Feel depressed? Play a game!

[Speederino]

 

Has it just been one of those days? Are you depressed because you just spent Valentine's Day miserable and alone? Have you just been reminded that your life is meaningless, and that you have made all of the wrong choices? Or maybe you're just extremely bored, to the point where you may as well be depressed. Well, sucks to be you, I guess. But what you CAN do in these circumstances is play a game.

 

Everyone has that go-to game that will instantly lighten their spirits, to remind them that life doesn't have to be such a miserable turd. It doesn't necessarily have to be something with bright colors and a happy-go-lucky soundtrack, it can be pretty much anything for whatever personal reason you have. Me? I'm a huge fan of the old beat-em-up genre, because nothing makes me feel better and more manly then kicking the crap out of dozens of dudes.

 

My personal favorite would be this:

 

 

Why am I picking this over the legendary Turtles in Time? Well, mainly because this one is simply more nostalgic for me. And fundamentally speaking they're practically the same game so shut up. I didn't have your fancy-shmancy SNES's when I was growing up, all I had was a Genesis and the desire to see robot ninja's explode by the dozens. A desire I still have to this day. If I'm down in the dumps all I need is this fabulous slice of 90's and I'm whisked back to the good ol' days. The days where pizza-guzzling turtles could kick the crap out of talking brains in robot suits to the tunes of 16-bit arcade music. The days when I didn't have to walk all the way to the bathroom just to take a crap. The days where I would go to McDonald's just so I could get a toy.

 

But even aside from the nostalgia factor, this game is just so fun and satisfying that I can't help but feel happy as I beat Super Shredder over the head with a stick.

 

"And I'll show you the real power of my wood!"

 

The game is also just the right length. Short enough that I can beat it in a single session, yet long enough that I don't feel cheated. That, I think, is the key factor here. If I'm depressed all I have to is play this game, and about forty minutes later I've been subjected so much 16-bit goodness that I just can't get angry.

 

Keep in mind that your examples don't have to deal with nostalgia, that's just something that personally gets *me* happy.

[Clouder]

If I'm stressed, I play Return To Dreamland.

[Tori Himemiya]

Well I got a heart warming story for you all.

Crow many years ago, was extremely depressed for some reason to the point he had major health problems going on with him. I won't go into details about that. But it lasted for like a month or so. But one day Crow saw...

He heard about it from one of his friends from before and decided to try it out for himself.

And when I first turned on that game everything changed.

I had so much fun with Disgaea so much I felt better about myself. It had some great humor and I never had laughed so hard in my life in a long time. It was great.

But who would had thought a game about demons fighting demons would had made Crow feel better about himself?

[Solkia]

I usually just take a nap when I'm depressed.

 

But if I played a game... Pikmin I guess?

[Indigo Rush]

Sometimes when I'm stressed, I'll start playing one of the Genesis Sonic games. Most of the time it's either Sonic 1 or Sonic 3 & Knuckles, but Sonic 2 and Sonic 4 (both episodes) keep me entertained as well. Recently though, I've been replaying Sonic Adventure 2 and Sonic Generations a ton. I generally keep the sound down and listen to something else like a sermon or something similar so I have something to mull over. I find it hard to play the older games for the sake of playing them, since I've done it so much already! Either way, it's a stress buster.

Edited February 15, 2013 by Indigo Rush

[Sean]

L4D has gotten to the point where to me they're less "playing a video game" and more "hanging out with friends in a game." On most days I'm always up for playing them and they never seem to bore me at all, not even when I'm playing No Mercy for the seventh time in a month. I enjoy the games for all of the laughs we get out of them, whether it's the amusingly-placed sprays, the utterly hilarious rag dolls, the shenanigans those wily special infected are always up to, or just us or the survivors in general being really, really silly. There's really not a lot of pressure in "playing the game right" or not playing as well as others in your group. Even when I'm stressed about stuff, L4D can always take my mind off it for a couple of hours.

[Sami]

L4D has gotten to the point where to me they're less "playing a video game" and more "hanging out with friends in a game." On most days I'm always up for playing them and they never seem to bore me at all, not even when I'm playing No Mercy for the seventh time in a month. I enjoy the games for all of the laughs we get out of them, whether it's the amusingly-placed sprays, the utterly hilarious rag dolls, the shenanigans those wily special infected are always up to, or just us or the survivors in general being really, really silly. There's really not a lot of pressure in "playing the game right" or not playing as well as others in your group. Even when I'm stressed about stuff, L4D can always take my mind off it for a couple of hours.

