We’ve teamed up with the folks at UNiDays to bring you stories about all the stuff you go through when you're studying. Did you know UNiDAYS members can nab a 15 per cent discount on their frankie magazine subscriptions? Well, now you do. Check the bottom of the story for more deets.

Listen, we know that some of the biggest and bestselling games might include shooting zombies, escaping killer animatronics or hiding from paranormal beasts, but we reckon that life is already stressful enough – why in the world would we want to make ourselves even more stressed with terrifying enemies chasing us!?

If you’re like us, then you’re fonder of easy-going games that help us unwind after a long day where our biggest worries involve what decorations we want to put up in our pixel homes. Take a gander at our picks for video games that are low stakes, chill and chock-full of adorable characters.

ANIMAL CROSSING: NEW HORIZONS The newest instalment of Nintendo’s popular Animal Crossing franchise, this 2020 game helped define the pandemic years but still holds up incredibly well – no matter what terrifying state the world happens to be in. Like the game’s predecessors, Animal Crossing: New Horizons is a life simulation game that features a colourful cast of critters with their own personalities, with you playing as the only human (which makes us feel rather special, we reckon). This time, however, you have full reign on designing an entire island and trust us, you’ll spend hours perfecting and designing your ideal world. You can spend the day fishing, catching bugs, digging up fossils and decorating your island with flowers, trees and furniture, as well as interacting with friendly tigers, lions and bears – oh my!

STARDEW VALLEY Arguably the cosiest video game to ever exist, this 2016 farm life simulator allows you to take on a character who inherits their grandpa’s fixer-upper farm in the picturesque world of Stardew Valley. It’s a game that is all too easy to get lost in, where you can spend your days growing crops, fishing, mining and getting to know all the neighbours living alongside you (but you can still fight monsters, if you still require a kick of adrenaline to your video games), with the game allowing you to play for as long as you’d like in a multitude of ways. It’s a game that – no matter how long you play – will never get boring, especially when you can marry any of the potential singles living in the area (and start some serious drama).

SUMMERHOUSE Described as a “love letter to the feeling of long-lost summer afternoons,” this game is a street-building game that allows you to create a wide array of cosy and sun-soaked dioramas that take place alongside gorgeous mountain views, cityscapes, arid deserts and more – seriously, there’s so much detail packed into this unassuming game. The art is super-cute, the music is peaceful and you can spend hours just decorating a humble street of your own choosing, so what’s not to love?

BEAR AND BREAKFAST Ever wanted to run your own bed and breakfast? In this game you do just that but with an added (and super-cute) bonus: you play as a kind-hearted and reliable bear named Hank. You spend your days building furniture, cooking meals, foraging for materials and interacting with other woodland critters, which helps Hank discover more about the world around you (and unlock even more B&Bs to run and fix up!). It’s a game where you play as a dang bear for goodness sake, and we reckon that’s more than enough incentive to give this adorable game a go.

NEW POKEMON SNAP If you’re a fan of the iconic Nintendo franchise involving electricity-inducing mice and a colourful assembly of other powerful beasts but you don’t want to deal with the stress of battling them against other strong critters, then this 2021 revamp of the classic 1999 Nintendo 64 title is right up your alley. Instead of training Pokémon to fight each other, you spend your time cruising along idyllic landscapes and snapping them in their natural environments, which we reckon is a whole lot nicer (even though you can still chuck apples at their heads to get a better shot if you’d like). The graphics are incredible, the Pokémon are adorable and it really feels like a real world where humans and Pokémon coexist which, if we’re being frank, would be a pretty scary place to live in – if we happened to come face-to-face with a Charizard, we'd probably wet our pants. 

Thanks to the kind types at UNiDAYS, uni students can nab 15 per cent off their frankie subscriptions. Just click here, then register or log in using your UNiDAYS member details. Easy as!