10 Cozy Games For A Chilly March Night

A Short Hike

A Short Hike is a wonderful little jaunt around a micro-open-world. Often the term Open-world conjures images of giant mountains, gaping ravines, and outposts littered among the landscape to capture or otherwise engage with. A Short Hike condenses the expectations of an Open-World into what is more like one large, free-form level. The Island your cute beaky character finds themselves on is small enough that you can circle it in a matter of minutes, but tall enough and craggy enough that there's a constant sense of discovery.

It is this freedom to explore combined with the simplicity of the premise (Wanting phone signal) that sells A Short Hike as a perfect one or two night game when you're spending a warm evening at home.

A Short Hike is able to be completed in under 2 hours, but has enough content to last comfortably up to between 3 and 4, or more for those that want to take the whole journey again or simply exist in the world a bit longer.

Spiritfarer

In cold winter months, we can become shut-in and disconnected. We begin turning inwards and being more reflective which can lead to an over-awareness of our isolation. Spiritfarer takes us on a journey out of our own heads and into a world of raw emotions, repeating management-sim type activity, and fluid platforming. Addressing our post-winter-blues through a game like Spiritfarer allows us to engage and access that side of ourselves without it feeling intrusive or forced.

Helping the animal-themed spirits of Spiritfarer find their identity in their own passing is a somber and raw premise for a game, but presentation is everything and Spiritfarer presents itself in a wonderful way.

Islanders

Moving from wistful and somber emotional boat rides to a game with no story whatsoever. Islanders puts you on placement duty of houses, fishing spots, temples, gardens, shaman huts and more on low-poly Islands. These Islands are varied across a few different styles, some having large areas of rock on which crops cannot grow or swathes of sand in which you can build unique industries.

The management aspects of similar games are absent in Islanders, however, keeping the game a very streamlined and cosy experience. Once something is placed, it requires no "upkeep" and produces no resources beyond the first placement. The game is entirely and solely about positioning your assets correctly to maximize your score.

Gardens will score more points for being near fountains, temples will score less for being near industry, and so on. These simple rules build and build, much like your little metropolis's and hamlets, and as you begin to see the patterns of what goes where you slip into a therapeutic and relaxing rhythm.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons

The giant of the life-sim industry for many players during the COVID crisis; Animal Crossing: New Horizons has a whole new heap of content in the form of its final free update, and a paid DLC expansion that is sheer evening-in bliss.

If you've ever found satisfaction in finding the perfect lampshade to fit your front room or found a new way of organising your room that really ties it together into one, complete space then the Animal Crossing: New Horizons Happy Home Paradise DLC is for you.

Happy Home Paradise lets you make holiday homes as complex as castles with medieval-themed interiors, explosions of bright color like a Disney resort room, and even restaurants with glitzy and opulent oriental themes (Complete with a dingy kitchen in the back like something out of Yakuza: Like a Dragon).

If you're lacking the creative drive to create something that complex from scratch, the game provides a full set of recommended items and themes to choose from for every room you design.

Sitting with a partner and helping these cute animal villagers settle into their new home is a great way to spend an evening de-stressing, and you might even find out one of you secretly has an eye for interior design!

Diablo 3

Diablo 4 is still a little ways down the road, although content updates and peeks have been relatively abundant from Blizzard. With Diablo 3 being one entire decade old this year it might seem bizarre to feature it here, especially when Diablo 2 Resurrected is technically the most recent Diablo release.

However, Diablo 3 (for all its shortcomings) has an exceptional way of creating rhythmic, engaging combat that rewards building your character around the playstyle you want. The fact that there are builds for multiple classes that essentially involve holding down one button is a huge boon for the game when it comes to getting cosy and running through some Rifts for that serotonin release as green and orange loot appears.

Not only is the game accessible and easy to enjoy, but it is also fully cooperative too. Nothing says cozy quite like being under a blanket (Ours is a giant orange Tepig blanket, which hints at a later suggestion...) together and reveling in some mindless fun in Diablo 3.

