Top 5: Comfort Games!

Sometimes you just want to reach for something familiar, something comforting, and it doesn’t matter how many hundreds of times you’ve played it before, you know that if you’re feeling low it’ll just put a smile on your face.

I think we all have our comfort games, the games we turn to when we just want to make ourselves feel better. It could be something that makes it easy to take our frustration, something to help us unwind, something to engage our brains, anything really but I think we all have a comfort game and here are some of mine, the games I’ll turn to when nothing else will do.

Broken Sword: The Shadow Of The Templars

The first game on our list is Revolutions Point and Click classic which first saw release all the day back in 1996. Telling the tale of American tourist George Stobbart, who whilst holidaying in Paris, is caught up in an explosion at a cafe he’s sitting outside of. George, unable to let this pass, soon finds himself caught up in a conspiracy involding the Knight Templar, a murdeous costumed assassin and a secret that could change the fate of the world.

A relaxing title, maybe not for George but certainly for me.

I first encountered Broken Sword via a trailer on a demo disk all the way back in the late 90s, something about it stuck out to me and my friend at the time, and we’d soon get the game itself, figure out how to play it and in my case I’d absolutely fall in love with it.

I had grown up playing a few point and clicks, Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade, Operation Stealth, Future Wars and Revolutions previous game Beneath A Steel Sky. I can’t claim to have been an expert at them, but I enjoyed figuring them out, making what little progress I could and enjoying the stories they told. These early titles shown me what gaming could do to tell stories.

Something about Broken Sword is just different though, whether it’s the beautifully produced artwork, the cast of characters, the music, the puzzles or the story, it all just comes together so brilliantly in what I think might be the best point & click adventure game out there.

Something about it just sticks with me, from that initial opening outside the cafe, with George waking up angrily in the aftermath of an explosion, and hey, if I’d had a clown ruin my coffee in the morning, I’d be mad too! All the way through to exploring it’s many varied locations to the climax of the game itself, I just love it all, even… EVEN the Goat puzzle!

Revolution recently did a Reforged Edition, avaliable on all major platforms. With this version they’ve upped the graphics and audio quality, but kept the core game the same and it’s made it into a bloody lovely version! The only disappointing thing is that in doing the Reforged version, they actually dropped the additional Nico content from the Directors Cut!

If you haven’t already, definitely give it a go, Broken Sword is one of the finest Point & Clicks out there.

Wild Arms

A JRPG might seem like an odd choice for a comfort game, what with JRPGs generally being known for their length, the themes they cover or depth of their stories and characters, they aren’t maybe something you’d reach for if you’re feeling a bit down and need something to take out your frustration with but Wild Arms is special to me.

Set in the world of Filgaia, Wild Arms sees three protagonists of varying background, one a lone wanderer in search of his place in the world, another a treasure hunter seeking great power and the other a princess on the path to fulfilling her destiny. The three come together to take on the evil Metal Demons and their leader the enigmatic ‘Mother’ in a world that combines Sci FI, Fantasy and Western themes.

Released in 1996, Wild Arms was one of the earlier JRPGs to come to the PS1 and is perhaps overshadowed by some of the better known titles for the platform, the likes of your Final Fantasy 7, Breath Of Fire, Xenogears, Grandia and Suikoen, but it has a very special place in my heart.

I first played Wild Arms in the late 90s, a friend, funnily enough the same friend who I played Broken Sword with and who introduced me to Sonic 2 had it. Something about it really captivated me, maybe it was the mix of the world, the gentle music that stuck with me, and the plot but it was one I very quickly sought out for myself and one which, to this day, I’ll always recommend to anyone looking for a PS1 JRPG.

If I’m ever wanting to play something with a strong story that’s familiar, that just makes me feel warm, then Wild Arms is one I’ll certainly go for.

Sonic The Hedgehog 2

The first of three platformers on this list, and probably the game I’ve completed the most across many platforms.

Do I need to say much about Sonic 2? Released in 1992 for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis, Sonic 2 took everything that was good about the first game and improved upon it massively, to create one of the best 2D platformers out there.

The premise, Robotnik/Eggman is back, imprisoned the animals and Sonic, along with his new friend Tails who was introduced in this game, must rescuse the animals and stop Robotnik along the the way!

