be the greatest comfort
you can give. So, the isolation that the game is so fond of, is probably the
most powerful tool it has at its disposal. Sure, the big murderous alien is powerful
but like many game mechanics, you can end up being more irritated with it than
scared.
The alien is a known quantity. Once you’ve died to it a few
times, you understand how it works and what you can do to avoid it. Loneliness and
the darkness of the space station, however, are unknowns and this can be far
more terrifying. We always talk about the dangers of the unknown, those gaps in
our knowledge that could prove catastrophic. Our imagination runs wild with all
the possibilities, something those with a mental health condition can
understand better than most, as our mind becomes our greatest enemy. All the horrors
in the shadows that you envisage, could just be products of your terrified
brain, as it struggles to comprehend the events unfolding around it.
The first time you meet the alien, when it’s tail curls towards you and you’re certain it’s the end, is breathtakingly terrifying. The following sections are filled with panicked breathing, praying that it doesn’t see you even though you’re making an obscene amount of noise and sighs of relief when you see a save station. The combination of suspense, fear and paranoia culminates in a heart-stopping sequence that I think anyone who has played the game will remember far too vividly for their liking. This is the best part of Alien Isolation. It is you, in isolation, with an alien. (Wow Caitlin, it’s the title of the game, you’re so witty)
On a scale of 1-10, that’s a big old NOPE NOPE NOPE.
Despite all this marvellous suspense and paranoia that Alien Isolation builds up, it does fall flat in places. Once you’ve built up all this suspense, you need to do something with it. It’s a bit like building a house but instead of stopping once it’s complete, you add a conservatory. Then a pool. Then a third floor. Then a moat and drawbridge. At some point, you need to make use of all that you have been building, otherwise, there was no point in building it in the first place. Alien Isolation has some phenomenal moments of horror and primal fear, but it could’ve had so much more if the game flowed just a bit more smoothly.
Overall, I think Alien Isolation is one of those horror games that proves that it could terrify you with a tin can and some rice if it tried hard enough. You don’t need immense amounts of gore or zombies to traumatise your players, just have them stalked by a murderous, basically invincible creature! I would be excited to sit and play this some time, but I need to find a friend who is brave enough to join me first. I would also have to play it at midday in the sunlight with all the doors and windows locked and probably a bat next to me to protect myself.
Could I get some personal space? Please? NO, I DIDN’T MEAN THROW ME INTO SPACE!
What game would you like me to talk about next? I’m thinking we stick with the theme of isolation and loneliness in games and talk about Firewatch! If you’ve got any suggestions, drop them in the comments, leave a like on this article and follow my site if you want email notifications for whenever I publish a new piece! (Also follow me @OurMindGames on Twitter for all the behind the scenes goodies)
Nintendo is known as one of the most successful and popular game companies of the past few decades, with their leading man Mario becoming a household name throughout the world. So, when they come out with a game not set in the Mushroom Kingdom, it tends to turn a few heads. Imagine our surprise when the game they produced was all about… everyday life. Animal Crossing came out 18 years ago and has inspired sequels for each of Nintendo’s consoles, with a new instalment coming to the Nintendo Switch sometime this year (hopefully).
I never played the original, as I grew up as a PlayStation child – living vicariously through the lives of Crash Bandicoot and Spyro The Dragon. When I finally got my hands on a Nintendo DS, my focus was more on trying out these “Pokémon” games that everyone was raving about rather than some weird town simulator featuring goofy animals. Looking back on that time in my life, I wish that I had picked up the series sooner as it would have brought my young self so much joy. Though I can’t deny that Pokémon Diamond brought me dozens of hours of happiness during the long car rides to Scotland.
Amusingly, it took me several years to actually beat the Elite Four.
Animal Crossing is very much a “Marmite Game”: Either you love it, or you hate it. Despite being in constant debt to Tom Nook, receiving verbal lashings from Resetti and having to deal with the UNGRATEFUL TOWNSFOLK WHO DON’T CONTRIBUTE TO ANYTHING AND MAKE ME DO ALL THE HARD WORK… I still love the franchise to pieces. I do have a love-hate relationship with Pocket Camp though, as I have little patience for picky animals demanding specific types of furniture before they will be my friend.
As much as I love Animal Crossing, I have to resist the urge to run over the campers with my caravan.
