Pokopia and the Rise of Cozy Games
When most people hear the word "Video game" lots of examples come to mind: Mario, "Call of Duty" or "Tetris" All these games have one thing in common: you can lose. Mario can fall down a pit or lose too many hearts. You can get shot or blown up in "Call of Duty,' Even inn "Tetris," your blocks can reach the top of the screen and you lose. These games can be very stressful because there are ways to fail. There is a genre of game I have been playing a lot lately that has no Game Over screen. They are called "Cozy Games," and in the past six months or so, they have been exactly what I needed.The inspiration for this post comes from a video by Ellen Rose on the Outside Extra channel on YouTube. She talked about how, while dealing with a recent health issue, she played a ton of the new Pokémon game. "Pokopia." Needless to say, I can relate to everything she said. As many of you know, I have had some pretty serious health stuff in the last year. I spent five months recovering from a major surgery. I finally went back to work in late February, but the months of recovery took their toll. My Nintendo Switch 2 became a major source of entertainment. After beating "Pokémon Legends Z-A," I was looking for something new and easy to play.
Luckily, before my surgery in October, I had downloaded "Power Wash Simulator 2." Yes, you read that right: a power-washing simulator. The game has no real plot beyond you taking jobs, power washing buses, houses, playgrounds, and any number of filthy objects. You earn money and buy better power washers and nozzles to help make your jobs easier. That is all there is to it. It is an incredibly satisfying game to play. To see this gunk-covered motel get clean as you spray it down is a meditative experience. The other game I played was called Tiny Bookshop. You play as the proprietor of a mobile bookshop. You travel to several locations in the town of Bookstonbury, selling used books to the residents. The townsfolk ask you to make recommendations based on their interests. There are other missions where you help them with things they want. There is no pressure to get these things done, and if you don't recommend the right book, the customer just says things like "Maybe next time!" You use the money you earn to buy more books and items to put in your shop to boost sales of a specific genre.
This brings me to my current "Cozy game" obsession, “Pokopia.” The game is set in the Pokémon universe. Something happened to the world; the humans have disappeared, and all the Pokémon are gone. You play as a Ditto, a Pokémon that can. transform into other Pokémon, which takes the form of their former trainer. Together with a Tangrowth, you are tasked with restoring areas of the world to bring Pokémon back and find out what happened to the humans. You restore habitats, Pokémon appear, complete requests from them, and make their homes more comfortable. The gameplay is just so satisfying. You fix things up like roads and buildings, find Pokémon, learn abilities, and find clues to what happened to the world.The week after I bought it was my first week off of chemo, and it was a doozy. I got hit with the side effects hand and was miserable. I would get home from work and want nothing more than to lie on the couch. Besides eating and letting my dog out, I barely got off the couch and was playing a ton of "Pokopia! It was the perfect no-stress experience I needed. I could focus on cleaning up and restoring an area, crafting items, or gathering materials without worrying that my physical state would affect my gameplay.
These cozy games are a great entry point for people who want to get into gaming but are intimidated by the complicated mechanics of most modern games. These games let you play at your own pace and not worry about failure to the point of frustration. As someone whose energy is in limited supply, the games have become my gotos. I have come to appreciate the leisurely pace they allow, and in "Pokopia's case, the amount of stuff to do that doesn't feel overwhelming. I love that games like these are becoming more popular and my favorite type to play.