It can be argued that Sonic 3 & Knuckles improved on the formula even more, and I do actually prefer the bonus stages for S3&K to the half pipe style in Sonic 2, but Sonic 2 just feels like home to me. From the opening Emerald Hill level all the way through to the Death Egg showdown with Silver Sonic & Eggman/Robotniks Giant Robot, Sonic 2 is a game I can always rely on to put a smile on my face.

If I’m ever stuck for a game to play, if I ever want to test an emulator on a new device, if I have a Sonic compilation in front of me, it’ll always be Sonic 2 I reach for and I won’t generally stop until I finish it. It’s a game I’ve beaten on the original Mega Drive, on emulators various times, in various compilation disks, I will always return to Sonic 2 and it’ll never get old for me.

I only wish I still had my old copies of Sonic The Comic from when I was a kid to read after I’m done with a playthrough of it, for the ultimate comfort experience!

Superfrog

Platformer number two on the list, 1993s Superfrog from Team17.

Probably the game people are least likely to know on the list, Superfrog was released for the Amiga and PC platforms.

Superfrog tells the story of a prince and princess in love, an evil witch hates this and kidnaps the princess and turns our poor prince lad into a frog. The prince/frog in his depression heads down to a nearby river and sits sadly, until a bottle floats by, he pulled it out of the river to see it’s a bottle of Lucozade (Stay with me), he takes a cheeky drink and BAM, transformed into Superfrog.

With his new poors and a sense of determination, he sets off to break the curse and rescue his bride!

Superfrog doesn’t really do anything that many other platformers at the time weren’t already doing, and in a few cases they were maybe doing it better, but for me Superfrog is still one of the better mascot platformers of the era and has definitely aged more gracefully than some of the other Amiga platformers.

Superfrog is one of the earliest games I’ve played, and one I come back to frequently. It still looks absolutely lovely, it plays well and it’s packed full of charm with a catchy soundtrack from Amiga legend Alistair Brimble. Much like Sonic 2, it’s just a game that really makes me smile and I appreciate a lot of that is maybe tied to nostaliga, but I don’t get that same feeling from other Amiga games I used to play.

It’s definitely not perfect, it’s one that has a bit of an awkward difficulty curve in places, levels require you to collect a number of coins before exiting and the camera can have its moments, but I love it. I love its collection of worlds, from starting in the woods to getting into the Witches castle, making your way through the circus all the way back to ancient egypt, waking up in the ice caves and finally confronting the Witch on her space station, it’s just a joy.

Crash Bandicoot

Our final game on the list is also our third platformer of the article, only this time we’re moving into the third dimension with Naughty Dogs Crash Bandicoot.

Released in 1996, I first remember playing Crash Bandicoot as a demo on the day I got my Playstation, I had tried out the few games my parents had got with the bundle (A console bundled with games, remember that?), and amidst it all was a demo disc containing a few different titles, one of these was Crash Bandicoot and I fell in LOVE.

They went out and got me it the next day, along with Fifa 97! (Because I was nothing if not a little bit spoilt as a child)

Crash was a game that I played all the time, learning the levels inside and out, trying my best to get all of the gems, I never did manage it when I was younger, some of those levels were, and lets be honest, are very difficult but it never stopped me enjoying it. From the starting of N Sanity Beach, through to the Temple Ruins, Road To Nowhere through to the Toxic Waste and those final boss fights against Brio and Cortex! Never Slippery Climb tho, that ones poo!

It just gives me that sense of warmth, the graphics are still gorgeous to this day, the music is lovely, the personality and charm of it all, and yes it can be difficult but it’s a fairly tight platformer, especially compared to some of the other 3D Platformers of the time!

Crash has since become, much like Sonic 2 and Broken Sword, a game I can just pop on and love from start to finish, it’s one I tend to play through at least once a year and have completed across a few systems too. I’ll admit, for me it has to be the original version over the N Sane Trilogy. Just something about it gives it an edge, maybe its nostalgia or maybe its just that I couldn’t get used to the collision changes, it was still a lovely version though.

Either way, you can’t go bloody wrong with a bit of Crash, that trilogy on the PS1 was near perfect for a young me and it all started here!

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So there you have it all, my top five comfort games, the games I’ll return to frequently when I need something to pop a smile on my face, the titles that just give me a lovely sense of warmth inside.

I’d love to hear from you, what are some of your comfort titles? Let me know in the comments below and I’ll see you again in a future article!