Member-only story
The Switch 2 Is Already a Cozy Game Paradise
Two awesome launch titles and legacy improvements
I showed up late to the current popularity explosion of the cozy game genre. While most others probably got in around the launch of Stardew Valley, I didn’t show up till the release of more recent games like Wylde Flowers and Fae Farm.
If you’ve never played a “cozy” game before, the genre is an offshoot of traditional role playing games, but where combat is usually de-emphasized in place of mechanics like farming, management, socialization, and town building. It was arguably first laid out and designed in the original Harvest Moon way back on the Super NES console, and the recent burst of titles has taken the genre in all sorts of exciting directions. Some of these games have even brought combat back in to a degree…though the genre as a whole is usually far less about raw dextrous challenge and more about presenting players with a thoroughly inviting game experience.
The original Nintendo Switch was already the best console for fans of these games, and the newly released Switch 2 is even better. The launch lineup for the console has two entirely new and amazing examples of the cozy genre to play, in what I think is a first for a new hardware release. Also, the increased hardware grunt of the Switch 2 is fully enabled for older Switch 1…
