This past weekend while I was drinking Sierra Mist and trying to keep food down, the Call of Duty 4 double XP event was going on. Now, I don’t really care about my rank, as I’m never going to play it online enough to ever have to make the decision to prestige, so I wasn’t concerned. I did, however, want to get to at least a respectable enough rank to stop hearing insults every time I entered a game.

Except, like I said, I was sick. And gaming while you’re sick isn’t always fun.

In short, I’ve been feeling under the weather lately, as well as a few friends of mine and maybe some of you. When you’re sick, the last things you want to do are think too much, over-exert yourself, or honestly, do much of anything at all. Putting up with a competitive, often immature environment of CoD4 is definitely nothing I want to do when I’m ready to toss my cookies. I’m not that great at the game when I’m feeling well, so I’d much rather stay away when I feel like I was hit by a bus.

Still, there are certain few games I enjoy immensely when I’m down and out. These are games that, even if I’m sick and close to dying, I still somehow feel that burning desire to get something accomplished, even if it’s just one more level or one new skill acquired.

That select group of titles is like the comfort food of gaming to me. No matter what mood I’m in or how much I want to throw up, I can play these and feel better very soon after. Just like I love my cheesy mashed potatoes riddled with bacon, I love my “feel-good games.” These are truly my gaming mashed potatoes; gaming comfort food I will eat, no matter how badly I feel. Or perhaps especially depending on how badly I feel.

In all honesty, casual games seem like the best choice for a game to play when you’re sick, don’t they? They don’t require too much work (most of them) and they pass time fairly easily. The closest game that comes to being casual that always manages to put me in a better mood is Every Extend Extra, or Every Extend Extra Extreme (E4) when I’m on the 360.

The first thing I love about the game is that it’s vibrant and colorful, saddled with pulsing beats and graphics to match. I’d kill to own the soundtrack, let me tell you. The basic premise is to time the explosion of a bomb so that you create as many chains of smaller explosions as possible. Doing so gets you an “extend” for your time as well as racks up the points. There are boss fights where you must create a certain number of chain reactions to be able to hit the bosses, so you have to adjust your style of playing and plan out a strategy to be able to get to the next stage. Or, if you’re feeling lazy, you can always play in a marathon mode where all you do is play until you run yourself out of time or bombs. You can create some insane chain reactions, especially on E4, and with them come trippy graphics to match.

The 360 controller pulses to the beat of the music, much like Rez, so you’re immersed way more than you think you are. It’s hard not to cheer up when I get an enormous chain in the triple digits and I’m feeling like I’m standing in the middle of a nightclub. A special plus for me is that this is a game I can actually complete if I want to play long enough, so that fuels my gaming OCD enough to where I don’t feel like I’ve been wasting hours on a single game for no reason, just because I don’t feel good. I know. I’m weird like that.

Because one of the reasons I can’t bring myself to get into any serious gaming action (when I’m sick) is the fact that I have to drag all the cords, controllers, or peripherals out, the DS is the holy grail of lazing-in-bed gaming. While I can’t state just one because I play many, no matter what kind of mood I’m in, a great RPG on my DS always puts a smile on my face. Lately, it’s been Tales of Phantasia, but if you want to get technical, most RPGs for handhelds are pretty similar. Something about grinding is strangely calming and I don’t mind it as much when I’m sick. I can sit there and roam about in the same area for hours leveling and leveling until my characters are powerful enough to mow through the competition for the first 20 hours of the game. Sure, it gets old looking at the same rabbits, bugs, slimes, Rattatas, or puny soldiers, but it works. And why change something that works?

Getting immersed in a great story is always a good way to get me into a better humor. Some of my favorites include any handheld Final Fantasies, Golden Sun, Phantasy Star, and Children of Mana. It’s like reading a book, except I’m actively taking part. Also, the added perk is no matter what you do in an RPG, you’re advancing the story in some way. If you go on a search for items, you’ll encounter monsters you haven’t seen before, find things you didn’t even realize for there, or accidentally trigger a scripted event somehow. You’re always getting something done, and as you should know by now, that’s my biggest hang-up. Long live the handheld RPG. I just wish my DS were more cuddly so I could lay more comfortably with it.

Sometimes I want to be a little more aggressive, and I feel like killing things. That’s when I dig out my copy of Serious Sam and commence fragging. Monsters! Monsters everywhere! Monsters everywhere that are fresh for the slaughtering. Who needs Sudafed now? I’m laughing maniacally as I cut through armies of enemies that never stood a chance. It’s just a great, silly little FPS that satiates my basic need to own. Honestly, I think that’s good therapy for anyone. There are tons of chances to get it done in Serious Sam, too. The entire plot of the game is that if it moves, you kill it. That’s it. All the “must-have” weapons are there, too: the rocket launcher, shotgun, machine gun, pistol, grenade launcher, and double-barreled shotgun. It’s a familiar and comforting game where there’s no pesky story forcing you to concentrate when you’re doing your best to keep dinner down. It’s simple: you kill, and you release any pent-up frustration you may have had previously. Instant relaxation.

Last, but certainly not least, as there are tons upon tons more games I’d like to list here, we come to music games. I am obsessed with music games. One of my all-time favorites is Amplitude or Frequency. Before Guitar Hero (which I have a beef with, but that’s a different article), Harmonix created two musical masterpieces that I won’t soon forget. It’s basically the same idea as Guitar Hero, except you have a track for every element of the song. The little orbs move down a track just like they do on a fretboard except you are in a small ship, “blasting” notes. You must activate each element of the song before it will play completely in the game. This means capturing synths, vocals, drums, guitar, and anything else pertinent to making the song whole. I’ve finished it on all of the difficulties but for some reason I can’t stop myself from going back, re-playing, and using my multipliers to get an even better score. It’s completely addictive. I suppose it doesn’t help that some of my favorite songs are included in the tracklist, but still.

There you have it–some of my favorite games to get into when I’m feeling sickly. I know some of you are bound to have some, so as always, let your voice be heard. As for me, I’m going to slink off and go partake in some mashed potatoes because that’s all I can think about right now.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 13th, 2008 at 12:46 pm and is filed under Video Games, Editorial. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.