The game even features an Auto-follow system! So when one of you inevitably needs to disturb the peace to get up and go to the bathroom you don't have to stop the game, as their character will automatically keep up with whoever is still playing.

Final Fantasy 14

On the theme of grinding out gear in Diablo comes the heaviest-hitting MMO of the past few years. Final Fantasy 14 has exploded onto the scene recently with its content updates, expansions, huge player-base, and welcoming design. The game is accessible, cute, runs well and by all accounts has over 500 hours of content. In a similar vein to the old game Runescape (Still a valid choice, in my opinion) Final Fantasy 14 lets players work up their skills and explore the world openly, with a frankly ridiculous amount of quests and things to do.

If you have 0 prior experience with Final Fantasy and want an MMO that can while away the cold nights then this game is for you.

Unpacking

Toning it down to a much smaller scale than the behemoth that is Final Fantasy 14; Unpacking is a game about a singular room. In the first scene of Unpacking you are given a relatively bare room, a couple of cardboard boxes, and a mouse cursor. Clicking a box opens it up and you can begin the titular activity. There's a pleasure in the mundanity of organising these things into what you deem their proper shelves and places.

Some people will definitely not have made the plush toys as focal a point as I did. The game does give some requirements once every item is unpacked, for example a toothbrush on a table in the kitchen rather than a pot or counter in the bathroom will request being moved, but other than the "obvious" a lot of items can be placed as you see fit.

Unpacking is purely mouse-controlled which makes it easy to slip into, and leaves one hand free to nurse a cup of hot chocolate.

Skyrim

Skyrim is another decade-old contender, and for many wont be viable on this list. So many players over so many years have put upwards of 1000 hours into the game, with mods and overhauls and updates along the way. However, for those few who either haven't played it, or at the very least haven't played it to death, Skyrim is still a great world to immerse in.

Particularly in March as winter clings on to us for dear life and spring is pulling us away, Skyrim encapsulates a world of opposites. Falkreath hold's forests and rivers are reminiscent of spring and the vibrancy of nature, while not far in any direction from there are snow-capped mountains. Further north still are plains of ice and glaciers, further east is the highest peak in the game that doesn't just look cold but instead actually affects your health in-game.

In this world of hot and cold, imperial and stormcloak, adventurers and bandits, it is easy to lose yourself while simultaneously having an undeniable connection to the world we're escaping from. As we race to get into Spring-proper, don't overlook this ancient gem.

Valheim

With wind in your hair and a big weapon in your hand you can enjoy all the wonders that the floating disc-world of Valheim has to offer. Hunt cute lizard beings called "necks", tame wild boars with mushrooms, build a longhouse filled with soup, mead and meat. Living your best Viking life has never been easier, and more relaxing.

While you do have to grapple with combat against various Norse denizens, the combat is mostly simple and optional depending on your preferred experience. Bosses only have to be beaten once to progress, and preparing for such fights is in itself a circular motion of scavenging, crafting, traveling and most importantly: Eating your hearth-cooked meals!

The survival elements are the best kind: You can't die from lack of food or water, simply having much lower stats like health and stamina. This means that if you just want to spend a day building or farming you don't have to worry about how long you spend on the task, as you won't pass out from hunger in your own carrot field! This "important when you care" system makes Valheim truly cosy and accessible to all.

Pokemon Legends: Arceus

If taming boars in Valheim wasn't enough, then how about taming an entire region of cute (And dangerous) 3D modeled splashes of color? For the first time, Pokemon has real-time tracking and catching mechanics. Not only that, but because of the new "research levels" system, you are actively encouraged to catch as many pokemon as you can! No more do players have to sit through endless Zubat combats just to wait for the pokemon they want, you can simply look in the overworld and catch the one you fancy!

Being able to access a huge number of pokemon from quite an early stage, with great balls unlocking just a few hours into the game and being able to catch most of the pokemon if done correctly, makes Legends: Arceus a great entry point to the series and a great way to kick back for an evening.

Another game that is fun to play together with whoever is spending the cosy night in with you, as you argue over what to name the cute little blighters.