 

Yeah, playing games in general has become a similar sort of thing for me, even when we're not on multiplayer. It's become almost difficult to play big games without Skyping at the same time, haha.

 

As far as games to play for relaxation, I absolutely love flower. It's just so calming and nice.

[SuperStingray]

Games can be very theraputic.  For sad times, I like games like Journey, El Shaddai, any Kirby game and Metroid Prime- basically anything with a positive or soothing atmosphere.  When I'm angry, I like Prototype, Vanquish, Hotline Miami or anything very visceral.  For ennui, I'm fond of anything that's good at concentrating my focus and energy like Tetris or WarioWare.

[Emperor Robrainiac]

The Kirby series by far. Who'd have thought a game starring eldritch abomination that eats everything that gets in his way could be such a sweet game!

 

Ignoring the odd premise, the bright nature of the levels throughout the game can really bring a smile to my face, and is one of the reasons why it's one my favorite IPs from Nintendo. It always feel so satisfying when you defeat the (Rather gruesome)  final bosses and get the perfect ending, which never ceases to make me grin. This one in particular is my personal favorite, despite the obvious star wars ripoff. XD

 

 

And even though I've said stuff about Kirby's Epic Yarn, I can't deny that it has probably the cutest tone and music in the series.

 

Even though I enjoyed the Kirby anime, I thought that it really didn't capture the feel good nature and environment of the games. Hell, a good number of the episodes are actually pretty depressing, and the environment feels less vibrant compared to the games.  That's a different story for a different topic, though.

Edited February 16, 2013 by Emperor Robrainiac

[Crash]

When I'm depressed I play Sonic. Any one except from Shadow and 06.

[JezMM]

I don't have any one particular game I turn to, but I DO have a habit of playing my favourite games when I'm sad.  I don't like to have one game I play because I never want to relate that game to when I'm sad.  As such I tend to play games I've played a million times before and will a million times again after.

 

When I was dumped by my high school girlfriend I spent the whole night playing through S3&K (which at the time, via Mega Collection, was a game I was fairly new to so marathoning it all in one go was unusual for me).

 

An odder example was later that year my cat Sparki died, and I just played Sonic CD all night.  Actually this game WAS new to me - I'd never been able to play it before due to the awkwardness in emulating it accurately, I was borrowing the PC version off a friend.

 

And most recently, when my best friend Audi died, I spent about a week barely eating and pretty much spending all my time obsessively beating every single streetpass time record I had on Mario 3D Land.

 

 

I felt horrible during all these playthroughs but hey the games sure take the edge off.

 

 

...amusingly-placed sprays, the utterly hilarious rag dolls, the shenanigans those...

 

Oh Sean you're a doll.  <3

Edited February 16, 2013 by JezMM

[MamboCat]

When I had a bad day at school back in the '90s, I used to play Streets of Rage. Usually as Blaze so I could pretend she was me beating up the school bullies! XD

 

These days I play Assassin's Creed games a lot. There's something really fun about running around shoving people and hearing their reactions when you're pissed off or stressed. Obviously there's the whole killing pixellated people in glorious ways too!

 

I'm a healthy, normal human being! Honest(!)

Edited February 16, 2013 by MamboCat

[MizukiMoon]

Hmm, depression is a regular thing for me, and, it never reality motivates me into playing video games (I usually sleep). However if you replace 'depression' with 'feeling unwell or under the weather' I do tend to have games I play during these periods.

 

I've always found the first 4 Mega Drive Sonic games great to play during these dark moments. They never fail to cheer me up. I think it's because of the nostalgia and the fact the colours are bright/music cheery, it just instantly makes you feel better

 

For some reason, I find the Mario Kart games great to play, as well. Whenever I'm having a bad day or feeling unwell, a good game of Mario Kart always help liften the mood. 

 

Oh and bizarrely, whenever I have a cold, I always stick on the original 3 Crash Bandicoot and Spyro games. It's a habit I've had since I was a Kid, and it's always stuck.