Despite the constant tasks and never-ending loans, Animal Crossing is a very peaceful game. It is a simplified version of real life, removing many of the stressful activities that we must complete on a regular basis. Sure, you owe Tom Nook a ridiculous sum of money, but you have an infinite amount of time to pay him back and unlike student loans, he does not take a cut from your paychecks! Yes, the neighbours can be frustrating with their constant demands, but it is literally impossible for them to hate you. Trust me, no matter how many times you hit them with a net – they are angry for about 2 minutes and then they invite you over to their house.
The games work on a day-by-day system. It adheres to your system’s calendar (which you can manually change to speed things along), to decide what the date and time are. So, if you play normally, each day you can collect a few fossils, catch some fish and bugs, visit the museum, go see what is new in Tom Nook’s store and chat with the villagers. The options available to you are different for each game in the series but these five tasks have remained consistent throughout the main game series – ignoring Pocket Camp as it is a mobile spin-off.
I think K.K. Slider is making fun of my lack of friends.
To some people, this may seem repetitive and could get boring quite quickly. However, to anxiety sufferers, this game can provide a relaxing space for them. During the time you are playing it, the external world falls away for a while. All the stressors and negative thoughts can be pushed aside for the moment, allowing you to focus on this alternate life that your player avatar is living. It’s quite hard to put into words how much of a calming influence these games have had upon me, as my own experiences with anxiety will not be the same as any of yours, dear readers.
Let me try to explain with an example. When people go through a stressful period in their life, they turn to certain activities or vices as a coping mechanism. These can calm them when they feel overwhelmed or help them process the events that have been unfolding without as strong a negative impact upon their psyche. For some, their pets can help soothe them in times of need. An animal’s sensitivity to their human’s mood is remarkable and can be a great comfort in their time of need.
In my case, video games are one of my coping mechanisms. Not just for anxiety, but that’s what we will focus on here. Being able to lose yourself in another world, only worrying about the immediate problems facing your character such as a giant dragon trying to eat you or how much Tom Nook is going to charge you to change the colour of your roof, is a relief. It is an escape where your actions are only judged by lines of code and as much as they can have impacts on the rest of the game (looking at you Telltale), it is all fictional. It cannot harm you.
Tom Nook – Totally not looking at the secret camera he installed in your home.
A key part of what makes Animal Crossing so beloved in my heart and in the fan community is its consistency. You could argue the same for Nintendo’s other long-running franchises such as Mario and Zelda but these both must try new things to remain interesting to the gaming communities. (Though I would say putting Link on a train derailed the franchise) Nintendo’s cute little life simulator is under no such restrictions. Each game, although slightly different from the last, has the same, if slightly tweaked mechanics and feel to it.
Animal Crossing is about joining a community that has nothing but praise for you, with complete control over how you want to spend your time. No work, no university, no weekly bills to pay. When I was younger, I used to go to my older sister’s town and run around wielding an axe just because I could. Surprisingly, several of her villagers decided to move to my town… I’m still not sure why to this day. It provides a freedom that day-to-day life does not provide. You are under no obligations to perform your mayoral duties in New Leaf or visit the city in Let’s Go to The City. Apart from the introduction with Mr Creepy Cat and the tutorial, there’s nothing you are required to do to enjoy the world of Animal Crossing.
Anyone who has to say “I’m not crazy” is probably crazy.
Everybody’s experience of Animal Crossing will be different as a lot of the game’s enjoyment comes from how much you are willing to put into it. Some enjoy filling the fish and bug encyclopaedia, others wish to create the perfect house or upgrade all their tools to “gold” standard. I’ve been playing these games for about 10 years now and I can say with certainty that I still enjoy them as much as I did a decade ago. I am intrigued by the upcoming Switch entry in the series, despite the complete lack of information provided about it. By intrigued, I, of course, mean RIDICULOUSLY EXCITED.
Animal Crossing has always been the perfect game for handheld devices. Hopefully, the Switch version does it justice.
Obviously, this game series is not for everyone. After all, nothing in the world is. How we seek to comfort ourselves in times of stress, is of course up to us. If you’ve never tried the games or didn’t enjoy them at the time, do give the new Switch instalment the benefit of the doubt. After all, who doesn’t want to be in debt to a manic racoon? Just make sure you lock your character’s door at night… who knows what ends he’ll go to in order to get his Bells…
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