Mother’s Day isn’t always about flowers and brunch. Sometimes, the best gift to give a mother is the opportunity to sit back, relax, and play a video game. Mother's Day is a special occasion to show appreciation and love for the maternal figures in our lives. Gaming can provide a much-needed escape from the daily routine, allowing mothers to relax and de-stress. It can also be a fun and engaging activity that offers a sense of accomplishment and entertainment. Whether it's exploring a vast virtual world, solving puzzles, or engaging in friendly competition, video games can offer a diverse range of experiences that cater to different interests and preferences.
For many, Mother’s Day is a time of reflection, celebration, or even grief—sometimes all at once. Luckily, a good video game can offer surprising resonance during this time, whether it evokes tenderness, highlights complex parent-child dynamics, or simply provides cozy escapism from the more tiresome moments of motherhood. Gamers looking for something a little different to do with Mom, or gamers who are mothers themselves, may want to consider this playlist of titles that speak to motherhood in its many forms.
10 Cozy Games With The Best Stories
Cozy games often manage to incorporate poignant narratives that have the potential to stay with players long after completion.
Life-Sims for Mom to Try Out
Life-sims are a gentle invitation into soothing, low-stakes digital worlds where creativity and comfort take center stage. These games are perfect for unwinding, whether it’s through decorating a cozy home, tending to a virtual garden, or befriending charming neighbors.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons
In Animal Crossing: New Horizons, players can embark on a tropical getaway that grants full control over what a paradise can look like. With adorable villagers, intuitive building mechanics, and random events that happen throughout the calendar year, moms can fully disconnect from the real world and have fun on a perfect island. And with the Happy Home Paradise DLC, moms can whip out those interior design skills for hours of constant fun.
Additionally, players who spend some time playing know that they are not alone, even in a village full of animal NPCs. An in-game mom sends the character letters and gifts throughout their time on the island. The in-game mother comes to life through letters, showcasing her witty, positive, and oftentimes nurturing personality that cheers the player on from afar. It’s a small but oddly touching gesture—sweet, supportive, and constant. Whether or not a player’s real life reflects that kind of relationship, these messages can feel like a little hug from someone who always remembers.
The Sims 4
For something with a little more chaos potential, The Sims 4 lets Mom take the reins on a whole simulated life. With this ultimate dollhouse experience, she can design her dream home, give herself a killer job, adopt twelve cats, or lock her annoying neighbor in a pool with no ladder—whatever feels right. Whether she ends up with a replica of her IRL family or simply lives out a wild life with some mods, the choice is hers (no judgement). The Sims 4 is a sandbox of possibilities, and whether she plays nice or gets a little spicy, it’s all in good fun.
Co-Op and Multiplayer Games to Challenge Mom
If Mom is more into teamwork and a little friendly chaos, co-op and multiplayer games can offer a perfect mix of bonding and button-mashing. Whether it’s whipping up meals under pressure, exploring magical realms together, or just laughing through disaster, these games are built to bring people closer and sometimes test the limits of one’s patience in the best possible way.
Cooking Mama: Cookstar
Cooking Mama: Cookstar may not be the perfect game, but she is the supportive, slightly chaotic mom of many players' dreams. Cooking Mama: Cookstar is the latest installment in the nostalgic Cooking Mama series that brings longtime players into the modern age of gaming. Cooking Mama: Cookstar offers multiplayer and co-op modes for up to 2 players, using a blend of traditional and motion controls for Mom and kids—whether they grew up with Mama or are just meeting her for the first time.
Of course, Cooking Mama: Cookstar is shrouded in legal controversy. But Mom doesn’t have to know that—unless she likes a little gossip while she (virtually) cooks. Regardless, Cooking Mama: Cookstar is a great game to add to an ultimate Mother’s Day playlist. Whether chasing a high score or just trying not to burn digital curry, Mama’s there to cheer the player on—or remind them that she’ll “fix it!”
It Takes Two
For something a little more narrative-driven (but just as chaotic), It Takes Two offers a heartfelt and hilarious story about a couple on the brink of divorce who are magically transformed into tiny dolls. The 2021 Game of the Year is a platforming puzzle adventure where every mechanic is built for two players, each with a unique role to play. The themes of cooperation, communication, and working through differences make it surprisingly perfect for Mother’s Day, with enough weirdness and humor to keep things lighthearted.
How Hazelight Studios Became a Leader in the Co-op Genre
Hazelight Studios has fast-tracked their way into the big leagues with hit after hit.
Roguelikes That Resilient Moms Should Try Out
Motherhood isn’t a one-and-done kind of thing. It’s a loop, a cycle. It is a process of doing the best, failing sometimes, learning, and trying again. In that sense, roguelike games might be an unexpectedly perfect genre for Mother’s Day. These games are all about repetition, adaptation, and grit. And the best ones don’t just challenge reflexes, but they tell stories about relationships, grief, and what we leave behind.
Returnal
Returnal is a harrowing meditation on trauma and motherhood. Gamers play as Selene, trapped in a time loop on a hostile alien planet, reliving her death over and over again. Through fragmented memories and haunting imagery, Returnal gradually reveals a deeply personal story of maternal grief and unresolved guilt. It’s a game that demands careful attention, punishes mistakes, and still somehow offers catharsis in its bleak beauty. It’s about surviving what feels unsurvivable—again and again.
Hades
In Hades, Moms can play as Zagreus, son of the god of the underworld. Zagreus attempts to escape his father’s realm to go to the surface. But Hades is also about Zagreus reconnecting with his mother, Persephone, who left long ago under mysterious circumstances. The game wraps its fast-paced combat and clever writing around themes of estrangement, reconciliation, and love that endures across impossible distances. Every run is another attempt to reach her, and eventually, every failure builds a stronger emotional bridge between them.
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 90 /100 Critics Rec: 99%
- Released
- March 20, 2020
- ESRB
- Everyone / Comic Mischief, Mild Fantasy Violence, Users Interact, In-Game Purchases
- Developer(s)
- Nintendo EPD
- Publisher(s)
- Nintendo
WHERE TO PLAY
- Engine
- Havok
- Genre(s)
- Simulation
