As someone who's notoriously bad at a lot of video games, gaming is almost an inherently stressful experience. There's a persistent nagging sense to be performing at maximum competence in whatever game I'm playing - or at the very least, more competent than my peers. In a multiplayer game the aggressive-competitive angle is more than obvious, but have you ever tried playing an inherently single-player experience like, say, Pokémon, when one of your friends (you know; that friend. The one who's bragging to you about how good they are on Skype, and you'd totally block them but they play all the games you play so you can't) is giving you constant updates and making sure they experience everything just a little before you do.

It's always perfect timing as well - you've devoured the first hour or two of Pokémon Black, the first city's Gym thoroughly beaten, and you're feeling pretty good about yourself. The jaunty waltz of the town's theme is then interrupted by an IM message.



"yo dude how far are you"

Oh no, here we go again. You were just settling into your groove.

"I've just beaten Striaton City Gym."
"i'm already at the next city got a servine"

And there it is. This time the blow is two-fold, how on earth did he manage to get to the next area, and evolve his starter Pokémon so quickly? It's bad enough that you lost to him at Rock Paper Scissors and he got to choose the Grass type. Get yourself together, you can't let him catch on that he's getting to you. Act cool.

"I'm just taking my time, talking to everyone, y'know?"
"lol sure whatev"

Okay, screw this guy - it's time to play hardball. Your initial intent was to take this weekend as a relaxing catch-up session on your gaming backlog and some reading; but now it's war. Tapping your d-pad with increasing intensity, beating up the fantastic pets of toddlers and passers by; robbing them of their savings and moving on to the next mark, you rush into a fight you can't handle. As your character blacks out and reawakens at the nearest Pokémon Center, you get another message:

"just caught a shiny sawk"

At which point you wouldn't be blamed for hefting your DS across the room. The game itself my be relaxing, but some games lend well to having others ruin your chill demeanour.

As such, my relaxing respites are in games are instances where I can't really fail. Puzzle games are the best for this, and while I have never gotten into Tetris in any big way, I definitely identify with the idea of a 'Tetris Trance' - getting so into the rhythm of block swapping/dropping/exploding that the outside world starts to blur and fade as you reach your special Match-3 nirvana. My lowercase-typing friend doesn't like the genre, so I can make progress unmolested.

To be more specific, Tetris Attack/Puzzle League is my poison of choice, way back when I had a copy of Pokémon Puzzle Challenge for the GBC, and it was definitely a way to keep me quiet. Don't get me wrong, my younger self was god-awful at it, but the ease of play made it so compelling. I came for the brand loyalty to Pikachu and friends, but stayed so I could keep making the little coloured blocks vanish.

The only drawback Pokémon Puzzle Challenge had was actually a side-effect of the Pokémon moniker - hearing the harsh electronic cries of the characters every few seconds (or if you're playing on Hard, every half-second) was a major irritant and a barrier to that sought-after trance state.



Fortunately, the DS incarnation, Puzzle Planet League, still exists; and I swear to the deity of your choosing that the game was constructed with Valium implanted into the game card. Not only was the compulsive gameplay still there, unchanged from when I was a bratty little kid - but it came with hypnotically catchy beats and this... pulsing glow that everything had that would be more expected to show up in Rez (or Child of Eden if you want a less dated comparison).

Planet Puzzle League kept me hooked for an age - a few limited-move puzzles before I went to bed, daily Score Attacks every morning to wake me up, a shot at Endless Mode on any and every car or train journey.

I've since lost the cartridge, and have tried to replace it with a different Puzzle vice. Meteos and Gunpey have been valid competitors, but they've never quite met up to the same experience. Despite that, I cherish them as titles that I can bring anywhere - giving me the ability to find a little digital sanctuary when needed. Well, at least for as long as my competitive friends don't find out about them.